Among the magical texts of the Latin Middle Ages, the Ars Notoria holds a special place. It promises neither hidden treasure nor command over spirits: its declared aim is knowledge. Through prayers and contemplative figures, those who practised it sought to master the liberal arts, philosophy and theology in a short time. This very intellectual ambition made it as attractive as it was suspect.
A text of the Latin Middle Ages
The Ars Notoria is attested in Latin manuscripts from the thirteenth century, and scholars place its composition between the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The text presents itself as a revelation granted to Solomon, and some versions also link it to Apollonius. As with many writings of this kind, the attribution serves to confer authority and antiquity, not to identify a historical author.
The name comes from the Latin nota, which here refers to the signs or figures on which the operator had to concentrate. The "notory art" is thus, literally, the art of the notes.
How it is built
The text combines two main elements.
The orations
The prayers, called orationes, are numerous and varied. Some are in a devout, intelligible Latin, similar to that of the liturgy. Others contain sequences of foreign or mysterious words, presented as names in sacred languages. The text insists that these words must not be translated or explained, because their value lies in the form itself.
The figured notes
The notae are complex diagrams, often of great graphic elegance, made up of circles, lines, letters and words. Each art has one or more figures: grammar, dialectic, rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, music, astronomy, and then philosophy and theology. The operator had to contemplate the figure while reciting the corresponding prayers.
A disciplined path
The Ars Notoria is not a set of formulas to be used at will. It prescribes a precise calendar tied to the phases of the Moon, periods of purification, fasting, confession and chastity. The practice extends over weeks and demands perseverance. In essence it is an intense religious exercise aimed at transforming the student's mind.
An example of the general approach:
- preliminary purification and confession;
- recitation of the general orations for memory, eloquence and understanding;
- contemplation of the notes for each art;
- repetition on the days set by the lunar calendar.
The theologians' condemnation
The claim to acquire wisdom without the long labour of study raised objections. Thomas Aquinas, in the Summa theologiae, discussed the ars notoria and judged it unlawful: in his reasoning, unknown words and figures have no power in themselves to produce knowledge, and if an effect is obtained it must be attributed to an implicit pact with demons. This position became a reference point for later criticism.
Despite the condemnation, the text continued to circulate, especially in university and monastic settings, where the hunger for knowledge and the pressure of study were particularly strong.
John of Morigny's Liber florum
One story illuminates well both the appeal and the danger of the Ars Notoria. In the fourteenth century a French Benedictine monk, John of Morigny, recounted that he had practised the notory art and had received visions that convinced him of its deceptive nature. He then wrote an alternative work, the Liber florum caelestis doctrinae, which proposed a path of Marian prayer with the same goal of knowledge but without the parts considered unlawful. This book too, however, was condemned and burned in Paris.
Modern editions and studies
For centuries the Ars Notoria was known mostly through late versions, such as the one included in the Lemegeton or a seventeenth-century English translation. More recent research has shown the existence of different versions, including a glossed version with extensive explanations, and has restored to the text its original complexity.
The meaning of a desire
The Ars Notoria tells us something that goes beyond magic: the desire for immediate knowledge, received as a gift rather than won through toil. Its figures also reveal a profound idea of the medieval mind, in which knowledge is ordered, visible and almost architectural. Contemplating a figure in order to understand a discipline meant believing that knowledge had a shape, and that this shape could be internalised.
In short
- The Ars Notoria is a Latin text attested from the thirteenth century and attributed to Solomon.
- It combines orations, sometimes with mysterious words, and figures called notae.
- Its aim is to acquire the liberal arts, philosophy, theology and memory.
- Thomas Aquinas discussed it in the Summa theologiae and judged it unlawful.
- John of Morigny's Liber florum offered an alternative, which was also condemned.
