Ghayat al-Hakím, 'The Purpose of the Sage', which is considered a manual of Arabic astral magic, was originally published in the 10th-11th centuries. century, and its author and compiler may have been an unknown Arab magician from North Africa or Spain, who allegedly selected his work from 200 sources. The volume was first translated into Castilian and then into Latin in 1256 on behalf of Alfonso X (the Wise) - then it was given the still enigmatic name Picatrix, which is probably a distorted Latinized version of the author's name (Bu(i)qratis?) - that after that, he gained unparalleled popularity among European philosophers, magicians, and astrologers dealing with the occult sciences.
The Picatrix became the most influential manual of talismanic magic in the Western world, based on Hermetic-Neoplatonic theory and the practice of medieval astrology. Late medieval and Renaissance authors such as Marcilio Ficino, Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa or William Lilly drew on it, who also studied how to condense the influence of the planets and fixed stars into properly prepared (protective or harmful) talismans at the right time.
The volume published for the first time in Hungarian contains a translation of the Latin Picatrix illustrated with reproductions of the Cracow manuscript. Translated from Latin by Monika Frazer-Imregh, Ádám Endre Hamvas