Pascalis Romanus

Pascalis Romanus (or Paschal the Roman) was a 12th-century priest, medical expert, and dream theorist, noted especially for his Latin translations of Greek texts on theology, oneirocritics, and related subjects. An Italian working in Constantinople, he served as a Latin interpreter for Emperor Manuel I Komnenos.

Pascalis compiled the Liber thesauri occulti, a Latin book on dream interpretation, in 1165, but appears not to have completed it himself. The second book and the first part of the third were translated or adapted from the Oneirocriticon of Achmet and the classical treatise of Artemidoros. His are the earliest known Latin translations of excerpts from Artemidoros. In the first part of the work, Pascalis also draws on Aristotle, quoting from what he refers to as the liber de naturis animalium.

Pascalis works within the dream classification system of Macrobius:

Elaborating on the three "true" types, Pascalis distinguishes each by the degree to which the soul achieves liberty from the body, and by literary mode. In the somnium, the soul perceives the future allegorically; in the visio, historically; and in the oraculum, prophetically. The future can sometimes be revealed directly, but often dreams rely on integument, allegory, and figure. Pascalis quotes the Solomon of the occult tradition as saying:

What Solomon means, Pascalis goes on to explain, is not that we should avoid the interpretation of dreams, but rather that we should recognize that littera occidit, spiritus autem vivificat ("The letter kills, but the spirit brings to life"). Reason allows us to investigate the truth that is symbolized.

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