Astrology in Medieval Manuscripts

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Summary: Birth Star
Review: Astrology says what happens above causes what happens below. One of its best known parts are horoscopes. They've been around for quite awhile. From ancient Babylonia and Egypt of about 2,500 years ago, they then passed into ancient Greece. The Greeks made a philosophy and science out of them. Later Arabic astrological manuscripts showed up in Islamic Spain. At that time, the rest of Europe mainly had astronomical manuscripts written and illustrated by monks, for keeping the Christian calendar.

Physicians ended up with some manuscripts too. They had to know when to bleed, do surgery, and give medicine. By law in many European countries, they had to know where the moon was during bleeding or operating. Certain moon days were good. Certain zodiac signs controlled certain body parts. Physicians weren't to bleed or operate when the moon was in the sign linked with the affected body part.

For all this, physicians used the sphere of life and death, from manuscripts. Each letter of the patient's name stood for a number. They were all added to the number of the moon day when the patient became sick. If then dividing by 30 fell in the part of the table under the Christlife figure, the patient lived. If under Satandeath, the patient died. Priests needed to know this too, for last rites.

Key court people also had to get along with both kinds of astrologers, mundane and judicial. Mundane astrologers told how general events and the weather would go. Comets and eclipses were supposed to come before a king died or war took place.

Judicial astrologers used birth charts showing what was where, above, when a person was born. They then figured out character, course of life, and when and how of death. It was particularly nerve-wracking to work this out for kings. In fact, in the 15th century two clerks and a noblewoman were accused of using astrology and magic to bring about a royal death. Their horoscope only showed that King Henry V of England might get sick. But Roger Bolingbroke was executed. The Duchess of Gloucester got life imprisonment. Thomas Southwell died in jail.

Over the next half dozen centuries, astrology lost out to astronomy. The kicker came with the astronomical theory that the earth wasn't the center of the world. Now astrology's staying power is as entertainment or as a way to guess the future.

So Sophie Page's ASTROLOGY IN MEDIEVAL MANUSCRIPTS is a good overview. It leads into Abu Mashar et al's THE ABBREVIATION TO THE INTRODUCTION OF ASTROLOGY and Edward S Kennedy's ASTRONOMY & ASTROLOGY IN THE MEDIEVAL ISLAMIC WORLD.