GERARD of Cremona.

£2,950 · Offered by Sokol Books

Very 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 th

• Binding: Hardcover

Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.