{"title":"Astrology","description":"\u003cp\u003eCelestial interpretation, horoscopes, zodiac systems, and historical astrological theory and practice.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"gaffarel-jacques","title":"GAFFAREL, Jacques","description":"\u003cp\u003eA rare clandestine edition of an important and influential work on Oriental Talismans, Hebrew, Egyptian and Arabic Astrology, the Cabala and Star-writing, (the theory that the starts are arranged in the form of Hebrew letters, which can be read by those with the specific knowledge), with two beautiful folding celestial charts depicting the theory the constellations could be read as a book. Gaffarel was a follower of Pico de Mirandola and one of the chief exponents of Christain Kabbalism, and as such came into conflict with the Sorbonne and particularly with Mersenne who unambiguously rejected his work as impious and published  De Gaffarello Judicio  attacking him, though he recognized Gaffarel s profound knowledge of Kabbalah.  Jaques Gaffarel,.... was born in Provence in 1601, educated at the Universities of Valence and Paris where he received the degree of Doctor of canon law, became a priest and chaplain of Richelieu, and had a wide knowledge of Oriental languages - Hebrew, Arabic, Syrian and Persian. ... (This) is Gaffarels main work, the first appearance was in Paris 1629 and then it was repeatedly reprinted into the early 18th century and translated into Latin and English. It divides into three parts, of which the first defends orientals, especially Hebrews, from Christian charges, and the third deals with ancient Hebrew and oriental astrology. The second part, on the talismanic sculpture of the Persians, especially interests us for its close connection with natural magic..... He further contends that the astrology of the ancients was neither idolatry nor the cause of of idolatry, and accuses Scaliger and others of having misrepresented the astrology of the ancient Hebrews, Egyptians and Arabs. On August 1, 1629, the faculty of theology at Paris condemned Gaffarel's book as \"entirely to be disapproved\", and called its doctrine false, erroneous, scandalous, opposed to Holy Writ, contumelious towards the Church Fathers, and superstitious besides.  Thorndike. Gaffarel duly signed a retraction, but couched it in vague and general terms, stating that he was merely recording the opinions collected from the writings of the Arabs and Hebrews. The book enjoyed great success, Descartes and Sir Thomas Browne read it with interest and Pierre Gassendi defended it. Richelieu made Gaffarel his librarian and he travelled extensively, first to Italy, where he met Campanella, then to Greece and Asia in search of rare books. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n A most appropriate provenance: Carl Aurivillius was professor of oriental languages at Uppsala, Swedish linguist, translator and orientalist [b. 1717, d.1786]. He wrote several dissertations of profound scholarship on subjects connected with biblical and Oriental literature, of which thirty were published by J. D. Michaelis. Aurivillius studied at Uppsala, then at Paris, Leiden and Halle, where he became friends with great contemporary Orientalists, such as Michaelis, Fourmont and Albert Schulten. He was part of Gustav III's Biblical Commission, and helped translate almost the entire Old Testament into Swedish. A very good, unsophisticated copy of this work, with the two folding plates in excellent condition.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"GAFFAREL, Jacques","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816067047759,"sku":"L1321","price":2950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_3451.jpg?v=1781795328"},{"product_id":"saulnier-jean","title":"SAULNIER, Jean","description":"\u003cp\u003eRare first and only edition of this curious astrological work which Saulnier describes in his prefatory epistle, his dedication to Mademoiselle Louise d'Anssienville, as an epitome in imitation of Livy and Valerius Maximus. The work is a description of the globe and heavens so as to better understand divination, in other words a description for the purposes of astrology in the guise of a cosmology.  Nous commencerons par le traict é de la Sphere, comme estant la plus necessaire, pour en apres entendre mieux le peu que nous dirons de ce qu avons promis  The work is divided into three chapters, the first and longest, entitled  Traicte de L Astrologie Naturelle  starts with a description of the size of the heavens and then describes the major constellations and the origins of their denomination. He then describes the  Cercles de la shpere  concentrating on the Zodiac and follows with a  Theorie des Planettes  and a description of the nature of the zodiac and planets. The second chapter is a description of the earth (including a list of the principal provinces of the New World) and its four elements fire, water, air and the earth. There is an interesting section on tides and the effects the moon has on the earth and a description of each of the parts of the world and its oceans. He also includes a section on the rising and falling of astrological signs. The last and most curious chapter is a description of  Time and the Calendar , and the division of time into days months and years. He finishes with a series of predictions for the weather for each year from 1619 to 1643 based on his description of the solar cycle, and gives a table of the calendar from which he makes these predictions. We have been unable to discover the owner of the monogram on both covers. A very good copy of this most interesting and rare work.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"SAULNIER, Jean","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816068260175,"sku":"L1129","price":1950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Saulnier-L1129-2.jpg?v=1781795327"},{"product_id":"peucer-caspar","title":"PEUCER, Caspar","description":"\u003cp\u003eLast edition published before Peucer's death, with a new, lengthy preface by the author. Going through four previous Latin editions, and later translated to French, \"it seems to have been the most influential of his numerous writings which were concerned with the varied fields of medicine, astronomy, mathematics, natural history, and psychology\", (Thorndike VI p. 493). On the whole the work approves of divination in natural circumstances - reading dreams, for instance, or the stars, but agrees with the Bible in condemning certain branches of divination related to demons and witchcraft. Peucer's bias is unflinchingly Protestant, denying the possibility of Miracles, and he attributing the successfulness of relics and invocations of saints to demons rather than divinity. \"After discussing divination in general, he turns to oracles and theomancy, then to magic - which he thus incorrectly implies is a variety of divination, whereas the opposite is true - then to divination from entrails, to augury and aruspicina, to lot-casting under which he puts geomancy and divining from names and numbers and to dreams and their interpretation. Next he considers medical prognostications, meteorology and weather prediction, physiognomy and chiromancy, astrology, and last prodigies and portents\" (Thorndike VI p. 495). He is highly suspicious of Alchemy as a purely devilish art on the one hand, but on the other entirely approving of Astrology - which he himself put to practice and considered essential to the study of medicine. \u003cbr\u003e\n Kasper Peucer (1525 - 1602) was a prominent physician and scholar who studied with Melanchthon (and married his daughter) at the University of Wittenberg where he was appointed in turn professor of philosophy, mathematics, and medicine - his pupil John Garcaeus called Peucer the \"most celebrated professor of mathematics in this academy\". Peucer's religious views were influenced by his close relationship with Melanchthon, which deviated from the local Lutheranism in its Calvinist colourings, and when Melanchthon died in 1560 Peucer became a prominent religious authority. Although he climbed the academic ranks quickly, and gained appointment as physician to Augustus I, Elector of Saxony, his \"Crypto-Calvinist\" beliefs were his downfall. In 1574, letters discovered by his patron that expressed a desire to convert Augustus to Calvinism led to a twelve year imprisonment in Königstein Fortress, an experience he talks about at length in the introduction to the present work. After his release from prison in 1586, he became physician to the duke of Anhalf, where he remained until his death in 1602.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"PEUCER, Caspar","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816069341519,"sku":"L1314","price":2250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Peucer-L1314-1.jpg?v=1781795325"},{"product_id":"danti-egnatio","title":"DANTI, Egnatio","description":"First edition of Egnatio Danti s translation of Proclus   Sfera  and his companion treatise on the use of the sphere, and second edition of Piccolomini s treatise on the proportions respectively of water and dry land of the Earth. According to Graesse there was a 1540 edition of the latter, but from Ziletti s dedication a Venetian senator, it is clear that the book was first published in 1558. Houzeau \u0026amp; Lancaster lists a  very rare  1571 first edition of Danti s translation and treatise, but it is probably confusing the latter with Danti s commentary upon the translation of Sacrobosco s  Tractatus de Spaera  made by his grandfather Pier Vincenzo Rainaldi (called  Dante  after the author of the  Divine Comedy ) and first published in 1571. Egnatio Danti (1536-86), referred to as  Cosmographer of the Grand Duke of Tuscany  on these title-pages, was an outstanding scientist who taught at Pisa and Bologna, drew maps for Cosimo de  Medici, designed a number of astronomical instruments (two of which were set up in Santa Maria Novella, Florence), brought about the reformation of the Gregorian calendar after having detected a 11-day error, wrote the first book to be published in Italy on the astrolabe (1569), and was appointed Papal Cosmographer and Mathematician by Gregory XIII (1580). His translation of Proclus   Sfera , dedicated to Isabella de  Medici, opens with a two-page life of Proclus and contains long and detailed annotations, often flanked by diagrams, for each of the fifteen chapters of the book. It ends with a five-page essay on how to study the stars without using scientific instruments. Proclus (412-485), illustrious Neo-Platonic philosopher from Constantinople, was also a fine astronomer who expounded the division of the celestial sphere with modern accuracy. Danti s treatise on the use of the sphere is divided into thirty short chapters dealing with, i.a., how to make a sphere, determine the various positions of the sun and stars and the corresponding times of day and night, and study the Zodiac.\r The proportions of water and dry land was a much debated topic of the time. Like Aristotle, Leonardo was convinced that the quantity of water exceeded that of the land, and that a great quantity of water was collected in caverns underneath the surface of the Earth. Piccolomini was one of the first scientists to maintain the opposite. In his fifteen-chapter essay he provides detailed explanations of why, from the antiquity, the amount of water on the Earth had been thought to exceed that of the land, followed by the exposition of his own revolutionary theory. Alessandro Piccolomini (1508-1578), a typical Renaissance polymath, wrote poems along with scientific, philosophical and legal works. An important scientific collection in a very attractive contemporary Spanish binding - a charming example of 'encuadernaci√≥n plateresca', most widespread in university town in the C16. Both the Danti and the Piccolomini are also of interest as early Americana.","brand":"DANTI, Egnatio","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816078287183,"sku":"L48","price":7500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L48-8.jpg?v=1781795322"},{"product_id":"pontano-giovanni-gioviano","title":"PONTANO, Giovanni Gioviano","description":"First Aldine edition of the astrological writings of Johannes Jovianus Pontanus (Giovanni Gioviano Pontano, 1429-1503), humanist, diplomat, scholar and poet who became the driving force behind the Neapolitan Academy and its official leader after 1471, as well as Naples' Secretary of State. His was considered by contemporaries as good as, or superior to, his Classical models. Pontanus' career provides an excellent illustration of the power and prestige which might be attained by men of letters in fifteenth-century Italy.\r \r The present volume consists of Pontanos' scientific (or proto-scientific and astrological) works: a translation and commentary on the Centum Ptolemaei sententiae, and other, briefer treatises, including De luna and De rebus coelestibus.\r \r The pseudo-Ptolemaic Centum Sententiae, or Centiloquy, is a collection of astrological aphorisms, once thought to have been the work of Claudius Ptolemaeus - from whose work it differs in many key respects. Seventeenth-century English scholars such as Joseph Moxon and William Lilly noted that some ascribed it to the mythical Hermes Trismegistus. More recent speculation has centred around the figure of Abu Ja'far Ahmad ibn Yusuf Ibn Daya (d. c.941), who wrote extensive glosses to the work, and translated it into Hebrew and Latin. While some of the sententiae demonstrate typical astrological vagueness (III: a person skilled in a particular field will have been born under the relevant star; VI, XI: the day and time for a particular activity should be chosen carefully, with reference to one's horoscope), others are extremely specific (XX: 'Do not pierce not with iron that part of the body which may be governed by the sign occupied by the Moon'; XXII: 'Do not either put on or lay aside any garment for the first time, when the Moon is located in Leo'). Pontanus' commentary is notable for its concern with proving the superiority of astrology over much contemporary 'science', and for the socio-psychological rather than theological nature of its speculations. It was immensely influential in contemporary and later astrological and prophetic writing: Nostradamus quotes with approval his first proposition 'Soli numine divino afflati praesagiunt \u0026amp; spiritu prophetico particularia' ('Only those inspired by the divine godhead can prophesy, and only those inspired by the spirit of prophecy can prophesy detailed events').","brand":"PONTANO, Giovanni Gioviano","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816117707087,"sku":"L593","price":3950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/frontcover_6d949577-4acb-4edf-a998-12eee4563161.png?v=1781795303"},{"product_id":"partlicius-simeon-von-spitzberg","title":"PARTLICIUS Simeon, von Spitzberg","description":"\u003cp\u003eAn extremely rare prognostication based on Scripture various Christian authors, probably in its first edition. There were two issues in that year and no precedence has been ascribed, if indeed there is one. Astronomer and physician Simeon Partlitz or Partlicius (1588-1640) was an exile from Bohemia and a millenarist influenced by the Calvinist theology of Alsted and by Rosicrucianism. His prognostication is divided into three sections where he collects excerpts first from the Old and New Testament, then from the works of Martin Luther and other Lutheran theologians, and finally from earlier Christian scholars. All portend violent renewal for the world and for Germany, and an unpleasant reversal for Rome. He then attaches a 'Confutation' which expresses his anger that various astronomical and astrological works had been published under his name, without his knowledge, consent, or, implicitly, any chance of his being paid for them. He counsels against avarice, states that God will punish these wrong-doers, and notes that he doesn't even have the time to write anything of that sort, busy as he is with his medical practice. The final four pages of the pamphlet comprise a poem in German criticising the immorality of the rich and emphasising the futility of all wealth gathering, unless accompanied by moral repentance. VD 17 lists only four entries for printing in Alkmaar, Northern Holland, all of the present title, two in 1635, and two in 1637. One of the entries queries whether the imprint is fictitious. The paper is in fact typically German of the period.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"PARTLICIUS Simeon, von Spitzberg","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816118493519,"sku":"L1283a","price":1750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_0013.jpg?v=1781795302"},{"product_id":"stoffler-johannes-and-pitati-pietro","title":"ST√ñFFLER, Johannes and PITATI, Pietro","description":"\u003cp\u003eAn expanded and beautiful edition of the almanac by Johannes Stöffler. As with all books of this kind, it had a wide circulation, but complete copies are rare and sought after. The volume provides the positions of stars at regular intervals of date and time, through detailed tables of value. It includes five introductive treatises on astronomic rules and phenomena, along with the celestial calculations from 1551 up to 1555, all by Pietro Pitati. Stöffler (1452-1531) was a German mathematician, astronomer and priest. He invented some astronomical instruments and taught at the University of Tübingen. Embracing the timespan 1499-1551, his celestial calculations continued those by Regiomontanus (1436-1476) and exerted a paramount influence over contemporary astronomical and astrological knowledge. The sixteenth-century Italian scholar Pietro Pitati was a professor of astronomy in Verona. The book is dedicated to the city bishop and prominent cardinal Gian Matteo Giberti. Pitati s ephemerides published in Venice in 1542 are regarded as the earliest Italian publication of this genre. He kept publishing his calculation up to the year 1562. In his Compendium super annua solaris (1560), he put forward for the first time the idea of omitting the Julian leap day in three out of four centennial years, so to keep the calendar in line with the solar year. Rare.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ST√ñFFLER, Johannes and PITATI, Pietro","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816126619983,"sku":"L1860","price":4850.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/titlepage_397e283d-7929-4ac0-881a-e92ef0e8e901.png?v=1781795275"},{"product_id":"tornamira-francisco-vicente-de","title":"TORNAMIRA, Francisco Vicente de","description":"\u003cp\u003eRare first edition of a wide-ranging astronomical, cosmographical and historical book, one of the first of its kind to be directly written in Spanish. Little is known of the life of Francisco Vicente de Tornamira (1534   1597), born in Tudela, Navarre. Chronographia was the most influential work of this prominent Spanish astronomer, illustrating in 162 chapters the creation of the universe, the various branches of philosophy, the movement of planets, the constellations and the Zodiac, the universal chronology realm by realm, a series of calendars, almanacs and weather forecasts. All the subjects were elucidated further with a large number of illustrations, including, most notably, a traditional depiction of the Armillary Sphere and other globes, the Astronomical Man and the Roman gods on their chariots representing the planets named after them. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n A fervent supporter of Ptolemaic vision of the universe against the heliocentric theory, Tornamira comes up with convoluted explanations to bridge the gap between mathematical calculation and the traditional model of planetary movement. A most interesting part is devoted to the solar calendar and the recent reform introduced in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII, discussing the exact days of the year in which Lent, Corpus Domini and Easter should be celebrated. Tornamira expanded on this topic in his subsequent work, the Spanish translation of the new Gregorian calendar (1591). \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n  On p. 40 there is a reference to the Magellan circumnavigation; on p. 497 a list of the midsummer s days of the New World; on p. 538-539 locations of New World cities.  Alden 585\/67.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"TORNAMIRA, Francisco Vicente de","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816133173583,"sku":"L2100","price":5250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/titlepage_58d321ef-f136-42e3-94ac-f02255bd5756.png?v=1781795254"},{"product_id":"della-porta-giovan-battista","title":"DELLA PORTA, Giovan Battista.","description":"\u003cp\u003eGood copy of the second vernacular edition of this handsomely illustrated, veiled defence of astrology. A scholar of natural sciences, the Neapolitan Giovan Battista della Porta (1535-1615) published extensively on subjects including agriculture, cryptography, meteorology and chemistry, and was at the centre of a wide scholarly network including Galileo. For his interest in  judicial  astrology not strictly concerned with heretical, occult questions, but with natural science, medicine and meteorology he founded the Academia Secretorum Naturae. Due to his theorisation of magic as an instrument for the understanding of natural phenomenology, he was investigated by the Inquisition in the mid-1580s.  Della celeste fisionomia , first published in Latin in 1603 and in the vernacular in 1614, was a fake attack against the  imaginary  discipline of astrology which the author had apparently repudiated after being warned by the Church. Through theories drawn from ancient and medieval authorities and under the pretence of dismissing the discipline in its entirety, della Porta rejected only the foundations of traditional astrology. He provided instead a different astrological theory according to which earthly bodies were dependent on the nature and mixing of their constitutive four humours in relation to planets and not simply on the domination of planets tout court. He illustrated the influence of the humours on human temperament and physical state e.g., the  unhappy  Saturnine (phlegmatic) constitution caused a melancholic disposition and illnesses including epilepsy, leprosy and kidney infections. Only if grounded in this theory could astrological prognostication based on the analysis of appearance and disposition be correct. Most interesting is his connection between human and animal physiognomy in the zodiac with Aries causing a hairy appearance and Taurus a broad forehead and the way in which predictions could proceed from physical traits like moles, build and height.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"DELLA PORTA, Giovan Battista.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816143659343,"sku":"L2840","price":1950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L2840.jpg?v=1781795170"},{"product_id":"virdung-von-hassfurt-johannes","title":"VIRDUNG VON HASSFURT, Johannes.","description":"\u003cp\u003eAn important collection of works on astrological medicine united in this edition for the first time by the Italian scholar Giovanni Paolo Gallucci (1538-1621), including: the treatise in 4 books by Johann Virdung (ca.1465-ca.1535), published in 1532; the  Iatromathematica  attributed to Hermes Trismegistus; the  Prognostica  by Imbrasius of Ephesus (pseudo Galen); and  De triplici vita  in 3 books ( De vita sana ,  De vita longa ,  De vita coelitus comparanda ), with an early treatise on the plague ( Epidemiarum antidotus ), both by the Florentine philosopher Marsilio Ficino (1422-1499), and the  Introductio ad astrologiam  by Gallucci himself. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Gallucci was a translator and cartographer. After completing his education in Padua, he moved to Venice. His interests ranged from astronomy to medicine and literature. He was one of the founders of the second Venetian Academy and wrote several works on astronomy, such as the important star atlas  Theatrum mundi, et temporis  (1588). Virdung was an influential physician and astrologer from Hasfurt. He studied in Leipzig and Krakow where he attended the lectures of Albertus de Brudzewo and Johannes von Glogau. In 1492 Virdung moved to Heidelberg where taught medicine, mathematics and astronomy and entered the service of the Electoral Palatine court, producing yearly prognostications regarding the ruling planets, the interpretation of eclipses and natural disasters, as well as social events (Joachimite prophecies). Virdung s bibliography includes at least 80 astrological works in German and Latin. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n After a dedicatory letter by Gallucci to the Bishop of Mantua, Sisto Vicedomini, explaining the relationship between disease and the influence of the stars over human bodies, the volume opens with Virdung s 4 books, each introduced by a short summary. Book 1 focuses on the basics of astrology (zodiac, stars, planets and other celestial bodies, such as the Moon), according to principles by Galen, Ptolemy (Opus Quadripartitum) and Cardan. Book 2 and 3 concern the classification of diseases and their remedies (drugs  ingredients; laxative and phlebotomy; bandages, embrocation and balms to relieve pain; poultice for the head and the stomach, infusions). They particularly deal with the definition of vomit and faeces as movements of the body to expel poison and humours, as well as with the issue of the periods of major danger for the health, for instance the moon phases. Book 4 discusses symptoms and features of the body which reveal specific diseases depending on the position of the stars, such as face appearance and the colour of urine. There follows the  Iatromathematica , supposedly by the Egyptian philosopher Hermes Trismegistus, a treatise in Latin translation which refers to medical astrology as a discipline subordinating clinical observation and therapeutic praxis to the scrutiny of the stars; the  Prognostica  or  De decubitu  in 13 chapters, an anonymous work on prognosis bringing together materials from the Galenic  Crises , as well as from the iatromathematical tradition. The second part of the volume contains Ficino s  De triplice vita , preceded by Gallucci s address to the reader. One of Ficino s later works, inspired by Galen, Plato and the Arab  Picatrix , and divided into three parts:  De vita sana , dedicated to Lorenzo the Magnificent, aiming at helping scholars achieve a healthy life through suitable diet and habits;  De vita longa , dedicated to the noble Florentine Filippo Valori, on eternal happiness, providing similar advice to the elderly;  De vita coelitus comparanda , prescribing gold and gems (talismans) as powerful health remedies. Last, a short astrological treatise by Gallucci dealing with celestial phenomena and related calculations, zodiac and planets, connection between stars and Fortune, and their influences on the bodies.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"VIRDUNG VON HASSFURT, Johannes.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816144249167,"sku":"L2353","price":4950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Screenshot-2024-08-06-at-14.33.54.webp?v=1781794953"},{"product_id":"peucer-kaspar","title":"PEUCER, Kaspar","description":"\u003cp\u003eSecond edition in French of Peucer s encyclopaedic work on divination;  it seems to have been the most influential of his numerous writings which were concerned with the varied fields of medicine, astronomy, mathematics, natural history, and psychology , (Thorndike VI p. 493). On the whole the work approves of divination in natural circumstances   reading dreams, for instance, or the stars, but agrees with the Bible in condemning certain branches of divination related to demons and witchcraft. Peucer s bias is unflinchingly Protestant, denying the possibility of Miracles, and he attributed the successfulness of relics and invocations of saints to demons rather than divinity.  \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n After discussing divination in general, he turns to oracles and theomancy, then to magic, which he thus incorrectly implies is a variety of divination, whereas the opposite is true, then to divination from entrails, to augury and aruspicina, to lot-casting under which he puts geomancy and divining from names and numbers and to dreams and their interpretation. Next he considers medical prognostications, meteorology and weather prediction, physiognomy and chiromancy, astrology, and last prodigies and portents  (Thorndike VI p. 495). He is highly suspicious of Alchemy as a purely devilish art on the one hand, but on the other entirely approving of Astrology, which he himself put to practice and considered essential to the study of medicine. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Kasper Peucer (1525   1602) was a prominent physician and scholar who studied with Melanchthon (and married his daughter) at the University of Wittenberg where he was appointed in turn professor of philosophy, mathematics, and medicine. His pupil, John Garcaeus, called Peucer the  most celebrated professor of mathematics in this academy . Peucer s religious views were influenced by his close relationship with Melanchthon, which deviated from the local Lutheranism in its Calvinist colourings, and when Melanchthon died in 1560 Peucer became a prominent religious authority. Although he climbed the academic ranks quickly, and gained appointment as physician to Augustus I, Elector of Saxony, his  Crypto-Calvinist  beliefs were his downfall. In 1574, letters discovered by his patron that expressed a desire to convert Augustus to Calvinism led to a twelve year imprisonment in Königstein Fortress. After his release from prison in 1586, he became physician to the duke of Anhalf, where he remained until his death in 1602.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"PEUCER, Kaspar","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816152801615,"sku":"L2851","price":2500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Screenshot-2024-08-06-at-12.28.35.webp?v=1781794933"},{"product_id":"raimondo-annibale","title":"RAIMONDO, Annibale","description":" Good copy of the FIRST EDITION of this successful work on numerology. Annibale Raimondo (1505-91) was a physician from Verona and the author of several pamphlets on astrology, prognostics and the Gregorian calendrical reform. His  Opera  addressed the only too human wish to know future events, providing a method of interpretation integrating traditional ones like astrology, chiromancy or necromancy. It is the  science  of  nomandia  an astrological system whereby the letters of names and nouns are given numerical values which help foresee events or discover the content or identity of  cose occulte , that is, literally, unknown items or people. Names should be written in the  Latin nominative  and  with the true orthography and without barbarism , to ensure a standardized spelling for equal results, whilst calculations should follow Raimondi s instructions and take into account the influx of planets according to a  philosophical wheel  with numbers, letters and zodiac signs engraved in the introduction. The initial part of the work features a long list of questions its readers might want to see addressed. These include the traditional desire to know whether future events will bring good or bad fortune, one s offspring will be male or female or the coming year will see famine, war or peace, but also intriguing requests like ways of telling the content of an unopened letter, the appearance of a thief who acted unseen, whether a prisoner will manage to escape or a physician be unable to heal one s illness because he is  ignorant , a  fugitive  or a  foreigner . The rest is devoted to combinations of numbers and zodiac signs providing specific answers to the initial question, with excursions into physiognomics. The  Opera  was added to the  Index Librorum Prohibitorum  in 1559 as an  item de geomantia et de chiromantia  methodologies almost completely absent in the work and only present in the subtitle, where Raimondi is described as  Astrologo, Geomante, Chiromante \u0026amp; Fisionomo . ","brand":"RAIMONDO, Annibale","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816155062607,"sku":"L2853","price":2250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L2853.jpg?v=1781794918"},{"product_id":"albrecht-lorenz","title":"ALBRECHT, Lorenz","description":"\u003cp\u003eA remarkably clean copy of this German astrological almanac a rare survival of C16 ephemera. A former Lutheran preacher, Lorenz Albrecht (1540-1606) was the author of German and Latin religious works and re-converted to the Catholic faith in 1567.  Evangelisch Prognosticon  testifies to his disillusionment with the Protestant Reformation  the Gospel of Luther  and his intent to oppose this heresy through the popular genre of the almanac, imitating Johannes Nas s  Practica Practicarum . As usual in astrological almanacs, it discusses planets, constellations, zodiacal signs and the seasons and their influx on humans with references to ancient authorities like Pliny and Manilius; but the tone is grim and planets are seen as harbingers of vices. The ominous statement by which the seat of the devil is at the centre of the earth and heresy is at the centre of the universe shows how Albrecht s almanac presented the influence of the cosmos as something that Catholics should resist through will and spiritual exercise so as not to succumb to the Protestant heresy.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ALBRECHT, Lorenz","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816155816271,"sku":"L2915","price":2250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/titlepage-1_3248c45c-1777-4f47-b490-5a18443dd348.png?v=1781794913"},{"product_id":"doglioni-giovanni-nicolo-1","title":"DOGLIONI, Giovanni Nicol√≤","description":"\u003cp\u003eScarce copy of this important didactic almanac including the prediction of weather conditions, planetary influence and a perpetual calendar  one of the earliest if not the earliest almanack according to the Gregorian Calendar unknown to Poggendorff  ( Bibliotheca Chemico-Mathematica  1076). Giovanni Nicol√≤ Doglioni (1548-1629) was a Venetian notary appointed to several public offices in the city, and the author of works on chronology, cosmography and the calculation of time.  L anno  contextualised for a broader audience the reform of the Julian calendar introduced by Gregory XIII in 1582 a revision which led to major scholarly debates on  gnomonica  or the computation of the portions of the solar day. The first section of the work discusses the four elements that constitute the world, the subdivisions of the earth into continents, countries and provinces, the meteorological phenomena resulting from the mixture of the elements as well as a table tracing the movements of the planets. In the second section Doglioni explains the subdivisions of time according to conventional units. The fundamental unit the day can be natural (following the planetary course of the sun in relation to the earth as a whole) or artificial (according to the specific place in which the onlooker is situated). This distinction is used as the basis to explain the correct construction of sundials on buildings. There follows an examination of the subdivision of historical time the discipline of chronology so dear to the medieval and Renaissance periods and the meaning of  century ,  age ,  age of man  and  age of the world , with a perpetual calendar and a long table recording universal dates and events from the creation to the year 5545 [1586AD]. Later owners annotated the perpetual calendar counting the days for the years 1646, 1668 and 1709. The last section provides perpetual calendars to identify Feasts of the Saints and moveable liturgical feasts. It was reprinted as  L anno riformato  in 1599 and its tables accordingly updated. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Giovanni Battista Lambruschini S.J. (1755-1827) was professor at the Jesuit seminary in Genoa, a great opponent of the French Revolution and the centre of a Jesuit circle including the renowned philologist Cardinal Angelo Mai.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"DOGLIONI, Giovanni Nicol√≤","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816156078415,"sku":"L2885","price":2250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/titlepage_e03e142e-f040-46f2-84c1-4d818e74ac66.png?v=1781794912"},{"product_id":"albumasar-ab-ma-shar","title":"ALBUMASAR [AB? MA?SHAR]","description":"\u003cp\u003eVery good, wide-margined copy of the third edition of this important and handsomely illustrated astrological work. Albumasar (or Ab_ Ma_shar, 787-886) was a Persian philosopher and astrologer at the Abbasid court in Baghdad. His reputation in the Islamic world grew thanks to his introductory manuals for astrologers like  Kit_b al-nukat , first translated into Latin in the C12 and first printed as  Flores astrologiae  in Venice and Augsburg in 1488. Albumasar s eclectic theories were influenced by Aristotelianism as understood not through translations from the Greek but through the mediation of the Sabei of Harran (Bezza I, 96), an obscure religious sect inspired by Judaism and Hermeticism. Addressing the reader with a very informal  you ,  Flores astrologiae  teaches how to calculate the horoscope of a year, month or day starting from the position of the sun, moon and planets at the beginning of the timespan under scrutiny. The influence of each planet in different zodiac signs is explained at length, whether they might bring prosperity or paucity, war or peace, plague, earthquakes or floods. Albumasar also lists the fixed stars to be used to calculate horoscopes of people and events. The handsome woodcuts functioned as learning aids; for instance, the zodiac signs are repeated to remark on combinations of signs and planets. In medieval Europe, whether in ms. or print, his influential works were considered eminent instances of the judicial astronomy condemned by the Church (Cantamessa I, 142). A remarkably fresh witness to the fundamental importance of astrology in the culture of medieval and early modern Europe.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ALBUMASAR [AB? MA?SHAR]","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816161747279,"sku":"L3086","price":7500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/20190409_164656.jpg?v=1781794894"},{"product_id":"pontano-giovanni","title":"PONTANO, Giovanni","description":"\u003cp\u003eHandsome clean copy of the second edition of this most influential astrological work. Giovanni Pontano (or Giovanni Gioviano, 1426-1503) was a poet, humanist and diplomat who, after studying at Perugia, moved to Naples. There he became an influential figure at the Accademia Antoniana (later Pontaniana) and the court of Aragon; he has been celebrated as the intellectual who introduced the Renaissance to Naples. His work spanned philosophy, natural science, astrology and poetry, and in 1512 his  opera omnia  in six parts of which  De rebus coelestibus  was the sixth was published by the Giunti in Florence. This is the second Giunti edition of the collected works and the fourth of  De rebus  as a separate work. Written in the course of twenty years, it was begun in 1475 just after Pico della Mirandola published his attack on judicial astrology. Pontanus sought to distance himself from the latter to pursue instead a kind of astrology which could benefit man, so that, through this knowledge,  astrologers could assess the nature of human beings, hence their inclinations and eventually the ultimate unfolding of their lives  (Cantamessa III, 6256). Presenting a cosmos based on Ptolemaic doctrines, the first section is a study of the nature,  houses , qualities and  fines  (degrees) which govern the interactions between planets and signs; this is mandatory knowledge for the real astronomer who should seek to identify the complexities of human nature. The second part analyses the  mapping  of the age and life of man onto the celestial system and changes in the qualities of planets according to their position. Parts three to eight focus on the effects of planetary interactions on individuals born under specific conjunctures. The last few sections are mostly devoted to medical conditions (e.g., sterility, skin illnesses, limping, epilepsy, kidney stones, baldness, nervous and mental issues). Despite his attempt to detach himself from judicial astrology, following the credo of Neo-Platonists like Pico and their scepticism against astral causation, Pontano remained greatly attracted to astrology and alchemy as appears from his  Letter on the Philosophical Fire . He was in time celebrated as a protagonist of the hermetic scene in Naples hence the intriguing Masonic provenance of this copy, from the library of the Supreme Council 33, one of two main governing bodies of the Scottish Rite Freemasonry in the USA.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"PONTANO, Giovanni","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816162468175,"sku":"L3109","price":3250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/20190409_175207.jpg?v=1781794892"},{"product_id":"ryd-valerius-with-stoffler-johann","title":"RYD, Valerius [with] STÖFFLER, Johann","description":"\u003cp\u003eHandsomely bound, finely illustrated historico-astrological sammelband. Valerius Ryd (Valerius Anshelm, 1475-1546\/7) was a Swiss historian and the official chronicler of the city of Bern an appointment he received thanks to the fame achieved with his  Catalogus . Written c.1510 and widely circulated in ms., it is a history of the world  ab homine condito  (from the Creation) to the early C16, handsomely illustrated with biblical and historical scenes, heraldic shields, portraits of princes and genealogical trees in the style of the Nuremberg Chronicle. Ryd relied on the tradition of  universal historiography  dating back to Eusebius s  Chronicon  (4th century), which rooted the history of the world in the genealogies of Genesis from Adam and Eve. The pivotal ancestor was Noah, whose three sons populated the world anew after the Flood Japhet in Europe, Shem in Asia and Cham in Africa. Expanded by the Renaissance scholar Annius of Viterbo, this view of history embraced ancient and present civilisations within an immense genealogical network filling the gaps between Genesis and history with mythical figures like Hercules, the Amazons and Gomer, and it identified the passing of history with the (often artificial) linear progression of royal lines. The genealogies of the Four Kingdoms of Daniel the empires of Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome are followed by those of European princes and the succession of the Popes. A beautifully crafted instance of the early modern chronicle tradition. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Johann Stöffler (1452-1531) was a German astrologer, astronomer and priest who taught at Tubingen one of his students was Philip Melanchthon and produced globes and clocks for notables including the Bishop of Konstanz. This sammelband features his most important, posthumous  Commentarius  to Pseudo-Proclus s  Sphaera  a major text on cosmography for Renaissance astronomers attributed to a Neoplatonic Greek mathematician. However,  Commentarius  presents Latin excerpts mostly from another ancient astronomical manual, Geminus s  Isagoge , discussing the structure of the earth, the trajectory of the sun, the zodiac and constellations.  Catalogus  is renowned for its cartographically detailed references to the New World. For instance, in a paragraph on oceanic navigation Stöffler mentioned Vespucci s discoveries and in another commenting on lands beyond the  terra cognita  delineated by Ptolemy he mentioned new cartographic additions like  the western province of America near and partially under the Tropic of Capricorn . He certainly consulted Martin Waldseemüller s world map of 1507, the first to call the new continent  America , and the only one to include, like his full passage, references to the Abbey of All Saints founded by Columbus as well as mention of smaller islands like St Marich and the Primeras.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"RYD, Valerius [with] STÖFFLER, Johann","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816162926927,"sku":"K146","price":9500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/20190404_163757.jpg?v=1781794889"},{"product_id":"pereira-benito","title":"PEREIRA, Benito","description":"\u003cp\u003eScarce edition of this fascinating and successful treatise on magic, dreams and divination, and superstition, first printed in 1591. Benito Pereyra, SJ (1530-1610) was a major Spanish theologian, philosopher and exegete, and an influential professor at the Collegium Romanum. Inspired by his lectures, his numerous works, on subjects including psychology and mathematics, played an important role in the formation of the principles of  Jesuit science . His metaphysics and psychology in particular had  a significant impact on Protestant Germany and Holland  (Lamanna,  Benet Perera , 273). Based on ancient and modern sources, including Ficino, it groups together texts Pereyra had published as part of previous works: a chapter on alchemy from  De principiis , and two on dreams and astrology from his commentaries to the  Book of Daniel  and  Genesis  (Bulm,  Benedictus , 293). Pereyra begins the first book by distinguishing natural magic, based on the concealed and evident properties of things, from magic devoid of reason and truth, false and damaging, connected with demons, fraud and  maleficia , a danger to society. He proceeds with a study of demonic powers, with the assistance of magicians, the nature of miracles, as well as astrology, the kabbalah, necromancy and alchemy, with a conclusion on the origins of magic. The famous psychologist C.G. Jung devoted a long footnote in his  Psychology and Religion  to Pereyra s  excellent tract  about dreams, the second part of  De Magia . Pereyra identifies four causes of dreams bodily affections, emotional commotions of the mind, the power of demons, and true divine presence considering the functions of reason and will. Inspired by Pico s  Adversus astrologiam , the third part, on judicial astrology and divination, includes chapters on the vanity of oracles, demonic prophecies, the impossible mediation between Christian and astrological truth, astrologers  predictions (with mention of comets). For its attention to the powers and nature of demons, it has been considered  not only a treatise of witchcraft and magic, but also a manual of exorcism  (Bib. Esot. 3605). \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Louis Alexandre Adolphe Gitton Duplessis (1800-1888) was a French lawyer, politician and bibliophile, whose collection was purchased en bloc by the architect Jules Édouard Potier de la Morandi√®re, after his death.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"PEREIRA, Benito","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57820345893199,"sku":"L2606","price":3250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/IMG_8464-scaled.jpg?v=1781794815"},{"product_id":"rantzovius-henricus","title":"RANTZOVIUS, Henricus.","description":"\u003cp\u003eScarce first edition of this fascinating astrological work. Heinrich Rantzau (1526-98) was a German astrologer acquainted with Brahe, and Governor of Schleswig-Holstein.  Catalogus  is  a handbook of contemporary knowledge concerning the astrological aspects of politics  ( History , 153). The first section lists princes, kings, emperors and great men ancient, biblical, medieval and contemporary who favoured and used the art of astrology, e.g., Berosus, Democritus, Caesar, Charlemagne, the Turkish emperor Mehmed II, Frederick II, King of Naples (for promoting the translation of astrological texts from Arabic into Latin), and Pope Paul III. This is followed by a list of  mirabiles praedictiones  by astrologers, which allegedly came true: e.g., the death of Aeschylus, Hippocrates s prediction of the plague, the prophecy to Agrippina that her son Nero would kill her, and the prophecy Gauricus made to Henry of Navarre, with the inclusion of lesser known figures, like the physician-astrologer Moibanus, who predicted his wife s death. The following section is a disquisition of climacteric years, hebdomatic (7 years) or enneatic (9 years) periods into which human life can be subdivided. They mark turning points, beginning from year 7; the most dangerous being the 63rd year, i.e., the conjuncture of the hebdomatic and enneatic.   Rantzovius interprets through the climacteric theory the death years of biblical, ancient and more recent figures, including kings (e.g., Henry VIII), aristocrats, popes and great personalities like Erasmus, Agricola, Copernicus, Petrarch, Savonarola, the painter Lucas Cranach, Saxo-Ferrato, Durer, Johann Hess, Thomas Linacre, Sebastian Munster, Luther, Philippe de Comines, and Hieronymus Frobenius  typographus Basiliensis . An illustration, after a horoscope by Conrad Dasypodius, foresees Rantzovius s sudden death after the age of 50.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"RANTZOVIUS, Henricus.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57820349792591,"sku":"L3525","price":1850.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Untitled-10_f441e651-da12-469b-8114-5636c937eaa4.jpg?v=1781794799"},{"product_id":"leopold-of-austria-1","title":"LEOPOLD of Austria","description":"\u003cp\u003eBeautifully printed and finely illustrated second edition of this important and influential astronomy, by the 13th-century astronomer, Leopold of Austria, first printed by Ratdolt, in 1489. Primarily a work of astrology based on the writings of Albumasar, the sixth book concerns meteorology both from a theoretical and a practical point of view, and includes folkloric methods of weather prediction and general descriptions of winds, thunder etc. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Although virtually nothing is known of the author, the work was influential in the late Middle Ages, being cited by the great astronomer, Pierre d Ailly, and admired by Regiomontanus, who proposed to edit it. This edition retains the dedication to Udalricus de Frundsberg, bishop of Trient, by Erhard Ratdolt, printer of the first. In the introduction Leopold states that he cannot take credit for the work as there was more than one author and he was just a  fidelis illorum observator et diligens compilator.  He states his goal is to describe the motion of the stars, and to focus particularly on describing their effect. He describes astronomy as a necessary starting point and foundation for the study of astrology. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The Compilatio is divided into ten treatises: the first and second on the spheres and their motion. There is a dissertation on the comets at the end of the fifth book, beginning with a short discussion of Aristotle s theories, which recounts the opinion of John of Damascus (676   c. 749), who asserts, in his  De Fide Orthodoxa,  that these celestial bodies announce the death of a King, and that they do not belong to the stars created in the beginning, but are formed and dissolved by God s will. He then gives a list of the nine comets and their latin names, ending with the meanings derived from their presence in each Zodiacal sign. These are a transcription of Albumasar s  De magnis Conjunctionibus.  A very good copy of this beautifully illustrated and rare edition.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"LEOPOLD of Austria","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57820384166223,"sku":"L2159b","price":4500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_9403.jpg?v=1781793812"},{"product_id":"ferrier-auger","title":"FERRIER, Auger.","description":"\u003cp\u003eA lovely copy of this beautifully printed and rare astrological work, the first edition was printed in 1550, and frequently there after for over a hundred years; the work was translated to English in 1593. Ferrier was born in 1513 near Toulouse and studied medicine at Montpellier, perhaps overlapping with Francois Rabelais, before returning to practise in Toulouse in 1540.  This work is a short and very practical work of pure astrology, in which, in clear and easily understandable terms, all aspects of the art of making and interpreting horoscopes are dealt with, mainly on the basis of the work of Arab astrologers. The work was particularly useful to those who wanted to learn the first rudiments of astrology without religious or philosophical interpretation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e“Another popular Renaissance work on natal astrology was Auger Ferrier’s  ‘jugemens astronomiques sur les nativitez’ … Ferrier was a well-known physician and astrologer of Toulouse and wrote a number of books including a treatise on critical days ‘according to Pythagorean doctrine and astronomical observation’  (Thorndike  VI  p. 479) as well as a work on dream interpretation. Ferrier was personal physician and astrologer to Queen Catherine the Medici of France and a colleague of the famous Nostradamus. Catherine the Medici was fascinated with astrology and magic and ‘jugemens astronomiques sur les nativitez’ was dedicated to her… Ferrier’s (work) provides an excellent example of Renaissance natal technique which is still capable of accurate natal prediction and has the virtue of being much easier to learn than Bonatti’s mediaeval natal methods.” Christopher Warnock. ‘Ferrier’s Judgment of Nativities’.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e“Now, Ferrier is without doubt one of those secondary figures of the intellectual world of Renaissance France, who is slowly attracting the attention of critics, not just for his medical treatises on syphilis, the plague, and general practice, but also (and perhaps even more so) for his astrological work, the ‘liber de diebus decretoriis’, and above all the ‘jugemens astronomiques sur les nativitez’ by which in the autumn of 1549 he apparently gained the favour of Catherine de Médicis, well before Nostradamus rose to fame. In effect, the influence of Ferrier’s astrological work not only spread to England and Spain, but stretched well into the 18th century, even though by that time the sun had moved, as it were, from its terrestrial orbit to the centre of the solar system. His medical writings were similarly translated, reprinted and anthologised, suggesting a longer lasting renown than Ferrier is usually given credit for, even if it is true that by the early 19th century, the medical establishment had become dismissive of his accomplishments.” Ingrid de Smet. ‘Of Doctors Dramers and Soothsayers; the interlinking world of Joseph Scaliger and Auger Ferrier.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eA very charming copy.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"FERRIER, Auger.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859627221327,"sku":"L3460","price":2750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Untitled-10_93537bdf-ff4e-4070-aa2a-d9c400c7e6d9.jpg?v=1781793806"},{"product_id":"nostradamus-michel","title":"NOSTRADAMUS, Michel.","description":"\u003cp\u003eAn extremely rare, popular edition of the prophecies of Nostradamus by Pierre Rigaud, a deliberate copy of the earliest editions, printed at Lyon by the same family, here without date (some later editions by Rigaud were printed with false earlier dates). We have not been able to locate another copy of this edition; it seems closest to Chomart 201 ‚ÄúMichel Chomarat and Jean-Paul Laroche. Bibliographie Nostradamus; XVIe, XVIIe, XVIIIe si√®cles. 1989‚Äù). The first part contains the authors famous dedication to his son and the second to Henry II. The work was originally published in three parts, the first containing 353 poems. A second part was printed in 1557 and added 289 further prophecies; the third and final part of 300 new poems was printed in 1558, posthumously, by Pierre Rigaud Sr. These poems or rhymed quatrains were grouped into nine sets of 100 and one of 42, called ‚ÄúCenturies‚Äù. In this edition there are 44 in the last section though an annotator has crossed out the final two additional centuries stating that they were not to be found in early editions. A final quire has been added containing 71 further centuries by Vincent Seve de Beaucaire, originally made in 1605 and often added.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eNostradamus claimed each prediction was based upon his astrological reading of particular events, though it is evident that a great deal of the work is copied from earlier Latin authors such as Livy, Plutarch, and other classical historians, and many are taken directly from Richard Roussat‚Äôs Livre de l‚Äôestat et mutations des temps (1549 1550). The Mirabilis Liber of 1522, which contained a wide range of prophecies by such authors as Pseudo-Methodius, the Tiburtine Sibyl, Joachim of Fiore, Savonarola and others was also a well used source. His considerable initial success was based on the fact that he was one of the first to re-paraphrase these prophecies in French. Further material was gleaned from the De honesta disciplina of 1504 by Petrus Crinitus, which included extracts from Michael Psellos‚Äô De daemonibus, and the De Mysteriis Aegyptiorum, a book on Chaldean and Assyrian magic by Iamblichus, a fourth-century Neo-Platonist. Most of the quatrains deal with disasters, such as plagues, earthquakes, wars, floods, invasions, murders, droughts, and battles all undated and based on foreshadowings by the Mirabilis Liber. The work was remarkably and instantaneously popular. This later seventeenth century edition deliberately imitates the first editions, playing on the mystique these editions had already acquired. Modern interpretations of the quatrains have shown them to predict the French Revolution, Napoleon, Hitler, the nuclear destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and even the death of princess Diana and the events of 9\/11. An important contemporary theme was fear of an impending invasion of Europe by Muslim forces, headed by the expected Antichrist, directly reflecting the Ottoman invasions of the Balkans. The work was published within the context of a general fear of an imminent apocalypse. A rare and charming popular edition.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"NOSTRADAMUS, Michel.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859632562511,"sku":"L3496","price":3250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Untitled-25.jpg?v=1781793790"},{"product_id":"gerolamo-cardano","title":"GEROLAMO CARDANO","description":"\u003cp\u003eTwo influential works by the Italian polymath Gerolamo Cardano (1501-1576) in a beautifully decorated contemporary binding by the German bookbinder  Meister des Kolumbaquartiers  (Schunke 1937, 336; Einbanddatenbank 129874b), based in .Cologne.  \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Expert in mathematics, biology, physics, astronomy, astrology and author of more than 200 works on medicine, Cardano is today most known for introducing the use of negative numbers in Europe for the first time (Ars Magna, 1545). The first edition of De Astrorum Iudicii represents one of his most controversial works on astronomy and astrology. Structured as a four-part commentary on the Tetrabiblos (in Latin translation) by the Greek philosopher and mathematician Ptolemy (100-170 AD), the book presents a series of astrological techniques aimed at demonstrating that all the main events in people s lives can be attributed to the stars. In addition, the brief related volume  Geniturarum Exempla  contains twelve horoscope examples illustrated with attractive diagrams and symbols, among them the horoscope of King Edward VI and of the Archbishop John Hamilton of St. Andrews (Genitura I and II). To these eminent personalities, Cardano predicts a bright future; however, it appears that the latter was hanged by the reformers, while the former died of tuberculosis not long after the publication of this work. The author goes as far as casting the horoscope of Christ: accused of heresy by the Inquisition for these pages, Cardano was imprisoned in 1570.  \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n De Subtilitate Libri XXI is widely considered Cardano s masterpiece and, due to its enormous success, it continued to be reprinted long after the author s death. It is an encyclopaedia of natural science and metaphysics, divided into twenty-one books which respectively deal with: 1) matter and its natural motion, 2) the elements, 3) the sky, 4) light, 5) mixtures and compounds, 6) metals, 7) stones, 8) plants, 9-10) animals, 11-12) humans, their appearance and temperament, 13) the senses, 14) soul and intellect, 15)  de incerti generis aut inutilibus subtilitatibus , 16) Sciences, 17) Arts, 18) Miracles, 19) Demons, 20) Angels, 21) God and the universe. This edition constitutes Cardano s update to the first of 1550, and it accounts for more recent geographical discoveries and philosophical discourses. Among the detailed woodcut illustrations, the ones representing machines are perhaps the most fascinating: these include a suction pump, .the .Archimedean screw, a hoist, and many others. In the pages discussing engineering, Cardano also informs us that Leonardo da Vinci tried to fly, but he failed. In the section regarding the sky (Liber III) the author describes the stars observed by Amerigo Vespucci during his third voyage to the Indies.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"GEROLAMO CARDANO","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859633807695,"sku":"L3648","price":17500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L3648-1.jpg?v=1781793787"},{"product_id":"avienus-rufus-festus","title":"AVIENUS, Rufus Festus.","description":"\u003cp\u003e.A very good, well-margined copy of the first edition, of this lavishly illustrated volume with the first celestial map printed in a book, in the form of a planisphere.  This printed map is a much-simplified, mirror-image version of the planispheres found in humanist mss. The fact that it is presented as a mirror-image to the rest of the planispheres probably reflects its conversion from ms. drawing to a wood block image  (Dekker, 180). This medico-geographico-astrological compendium, edited by Victor Pisanus (d.1549),  patrician of Venice , comprises six texts of which the first, fourth and sixth as present in their first editions. There are Latin translations (one fragmentary) of the verse composition on the celestial sphere, called  Phaenomena , by Aratus (310-240 BC), a Greek poet at the service of the Macedonian king Antigonus Gonata. Here Germanicus s translation cum commentary itself the subject of later commentaries is lavishly illustrated with woodcuts of zodiacal signs and personified constellations. Of these, 4 were bespoke; the remaining were reversed reproductions from Hyginus s  Poetica astronomica  (Cantamessa I, 522; BMC V, 295). Although heavily borrowed from Eudoxius of Cnidus s namesake text,  Phaenomena  in its various Latin renditions was a very influential astrological text in medieval Europe. The compendium also features Avienus s Latin translation of  De situ orbis  by Dionysius Periegetes, who lived in Alexandria in the 2.nd. or 3.rd. century AD. This was a popular geographical poem, often used in schools, on the boundaries of the known world. Avienus s own  Ora maritima , based on  Massiliote Periplus  written in the 6.th. century BC, was a description of coastal regions of the world. The last text (third edition), entitled  Liber medicinae , is a medico-astrological poem by Serenus (fl. 2.nd. century AD), tutor to Caracalla. Based on traditional encyclopaedic works on natural history such as Pliny the Elder s, it features popular medical treatments to common ailments with the help of astrological theories and even magic formulas including the famous  abracadabra  its first recorded appearance in written form used to treat semi-tertian fever. The early annotator of this copy had another edition of Germanicus at hand, as he added a missing line on the phases of Venus ( accipe quid moveat mundo cyllenius ignis ); he also glossed Avienus s text with quotations from Horace and Theocritus.  \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n .Thomas Gaisford (1779-1855) was Regius Professor of Greek, Curator of the Bodleian Library and Dean of Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"AVIENUS, Rufus Festus.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859634397519,"sku":"L3085","price":25000.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Untitled-1.jpg?v=1781793783"},{"product_id":"ciruelo-pedro","title":"CIRUELO, Pedro.","description":"\u003cp\u003eA very good copy of this fascinating bestseller treatise in defence of  true astrology , against all forms of magical superstition, by the Spanish Pedro Ciruelo. First published in 1537, it was reprinted several times during the 16th century and widely disseminated in Spain. At the time, works on similar topics were commonly composed in Latin: this treatise, written in vernacular to reach a wider audience, is one of the few known examples in Spanish and the most famous of the early 16th century. \u003cbr\u003e\n A mathematician, astrologer and theologian, Pedro S‚àö¬∞nchez Ciruelo (c. 1470-1548) was born in Daroca (Aragon). After obtaining his Master of Arts at the University of Salamanca, he moved to Paris in 1492, where he alternated the teaching of Mathematics with the study of theology. Most of his scholarly production is concerned with creating a corpus of astrological knowledge not in conflict with Christian doctrine: he presented himself as a valid authority on the subject by virtue of his training as a theologian combined with his knowledge of mathematics and astronomy.  Reprobation of superstitions and witchcraft  is Ciruelo s most famous work, defined in the title as a  book necessary for all good Christians . Often mistakenly described as a manual of witchcraft, it is instead aimed to discredit magical practices from a theological and moral point of view. The author encourages proper Catholics and teaches the  ignorant , who are attracted by the fascination of supernatural powers, to avoid superstition and sorcery. \u003cbr\u003e\n Ciruelo discusses all kinds of superstitions known and practiced in his time and talks about people who seek to obtain benefits through illicit means. Interestingly, however, he does not blame them, as the culprit indicated is always the devil. The first book briefly presents the concepts of superstition and witchcraft, while the second is dedicated to condemning all forms of divination, including necromancy, predictive astrology, augury, palmistry, and dream interpretation. In particular, Ciruelo explains the difference between  true  and  false  astrology : the first, licit from the point of view of the Church, is based on the natural effects of the stars on air and water, which can affect weather and human health; the second, which tries to predicts human activities that are related to men s free will and chance, is instead diabolic and superstitious. In the third book on sorcery, the author attacks the use of spoken or written curses, charms and superstitious prayers, denouncing the activities of unofficial healers. He states:  Las palabras no tienen virtud natural , that is,  words have no natural powers . \u003cbr\u003e\n A remarkable edition, beautifully printed and embellished with two charming illustrations. The first, on verso of title page, portrays the scene of the crucifixion and it is surrounded by the text of the antiphon  Nos autem gloriari  (Galatians 6,14), within a decorative border. The second, on the last page, depicts St. Sebastian holding a ribbon banner with the phrase  aparta Se‚àö¬±or tu ira de sobre tu pueblo  and St. Roch with a guardian angel; below, the antiphon  Sancti per fidem vicerunt regna  (Hebrew 11,33).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"CIRUELO, Pedro.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859642491215,"sku":"L3738","price":4750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_9142.jpg?v=1781793748"},{"product_id":"manilius-marcus-with-scaliger-joseph","title":"MANILIUS, Marcus [with] SCALIGER, Joseph.","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst edition published by Joseph Scaliger of this very early didactic poem on astrology by Roman poet Marcus Manilius (1st c. AD). Joseph Scaliger (1540-1609), a French Calvinist and humanist was the first to critically edit Manilius s enigmatic work since the editio princeps published in Nuremberg in 1473 by the astronomer Regiomontanus. The poem is divided into five books and is accompanied by a second part containing Scaliger s extensive commentary as well as astrological diagrams to seven pages. The poem itself demonstrates influence from Lucretius s De rerum natura and describes the zodiac and Roman astrology. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Manilius s identity is shrouded in mystery, as is when he wrote the work. The only historical event explicitly mentioned is the Battle of the Teutoberg Forest, leading scholars to suggest a date in the early-mid 1st century AD. Volk (2009) states that the poem is the earliest surviving extensive and comprehensible work on astronomy and astrology. The five books commence with the origin of the universe and the nature and composition of earth and space. The orbit of planets is discussed in depth as well as each zodiacal sign and birth charts, horoscopes and ascendants. Following this classical myths are used as vehicles for considering celestial phenomena. Stoic, Platonic, Pythagorean and Epicurean views are all present and modern scholars consistently praise the complex and elegant writing style of the poem. Housman (1916) exclaimed that Manilius was  the one Latin poet who excelled even Ovid in verbal point and smartness . \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Scaliger established himself as the preeminent Latin scholar and critic of his day through the publication of this 1579 critical edition. His commentary is essentially a treatise on ancient astronomy and it forms an introduction to his later publication  De emendation temporum  (1583) which sought to expand the contemporary perception of ancient history from just Greeks and Romans to Persians, Babylonians and Egyptians. Indeed, Manilius s identity as a Roman was much debated and questioned; he has been suggested to be an African or Asiatic Greek. Scaliger s edition reintroduced Manilius to the scholarly world and led to many later editions including Boeckler s, Bentley s and Housman s.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MANILIUS, Marcus [with] SCALIGER, Joseph.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859642786127,"sku":"L3661","price":1950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/IMG_2803.jpg?v=1781793748"},{"product_id":"neotechnus-henricus","title":"[NEOTECHNUS, Henricus].","description":"\u003cp\u003eA good copy of this rare collection of six prognostic texts from different authors, edited and commented by the otherwise unknown Henricus Neotechnus,  medicus physicus  (doctor and physician) from Naumburg, Saxony. This is the second edition, the first 1613. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n In this work, Neotechnus gathered a series of texts containing prophecies that were written in Latin and German during the XVI century. In particular, as specified in the title, the prognostications are concerned with  the luck and misfortunes of the high potentates of the (Holy) Roman Empire, the Turks and the Pope . Throughout the volume, Neotechnus frequently includes his own comments and additions to the works of the authors that he quotes, entitling his paragraphs with  Additio H.N.  \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The first section contains the predictions of Johann Carion (1499-1537), court astrologer of Joachim I of Brandeburg and author of various prognostications based on the observation of the planets. His works were popular among the Lutheran circle of Melanchthon and he is famous for having predicted the Protestant Reformation, as well as various apocalyptic events. The second section includes an extract from the prophecies of Jacob Hartmann von Durlach, dated 1538. The third is concerned with a curious text entitled  Prophecy and warning concerning Germany and the House of Saxony, written 300 years ago, found in the library of Nuremberg and sent by Veit Dietrich [German theologian, 1506-1549] to Philip Melanchthon . The fourth section is the largest and most important, as it comprises the famous  Prognosticon Theophrasti Paracelsi . Theophrastus von Hohenheim (1493-1541), commonly known as Paracelsus, was a renowned Swiss physician, alchemist and theologian. This is a collection of 32 cryptic and allegorical prophecies extracted from his works on astrology and divination. Notably, in the pages of the  Prognosticon , Paracelsus predicted a series of events which have been later associated with the Thirty Years  War (1618-1648), contemporary to the time in which Neotechnus was writing. The fifth and sixth sections contain selected predictions by the Italian Antonio Torquato (or Arcoato, end of the XV century) concerning the Turks, and by an anonymous  Mahometic priest  concerning the Turkish Sultan Amurath I. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The ex libris reads  I come from the library of David Tricenarius .  Tricenarius , rather than a surname, can be interpreted as an indication of age, meaning  thirty years old  or  in his thirties .\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"[NEOTECHNUS, Henricus].","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859643670863,"sku":"L3794","price":17500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Untitled-5-copy.jpg?v=1781793743"},{"product_id":"albertus-magnus-pseudo","title":"ALBERTUS MAGNUS, Pseudo.","description":"\u003cp\u003eA remarkable copy of this treatise on human reproduction by Pseudo Albertus Magnus, bound with a 17-page manuscript containing a astronomical text on the principles of chronological computation, apparently for astrological purposes, doubtless inspired by the printed text and an intriguing example of manuscript and print at the time of their transition. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n  Secreta Mulierum  (On women s secrets) was composed in the late 13th or early 14th century by an unknown disciple of Albertus Magnus, the most learned and prolific writer of the Middle Ages. Although scholars proposed the names of Thomas of Brabant or Henry of Saxony, the problem of authorship remains unsolved. The main text is accompanied by, and at times mixed with, a commentary, whose attribution is also debated. Relying on ancient and medieval writings, Pseudo-Albert discusses various aspects of reproduction, including the generation of the embryo, the formation and development of the fetus, the signs of conception, virginity, chastity, defects of the womb, impediments to conception and others. In the introduction, he states that his style will be  partly philosophical, partly medical, just as seems to fit the material . By \"philosophical\" he refers to natural philosophy, or natural science, concerned with the study of the world and cosmos. Although Pseudo-Albert raises a number of medical topics   nature of the menses, birth complications, gestation   his knowledge of medicine is limited. On the other hand, the discussion on natural philosophy is complex and it explores in detail the relationship between human nature, reproduction and celestial bodies. Crucially, the author describes the effects of astrological influence on the developing fetus, also showing how the sphere of the fixed stars confers different virtues: Saturn gives the ability to reason, the Sun to remember, Jupiter grants generosity, Venus causes the separation of hands and feet, the Moon completes the skin.  Vincent of Beauvais and Michael Scot may note some of the celestial effects, but pseudo_Albert addresses himself seriously to the problem of how they come about, and this effort forms the major thrust of his writing. Although the De secretis mulierum names women's secrets as its subject matter, if we weigh the length and the level of discourse we can almost consider this to be an astrological treatise.  (Lemay) \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Renaissance scholars commonly practiced astrology, and the manuscript pages at the end suggest that the early owner of this volume was particularly involved. The text is a  Computus Ecclesiasticus , which discusses solar and lunar cycles in relation to religious festivities and mobile feasts of the ecclesiastical calendar (Julian). In addition to basic knowledge (e.g. what is a lunar cicle), it provides precise instructions on how to calculate ( computare ) dates of feast days, such as  dies dominicales (Sundays). Interestingly, it is arranged around metric formulas that were traditionally used to memorise calculations: here these are underlined in red, and each word corresponds to a number or provides a letter which will be used in the computations. For example, we find  Sed, Quinque, Tred, Ambo, Decem, Doc, Septem, Quind, Quater, Dud, Jota, Novem, Sept VI, Quard , used to calculate the  Golden number  (a number from 1 to 19 which designate the year within the Metonic cycle of the moon phases). We also find:  Bonus erat homo Katho, nobilis quoque Seno , which was employed to calculate the insertion of a leap day, week or year into a calendar and the second part of the manuscript is mostly concerned with this. Learning  computus , the science of calculating times and dates, was fundamental for astrologers. This discipline, used in conjunction with astrolabes to predict the position of the planets (mentioned in the manuscript) and astronomical tables, was used to cast horoscopes, exactly like the one that we find at the beginning of the manuscript. The text was composed by two writers between the end of the 15th and beginning of the 16th century: in a few places, the second updates and annotates the first, including adding  ab anno 1500  and  1501  to his comments.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ALBERTUS MAGNUS, Pseudo.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859643801935,"sku":"L3672","price":22500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L3672-5.jpg?v=1781793743"},{"product_id":"pezel-christoph-with-camerarius-johann-rudolph-and-tanner-adam","title":"PEZEL, Christoph [with] CAMERARIUS, Johann Rudolph [and] TANNER, Adam.","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe elegant armorial binding bears the arms of the French politician, historian and bibliophile Jacques Auguste de Thou (1553-1617) joined with those of his second wife, Gasparde de la Chastre. The monogram contains their initials interlaced. De Thou served Henry III and Henry IV as councillor of state, became director of the royal library in 1593 and president of the Parliament of Paris in 1595. His outstanding library, famous among contemporaries and open to scholars and foreigners, was one of the most important private libraries of the end of the 16th century, for the quality of its content and its size (it contained an estimated number of 9,000 volumes in 1617). Remarkably, for the first time, the volumes were systematically bound in rich armorial bindings, changing according to the marital status of their owner. After de Thou s death, the library was inherited by his son Jacques-Auguste II de Thou in 1642. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The volume contains excellent copies of the first editions of three fascinating works on astrology. The first,  Praecepta genethliaca  is a treatise by the reformed theologian Christoph Pezel (1539-1604). It examines the twelve astrological houses of the horoscope (corresponding to the twelve signs) - with particular focus on the sixth, concerned with illness   and it contains a section on the history of astrology and prediction. The engraved title page, possibly realised by Theodore de Bry or one of his school, has been defined as  one of the most delightful in the early astrological books   Beginning at the upper left and following around counter-clockwise are small vignettes showing first Mars, the planet and the two signs Aries and Scorpio, which it rules; next is Jupiter with the signs Sagittarius and Pisces; then Saturn with Aquarius and Capricorn. Centered below is an interesting heraldic device supported by angels; then comes the Moon with Cancer; followed by Mercury with Gemini and Virgo. At the upper right is Venus with Taurus and Libra. The design at the center above is the Sun accompanied by the sign of Leo.  (Hall) \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The second work is the physician Johann Rudolph Camerarius s (b.1588) attack against false astrologers. It illustrates the principles of the  true science  of astrology through 100 horoscope diagrams identifying the celestial birth coordinates of (mainly German) royal, aristocratic and political figures as well as unknown people who had been his patients and even his own family members. Interesting is the case of two twins who died shortly after birth, in 1606, due to epilepsy. The third work is a collection of five academic  Orationes ,  Disputationes  and  Quaestiones  on astrology, astronomy and superstition, discussed at the University of Ingolstadt in 1514. The academic debates were chaired by the Austrian Jesuit theologian Adam Tanner (1572-1632), author of the first and third orations. The second  oratio  is by the theologian Otho Heinrich Bachmair against judicial astrology, and a  quaestio  by Friedrich Pirchinger discusses whether astronomical phaenomena are to be considered  prodigia . In the final section, the Jesuit philosopher Simon Felix answers negatively to Pirchinger s  quaestio .\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"PEZEL, Christoph [with] CAMERARIUS, Johann Rudolph [and] TANNER, Adam.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859645964623,"sku":"L3712","price":9750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/2-4.jpg?v=1781793736"},{"product_id":"gaurico-luca","title":"GAURICO, Luca.","description":"\u003cp\u003e.Interesting and attractive copy of the first edition of Gaurico s ephemerides. Books of this kind had .wide circulation, but complete copies are rare and sought after. This one, with interesting .contemporary annotations and loosely inserted papers of an early owner, is an outstanding witness of .the 16 th century s great interest and expertise in astrology. .Luca Gaurico (1475-1558) was the astrological consultant of Caterina de  Medici and  one of the .greatest astrologers of all time  (Cantamessa). Born to a to a poor family of Gauro (Kingdom of .Naples), Gaurico taught at the Universities of Bologna and Ferrara. He was exiled and tortured by the .ruler of Bologna, Giovanni II Bentivoglio, dissatisfied with the astrologer s prophecies about his .destiny. Gaurico predicted the papacy of Alessandro Farnese, Pope Paul III, who welcomed him in .Rome as his personal astrologer and made him  table companion , knight and later bishop. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n . Ephemerides recognitae  contains the ephemerides for the years 1534-1551. These are detailed tables .listing the predicted positions of stars and planets at regular intervals of date and time in the future, as .well as the occurrence of eclipses. The numerical data was used by astrologers to compile birth charts .(like the one sketched in ink on a loosely inserted piece of paper) and formulate predictions. Similar .tables were also used by navigators to determine their position using celestial bodies or stars. An .initial section contains preliminary notions of astronomy and mathematics, including tables of .longitude and latitude of various cities, two large diagrams of the winds and more horoscope .examples. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n .At the half of the 16th century, this volume belonged to  Francesco Benci and his friends . From the .contemporary manuscript notes, it appears that these included high-profile individuals from Perugia, .Foligno and Camerino (Umbria, Italy). He can be identified with the Florentine Francesco Benci, .treasurer of Perugia in 1542. Benci himself, and possibly some of his friends, used the ephemeris .tables in this volume as if they were calendars, annotating all sorts of important events in the blank .margins. These include religious festivities, the conclave in 1549, the birth of the twins of Margaret of .Parma and Ottavio Farnese (dukes of Camerino) in 1545, a meeting between Pope Paul III and Holy .Roman Emperor Charles V in 1543. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n .Frequently mentioned is  Franciscus Jacobillus Fulgineo : likely Francesco Jacobilli Senior (1510-.1575), the most prominent member of the noble Jacobilli family of Foligno and vice-treasurer of .Perugia in 1542. He was a close friend of Francesco Benci, who recorded the dates of birth of .Jacobilli s sons and family members. Loosely inserted is a short message to Benci from Silvestro .Lucarello (or Lucarelli), astrologer of Camerino and author of a  Prognosticon , a book of prophecies .published in 1524. In the message, Silvestro asks Francesco to lend him his copy of Regiomontano s . Tabulae directionum , a volume of trigonometric tables designed for astrologers.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"GAURICO, Luca.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859649306959,"sku":"L3916","price":3750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/2021-09-23-13.51.45.jpg?v=1781793726"},{"product_id":"fine-oronce-5","title":"FINE, Oronce","description":"\u003cp\u003eBeautifully printed first edition, of this rare treatise on astrology by one of the most influential mathematical teachers of his time. The work is essentially concerned with the twelve houses of the zodiac and their interpretation for judicial astrology. “Oronce Fine (1494–1555), a French mathematician from the Dauphiné, is chiefly known to historians of science for having been the first to teach mathematics as a royal lecturer within the institution founded by François I in March 1530, but also for his work as a cartographer, as a designer and maker of mathematical instruments, as well as an engraver and an editor of scientific books. .. A central role was attributed to astronomy within Fine’s mathematical teaching program, since the Cosmographia, sive mundi sphaera.  (However) .. it would be reasonable to think that Fine also viewed his editorial work on Sacrobosco’s Sphaera as a contribution to the training of astrologers, to help them learn how to calculate the positions of planets in relation to the zodiacal signs and the celestial houses, an activity in which he himself engaged as a court astrologer and which he later promoted through the publication of the ‘Canons des ephemerides’ 1543 and the De duodecim caeli domiciliis 1553. These works respectively deal with the art of producing almanacs (including their astrological features) and with the division of the celestial houses and of the planetary hours necessary to the casting of horoscopes. Fine also published in 1529 an Almanach novum aimed to help produce elections in the context of medicine, church duties, banking, and many other important functions. ..(the second part of the present work) considers the distinction between the equal and the unequal hours that divide artificial days and nights according to the latitude of the viewer and shows how to calculate the length of unequal hours for the latitude of Paris, as well as how to reduce unequal hours to equal hours and vice versa. Fine also explained at this occasion the correspondence between the planets (and their rising in the first hour of the artificial day) and the names of the days of the week (Saturn on Saturday, the sun on Sunday, etc.), which he represented through a little table also indicating the planets ruling the first hour of the night, as well as the means to determine the planets ruling the other planetary hours for any day of the week.” Angela Axworthy. “Oronce Fine and Sacrobosco: From the Edition of the Tractatus de sphaera (1516) to theCosmographia (1532).”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eA handsome copy of this rare astrological work.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"FINE, Oronce","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859650650447,"sku":"L3914","price":2950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L3914-1.jpg?v=1781793722"},{"product_id":"pliny-2","title":"PLINY","description":"\u003cp\u003eHandsome second edition of Philemon Holland s immensely popular English translation of Pliny s Natural History. .Pliny the Elder (23-79AD) was an administrator for Emperor Vespasian and a prolific author. The  Historia  is a masterful encyclopaedia of theoretical and applied natural sciences detailing all that was known in these fields in the first century AD. Based on hundreds of Greek and Latin sources, its ten books introduce the reader to astronomical questions like the nature of the moon and its distance from the earth; pharmacopoeia, ointments and herbal remedies; natural phenomena including rains of stones; world geography and the ethnographic study of remote  gentes mirabiles ;  extraordinary peoples , descriptions of all animal and tree species, wild and domesticated; horticulture from cultivation to the treatment of plant mutations and illnesses; metals and gold mining; mineralogy and pigments for painting. \u003cbr\u003e\n \u003cbr\u003e\nPhilemon Holland was an English schoolmaster and one of the most famed Elizabethan translators of the classics. He brought the works of Livy, Suetonius and Plutarch as well as Pliny the Elder to a wider, English speaking audience. The present was first published in 1601 and was dedicated to Sir Robert Cecil, the prominent statesman and favourite of Elizabeth I. The most popular of Holland's translations, it was published again in this 1634 edition. Prior to Holland s translation, it had never been printed in English, and would not be again for another 250 years. Indeed, even after four centuries,  Holland is still the only translator of this work to attempt to evoke its literary richness and beauty\" (ODNB).\u003cbr\u003e\n \u003cbr\u003e\n The importance of Pliny lay not so much that he was an inexhaustible source for monsters, eclipses, and the stranger habits of all created things, but that in the pages of Philemon Holland s translation Shakespeare found that emphasis on Nature which he employed and re-interpreted in the tragedy  (Evans, The Language of Shakespeare s Plays).\u003cbr\u003e\n \u003cbr\u003e\n Over and over again it will be found that the source of some ancient piece of wisdom is Pliny.  (Printing and the Mind of Man, 5).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"PLINY","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859652288847,"sku":"L3588","price":9500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L3588-2.jpg?v=1781793722"},{"product_id":"najera-antonio-de-1","title":"NAJERA, Antonio de.","description":"\u003cp\u003e.A good, clean copy of this scarce work, in Spanish, on weather prediction based on planetary observations the first astrological primer printed in Portugal. The Castilian Antonio de Najera (fl. C17), of whom little is known, was a cosmographer in Portugal, a skilled mathematician, and the author of works on navigation and astrology.  The lack of printed astrological manuals in the Portuguese and even in the Spanish languages in the early decades of the C17 made almanacs [ reportorios ] the main source for astrological knowledge for those who could not read Latin.   The reportorios were a genre somewhere in between a specialist ephemeris and a basic popular almanac.   The combination of the common language, popularity, and astrological doctrine made the reportorios of particular concern for the inquisition because of the wider range of readership  (Ribeiro, 64).  Summa astrologica  berates weather prognostications in such almanacs, produced by  ignorant  astrologers and  charlatans . It defends instead the value of  correct  judicial astrology in answer to the accusations of vagueness and uncertainty moved by science. This Najera opposes incorrect predictions,  which are made without method, without science; which defy current knowledge, and utter, like gipsies, vain and monstrous things, in order to charm the people, who will believe them to be oracles . Prognostications properly done, and their ancient tradition, he believes most important, the correct knowledge of meteorological phenomena being necessary for agriculture, farming, navigation and travel on land, and conducive to good government. The first part introduces the movements and influence of planets, their qualities in relation to the zodiac, the latter s properties in relation to the sun and fixed stars, and the celestial position of some fixed stars (calculated for Lisbon using Tycho Brahe s observations for the year 1632).  The work appears to be intended for readers who already know astrology, as shown by the fact that Najera does not show how to produce a horoscope  (Cantamessa). The second part explains how to create predictions through a study of eclipses, the time of the year and lunar phases, following Ptolemy s theories. It also examines the movement of the air, and the weather accidents it causes, following the doctrines of Albumazar, Alkindo and Messalach. The final part is devoted to specific weather phenomena, including snow, hail, wind, tempests, lightning, earthquakes and flooding. Scarce.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"NAJERA, Antonio de.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859657990479,"sku":"L3984","price":2250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L3984-4.jpg?v=1781793706"},{"product_id":"gerard-of-cremona","title":"GERARD of Cremona.","description":"\u003cp\u003eVery curious French ms on astrology and numerology – a late C17 astrologer’s compendium of several works, medieval and modern. The ms ‘1699’ within a few horoscopes may suggests a date for composition. The first half is a selection from the influential ‘Geomancie astronomique’ by the Italian astrologer and physician Gherardo da Sabbioneta’s (fl. early C13). He was often mistaken for the great translator from the Arabic, Gerard of Cremona (fl. C12); in 1662, when it was first published in French, ‘Geomancie’ was attributed to the latter. Geomancy is the art of divination through the interpretation of random patterns or markings obtained by tossing soil or other materials randomly; numerology, or arithmancy, assigns numerical values to words or letters for divination purposes. This ‘fine work’ shows how the Geomantic characters – the 16 figures of geomancy, each representing a different state of the world – can be treated astrologically’ (Gardner, ‘Bib. Astr.’, 502). There are minor variations here from the first printed edition (1662), in phrasing and content; the section excluded, e.g., referring to kings, bishops, etc., were probably irrelevant to the writer. The detailed workings and aspects of the 12 Houses and the 7 Planets are first explained, then applied to everyday problems such as how to tell whether a woman is pregnant, an illness will turn for the better or worse, a war will last long, or whether a traveller will make a safe return. Halfway through the source of the ms changes to Peruchio’s ‘La chiromance, la physionomie et la geomance’ (1657). Thence the scribe copied a charming engraving showing correspondences between astrological and geomantic symbols, and their effects, as well as, with slight variations, a diagram applying the geomantic figures to the days of the weeks and the planets. There follows a section on ‘judgements by figures’, matching the 16 geomantic symbols with interpretations, e.g., ‘la figure du chemin’ denotes travel, the prison figure denotes external ailments, etc. A large table summarises the text with judgements applied to family members, health, voyages, etc. The final part returns to Gerard’s ‘Geomancie’, with rules for divination using the alphabet with various strings of numbers, for specific questions, e.g., which of two men shall win a contest.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe early owner was doubtless an astrologer. Whilst we have not traced the abandoned castle where this ms was allegedly found, Plouvorn suggests a Breton provenance. Considering that both Gerard’s and Peruchio’s are now scarce, they probably had a low print-run and were hard to get hold of outside Paris. This copy was also in the library of the C20 Breton illusionist and historian of magic Fanch Guillemin.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"GERARD of Cremona.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859666084175,"sku":"L4020","price":2950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_8852.jpg?v=1781793690"},{"product_id":"aleandro-hieronymus","title":"ALEANDRO, Hieronymus.","description":"\u003cp\u003e.A very good, unsophisticated copy, in contemporary binding, of the first edition of this most interesting, beautifully illustrated work on the interpretation of the Tabula Heliaca and ancient solar cults. Nephew of his namesake the Vatican librarian under Leo X and secretary to Cardinal Barberini, the antiquarian Girolamo Aleandro the Younger (1574-1629) was inspired to write this commentary on the symbolism of the Tabula Heliaca after seeing the marble tablet, with a symbolic depiction of the sun god Mithras, at the Roman house of Asdrubale Mattei. His interest in Mithraic cults led him to correspond with Peiresc. Aleandro studied the tablet s  symbolic theology  in relation to  the original unity of god under the image of the sun  ( sol invictus ), which he linked to the four original elements and the origin of the world (Hafner, p.112). The sundry sections of the work discuss solar deities   the Sun with rays around his head, Apollo, Bacchus, Hercules, Mercurius, Encarpus and Lyra   using dozens of famous and obscure ancient Greek and Latin sources. Aleandro mentions that such tablets were found in stacks at ancient crossroads, compares the sun iconography of the Tabula to that of ancient coins and gemstone signets (illustrated), and connects its interpretation to the four Apollinean arts, the four elements, the four ages of the world and the four seasons. The handsome larger illustrations show the Tabula Heliaca, as well as a marble tablet preserved in Rome with Apollo, Mercurius and a young Bacchus astride a goat, and another (to which the appendix is dedicated) showing 5 ancient figures with zodiac signs, which Aleandro saw at the Padua house of Paolo Gualdo. A learned, elegantly printed work.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ALEANDRO, Hieronymus.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859667886415,"sku":"L3837a","price":2250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L3837a-1.jpg?v=1781793686"},{"product_id":"nostradamus-michel-de-1","title":"NOSTRADAMUS, Michel de.","description":"\u003cp\u003eCharming popular edition of the prophecies of Nostradamus printed by Pierre Chevillot, in imitation of the earliest editions, here without date. This edition supposedly derives from a manuscript given by the author’s nephew Michael Nostradamus to the editor Vincent Sève, bringing the text up to date from 1597. All other editions of Nostradumus’ centuries produced by Chevillot at Troyes were published between 1605 and 1629 and the first title bears the arms of Louis XIII who acceded to the throne in 1610. The first part contains the famous dedication to his son and the second to Henry II. The work was originally published in three parts, the first containing 353 verses. The second part was printed in 1557 and added 289 further prophecies; the third and final part of 300 new verses was printed in 1558, posthumously. These rhymed quatrains were grouped into nine sets of 100 and one of 42, called “Centuries”. Nostradamus claimed each prediction was based upon his astrological reading of particular events, though it is evident that a great deal is copied from earlier Latin authors such as Livy, Plutarch and other classical historians and many taken from Richard Roussat’s Livre de l’estat et mutations des temps (1549–1550). The Mirabilis Liber of 1522, which contained a wide range of prophecies by Pseudo-Methodius, the Tiburtine Sibyl, Joachim of Fiore, Savonarola and others was also a well used source. His considerable initial success was based on the fact that he was one of the first to re-paraphrase these prophecies in French. Further material was gleaned from the De honesta disciplina of 1504 by Petrus Crinitus, which included extracts from Michael Psellos’s De daemonibus, and the De Mysteriis Aegyptiorum, a book on Chaldean and Assyrian magic by Iamblichus, a fourth-century Neo-Platonist. Most of the quatrains deal with disasters, such as plagues, earthquakes, wars, floods, invasions, murders, droughts, and battles—all undated and based on foreshadowings by the Mirabilis Liber.  The work was remarkably popular and has been reprinted over two hundred times since its first appearance. Popular modern interpretations of the quatrains have shown them to predict the French Revolution, Napoleon, Hitler, the nuclear destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and even the death of princess Diana and the events of 9\/11. An important contemporary theme was fear of an impending invasion of Europe by Muslim forces, headed by the expected Antichrist, directly reflecting the Ottoman invasions of the Balkans. The work was published within the context of a general fear of an imminent apocalypse. A rare and charming popular edition.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"NOSTRADAMUS, Michel de.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868670632271,"sku":"L3789","price":2750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/IMG_1191-copy.jpg?v=1781793664"},{"product_id":"falkener-michael","title":"FALKENER, Michael.","description":"\u003cp\u003e.Second recorded copy of the second edition (all extremely scarce) of this important astrological treatise printed in Krakow. Michael Falkener (c1450-1534) was an astronomer and astrologer from Wroclaw, who taught at the Krakow Academy. His classes in logic and astronomy were fundamental for the theories of his most famous student, Nicolaus Copernicus. In the 1490s, Falkener produced some of the earliest and best almanacs and prognostications in Poland. 'Introductorium  begins with the characteristics of the Zodiac signs, specifying which body part or European city (especially Polish ones) each sign presides over. There follows a section on the nature, character and properties of the planets, with several astrological tables.  Particularly interesting is the part in which Falkener deals with the aspects of the planets, as he uses references both to the fate of the subjects and their nature (behaviour). Also interesting are the attribution of the meanings of the transits of the Moon into different zodiac signs, rarely present in astrological tracts  (Cantamessa). The second part provides theoretical sections on topics typically found in almanacs and prognostications: the calculation of the best days for phlebotomy and bloodletting (according to the patient s weight, overall health, etc.), the administration of medicaments, the planting of trees and crops, and meteorology (thunder, wind and rain). Attractively printed, important and very scarce. .\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"FALKENER, Michael.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868684034383,"sku":"L4239","price":45000.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L4239-3.jpg?v=1781793474"},{"product_id":"della-porta-giovan-battista-1","title":"DELLA PORTA, Giovan Battista.","description":"\u003cp\u003eSecond vernacular edition of this handsomely illustrated, veiled defence of astrology. A scholar of natural sciences, the Neapolitan Giovan Battista della Porta (1535-1615) published extensively on subjects including agriculture, cryptography, meteorology and chemistry, and was at the centre of a wide scholarly network including Galileo. For his interest in  judicial  astrology - not strictly concerned with heretical, occult questions, but with natural science, medicine and meteorology - he founded the Academia Secretorum Naturae. Due to his theorisation of magic as an instrument for the understanding of natural phenomenology, he was investigated by the Inquisition in the mid-1580s.  Della celeste fisionomia - first published in Latin in 1603 and in the vernacular in 1614 - was a fake attack against the  imaginary  discipline of astrology which the author had apparently repudiated after being warned by the Church. Through theories drawn from ancient and medieval authorities and under the pretence of dismissing the discipline in its entirety, della Porta rejected only the foundations of traditional astrology. He provided instead a different astrological theory according to which earthly bodies were dependent on the nature and mixing of their constitutive four humours in relation to planets and not simply on the domination of planets tout court. He illustrated the influence of the humours on human temperament and physical state - e.g., the  unhappy  Saturnine (phlegmatic) constitution caused a melancholic disposition and illnesses including epilepsy, leprosy and kidney infections. Only if grounded in this theory could astrological prognostication based on the analysis of appearance and disposition be correct. Most interesting is his connection between human and animal physiognomy in the zodiac - with Aries causing a hairy appearance and Taurus a broad forehead - and the way in which predictions could proceed from physical traits like moles, build and height.  ..Kurt Seligmann (1900-62) was a Swiss-American Surrealist artists and occultist, and a collector of rare books on the occult.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"DELLA PORTA, Giovan Battista.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868708643151,"sku":"L2025","price":1950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/20250213_153727-copy.jpg?v=1781793423"},{"product_id":"rosselli-cosimo","title":"ROSSELLI, Cosimo.","description":"\u003cp\u003e.First edition of this fascinating and wonderfully illustrated treatise on memory, utilising visual aids including Heaven, Hell, and the celestial spheres   illustrating a memory system inspired by Dante s Divine Comedy   anatomical and zoological illustrations, and tables of contemporary objects and rebuses, as well as Persian and Hebrew alphabets, and an alphabetical sign language employing the hands. The author was a Dominican friar from Florence who died the year before this work, apparently his only output, was published. This copy has been extensively annotated by a contemporary, likely monastic reader, including four alphabetical memory lists, of ecclesiastical dignities, place names, body parts and corporeal qualities, and instruments and apparatuses... . \u003cbr\u003e\n. \u003cbr\u003e\n..The Ars memoriae or art of memory has a history stretching to antiquity; the Greek poet Simonides is supposed to have invented it to memorise poems. Aristotle wrote extensively on memory, which the medieval scholastics understood as necessary for comprehension by the intellect and a useful tool for use in disputations. The Renaissance humanists, similarly, via Cicero and Quintilian, understood memoria as one of the five crucial parts of rhetoric. Rosselli s work precedes the most famous Renaissance works of memory, by the Italian polymath Giordano Bruno (1548-1600), by several years. Bruno s earliest book of memory, De umbris idearum, published in 1582, included a Dantesque vision of Hell, the celestial and terrestrial orders, and Heaven. Both Dominicans, Rosselli and Bruno were participating in a tradition of memory treatises associated with the religious order, the earliest being Johannes Romberch s Congestorium artificiosae memoriae of 1520, which also contained a Dantesque mnemonic system. . \u003cbr\u003e\n. \u003cbr\u003e\n..Rosselli begins with a prose description of Hell, accompanied by mnemonic Latin epigrams and quatrains by a fellow Dominican who was also an Inquisitor,  giving an impressive air of great orthodoxy to the artificial memory  (Frances Yates, The Art of Memory (London: 1966), p. 122). Hell is illustrated with a superb woodcut (C4r) showing Lucifer in the centre surrounded by concentric circles of heretics, Jews, idolators, hypocrites, those guilty of the seven deadly sins, all encompassed by the river Styx, various Limbos, and Purgatory.  As Rosselli cheerfully observes,  the variety of punishments, inflicted in accordance with the diverse nature of the sins, the different situations of the damned, their varying gestures, will much help memory and give many loci  (Yates, p. 122). This is accompanied by descriptions with woodcut illustrations of the celestial and terrestrial spheres, and of Paradise or the Heavenly Jerusalem, the latter illustrated with a woodcut (K1v, duplicated N3r) showing Cherubim and Seraphim, the Tree and Fountain of Life, the Throne of Christ, Seat of the Virgin, and regions inhabited by children, Hebrew saints, martyrs, virgins, angels, princes, etc. The remainder consists of lists and sub-lists, often alphabetised: planets, the zodiac signs and months of the year; precious stones, gems and minerals derived from Albertus Magnus; animals, including those that live underground, quadrupeds, birds and insects, etc.; trees and plants, including fruit, gum, legumes and common names for herbs; the names of artificers and workmen; and ancient philosophers and thinkers, physicians and poets.. \u003cbr\u003e\n. \u003cbr\u003e\n..The contemporary reader (or readers) of this copy employed an elegant script possibly in two iterations, one of which is miniscule and barely legible. Evidently returning to the book on several occasions (see different tones of ink), they frequently corrected the woodcuts, headers and content of the book, and cross-referenced its various sections. The annotator using miniscule script extensively glossed Rosselli s lists of philosophers and gemstones, while the main annotator, in large script, not only added to the author s lists and annotated the woodcut tables, but also created their own alphabetical lists for memorisation. These are of ecclesiastical benefices; learned positions such as orator, jurisconsultus, etc.;  corporeal qualities  such as gibbosus, obesus, splendidus, etc.; and a fascinating and extensive list of hundreds of words, spreading over several pages, of  various instruments,  apparatuses, buildings, materials, tools, body parts, etc., apparently demonstrating some extremely obscure Latin vocabulary, and including baptisterium, candelabrum, enchiridion, forceps, membrana, refrigeratorium, tormentum, vinum album, xystus (colonnade) and zythus (a kind of liquor)..\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ROSSELLI, Cosimo.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868722962767,"sku":"L4299","price":3950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/titlepage-1.png?v=1781793338"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/collections\/Screenshot_2026-06-12_at_6.05.23_PM.png?v=1781284207","url":"https:\/\/sokol-books-ltd.myshopify.com\/collections\/astrology.oembed","provider":"Sokol Books Ltd","version":"1.0","type":"link"}