Annotatio XCVII
”The infant of eight days shall be circumcised.” — Genesis 17:12
Francesco Giorgio, in the sixth Tome, Problem 337, inquiring into the reason of this precept, assigns certain superstitious causes drawn from Talmudic fables and from the ravings of the nativity-casters [astrologers],1 saying that the mandate of circumcision was given for this reason: that by that effusion of blood the “northern powers” — which demand blood for offense — might be appeased. And the Law commanded this effusion of blood to be made especially on the eighth day, so that the infant’s little body, through the space of seven days, might be able to receive favor from each of the seven planets — each one, namely each one, namely, on its [own] day, from one of the planets [that is] lord of that day — until, the seven-day course being completed, the infant returned to the same planet which had presided over the day on which the infant had been brought forth. To planetary divinations of this kind the same author turns aside in almost innumerable places.2 For in the first tome, Problem 150, he asserts that Abraham foresaw the sterility of his wife Sarah from astrological prognostications. In Problem 240 of the same tome he affirms that the Israelite family grew quickly, because, when it had arranged its encampments according to the aspect of the twelve signs of heaven, it received the sidereal influences most copiously from all twelve signs. Likewise in Problem 335 of the same tome he asserts that Aries, the first of the signs, predominates over Egypt, and that all the power of that province depends on the star of Aries. We have confuted trifles of this kind above, Annotation 15.