Abstract
Who were the astrologers of medieval England, and where did they come from? What books did they read and where did they find them? Providing answers to these questions is the work of this chapter. In the Middle Ages, astrology was a literary and scholarly activity, dependent on the authority of written words and supposedly ancient authors, and on books. I have made the assumption that the best way to find English astrologers and their clients is to look for their books. Combining the evidence provided both by surviving books and contemporary library catalogues as to the age, provenance and overall distribution of books on astrology, their owners, donors and readers, it is possible to build up a topography, albeit a partial view, of the evolution of a class of English astrologers in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
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Notes
N. R. Ker, Medieval Libraries of Great Britain: A list of surviving books, 2nd ed. (London, 1964) p. xi.
See, for example, C. H. Josten, Elias Ashmole 1617–1692, 5 vols (Oxford, 1966);
M. R. James, ‘Manuscripts formerly owned by Dr John Dee’, Transactions of the Bibliographical Society Supplement 1 (1921). A. G. Watson, The manuscripts of Henry Savile of Banke (London, 1969).
Lynn Thorndike and Pearl Kibre, A Catalogue of Medieval Scientific Writings in Latin, rev. ed. (London, 1963) Addenda: Speculum 40 (1965) 116–122; 43 (1968) 78–114.
Thorndike, History of Magic. Also Thorndike’s many articles, usually describing particular MSS. There is a bibliography of Thorndike’s writings from 1905–52 in Osiris 11 (1954) 8–22; C. H. Haskins, Studies in the History of Mediaeval Science, 8 vols (New York and London, 1923–58).
Catalogus codicum astrologorum graecorum. F. Foil, F. Cumont, G. Kroll et al. 11 vols (Lamertin, Bruxelles, 1898–1912).
F. J. Carmody, Arabic Astronomical and Astrological Sciences in Latin Translation. A critical bibliography, (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1956).
H. S. Bennett, ‘Science and Information in English Writings of the Fifteenth Century’, Modern Language Review 39 (1944) 1–8. The updating of Wells’ Manual of the Writings in Middle English 1050–1400 by A. E. Hartung et al. has not yet reached Middle English scientific writings.
R. M. Wilson, ‘The Contents of the Mediaeval Library’, in The English Library before 1700, ed. Francis Wormald and C. E. Wright (London, 1958) p. 103.
DNB. Lelandi de rebus Britannicis Collectanea ed. T. Hearne (Oxford, 1715; 2nd ed. 1774). Vol. III of the first edition, which contains lists of manuscripts, is equivalent to Vol. IV of the second edition.
M. R. James, The Ancient Libraries of Canterbury and Dover (Cambridge, 1903).
M. R. James, ‘The Catalogue of the Library of the Augustinian Friars at York’, Fasciculus Joanni Willis Clark dicatus (Cambridge, 1909) pp. 2–96. The instruments listed on p. 61 are: 1. Horologium auricalcium; 2. Astrolabium cum 7 laminis; 3. Quadrans prefacii iudei; 4. Spera auricalcia; 5. Cloke eneum; 6. Astrolabium.
Catalogue of the Library of Syon Monastery ed. Mary Bateson (Cambridge, 1898). Syon had twelve books on astrology and astronomy, of which Steyke left six, out of a total of 1421. Steyke’s astrological books in the sixteenth century catalogue are as follows: B45 Tabule equacionum planetarum B46 Haly Abenragel, De iudiciis astrorum B47 Ptolemy, Quadripartitum with commentary by Haly B48 Guido Bonatti, De iudiciis astrorum B49 Albumasar, De nativitatibus Note also B16, Regule quedam astronomie, presented by John Bracebridge, c.1428.
Alfonso Sammut, Unfredo duca di Gloucester e gli umanisti Italani (Padua, 1980) Medioevo e Umanisimo 41.
For a fifteenth-century catalogue of some 367 books given to All Souls’ after 1440 by Chichele, including twenty-one astronomia, see E. F. Jacob, ‘Two Lives of Archbishop Chichele’, Bull. John Rylands Libr. xvi (1932) 469–81.
Arthur F. Leach, ‘Wykeham’s Books at New College’, Oxford His. Soc. Collectanea III (1896) 211–44. A number of other books on astronomy were added to the library after Wykeham’s original bequest. See ibid., p. 244.
Wykeham’s Register, ed. T. F. Kirby, 2 vols (London, 1896–9) II, 382–4. Wykeham wrote in a letter dated 20 May 1386 to the then Master insisting that Masters of Arts should, without further delay, apply themselves to their studies in the faculty of theology or astrology, referring to Rubric xxvi of the founder’s statutes. Cited by Kirby, p. 383 n.1.
This is true for the Oxford colleges of Durham and Lincoln. For lists of books sent from Durham in 1315, c.1400, and 1409, see H. E. D. Blakiston, Oxf. Hist. Soc. Collectanea III (1896) 36–41. In c. 1390–1400 a list of 109 books sent to the college contains some philosophy as well as theology. See ‘Catalogue of the Books of Durham College, Oxford, c. 1390–1400’, ed. by W. E. Pantin in H. E. Salter, Formularies c.1204–1420 vol. I Oxford Hist. Society, n.s., IV (1942) 240–45. The charter of foundation of Lincoln College aimed at the formation of theologians, not lawyers. See R. Weiss, ‘The earliest Catalogues of the Library of Lincoln College’, Bodl. Quart. Rec. 8 (1937), p. 346.
W. A. Pantin, Canterbury College, Oxford, Oxford Hist. Soc. n.s.6 (1947) no. 36.
Ibid. fol. 50v. For prognostics of this kind, and of illness by the age of the moon or the day of the week, see M. Förster in Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen, cxxix.30–36, cxxviii.296–308, cxx.296–301. Cited by Ker, Medieval Manuscripts in British Libraries; I London (Oxford, 1969) p. 208.
Emden BRUO, p. 644. Aubrey Gwynn, The English Austin Friars (London, 1940) pp. 129–38.
T. Wright, Political Poems and Songs (London, 1859–61) R.S. I, 123–215.
For Ergum’s library see M. R. James, ‘The Catalogue of the Library of the Augustinian Friars at York’, in Fasciculus loanni Willis Clark dicatus (Cambridge, 1919) 2–96. Nos. 597–646 belonged to Ergum.
Cal Close Roll (1435–41) p. 349. For Richard Monk see G. V. Coyne (ed.) Gregorian Reform of the Calendar (Vatican, 1983).
For Bacon’s reputation see A. G. Molland, ‘Roger Bacon as a Magician’, Traditio 30 (1974) 445–60.
For Somer see A. G. Little, Grey Friars in Oxford (Oxford, 1892) Oxf. Hist. Soc. 20, pp. 244–5; Emden BRUO p. 1727.
C. H. Talbot, Medicine in Medieval England (London, 1967) pp. 68–70.
The evidence for the teaching of astronomy/astrology in the thirteenth century is assembled by Pearl Kibre, ‘The quadrivium in the 13th-century Universities’, pp. 175–97. The evidence for the later period is discussed in a full and careful article by Richard Lemay, ‘The teaching of Astronomy in Medieval Universities principally at Paris in the Fourteenth Century’, Manuscripta 20 (1976) 197–217.
Carlo Malagola, Statuti delle Universita e dei College dello Studio Bolognese (Bologna, 1881) p. 276, trans,
and summarised by Lynn Thorndike, University Records and Life in the Middle Ages (New York, 1971) 1st pub. 1944, pp. 279–82.
Lemay, ‘The teaching of astronomy’, pp. 199–200 and esp. 204–6. See also Rashdall’s Mediaeval Universities edd. F. M. Powicke and A. B. Emden (Oxford, 1936) I, pp. 238, 243, 248–9 for astrology in medieval universities.
Receuil des plus célèbres astrologues et quelque hommes doctes faict par Symon de Phares du temps de Charles VIII, ed. Ernest Wickersheimer (Paris, 1929). For Symon’s description of the foundation of the college ibid. p. 228. He also gives two inventories of the college’s collection of instruments, ibid. pp. 4, 288. Cited by Lemay, pp. ‘The teaching of astronomy’, pp. 200–1.
Lemay, ibid, pp. 206–9. Lynn Thorndike, ‘The Study of Mathematics and Astronomy in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries as Illustrated by Three MSS’, Scripta Mathematica 23 (1957) 65–76.
James A. Weisheipl, ‘Curriculum of the Faculty of Arts at Oxford in the early fourteenth century’, Mediaeval Studies 26 (1964) 143–85; ‘Developments in the Arts Curriculum at Oxford in the Early Fourteenth Century’, Medieval Studies 28 (1966) 151–75.
See for example the questions indexed by Palémon Glorieux, La Littérature Quodlibétique de 1260 à 1320, 2 vols (Paris, 1925–35).
See for comparison: Oxford, Bod. Lib. MS Canon misc. 191, fol. 1: ‘Questiones octo astrologicae alieque, sciliciter, 1. Utrum quis possit astrorum vera loca iudicare, et subinde futura previdere, ubi velit, etc.’ Oxford, MS Corpus Christi College 116, fol. 1: ‘Disputationes et suppositions quorundam Inceptorum in Artibus Oxoniensium, in physics et logicis. Inc., ‘Utrum a speris celestibus continue mutabilibus motu circulare luminosis radiis.’ For a question of the Oxford theologian, William Woodford, ‘Is it due to fate or to the stars whether we are good or bad?’, in which Woodford cautiously opposes the view of Thomas Bradwardine, see J. I. Catto, ‘William Woodford, O.F.M. (C.1330–C.1397)’ (Oxford, 1970) MS D. Phil. d. 4877, p. 116.
E. F. Jacob, ‘Two lives of Archbishop Chichele’ , Bull. John Rylands Lib. 16 (1932) Appendix, pp. 477–80 includes the items on astronomy. Most of the books seem to have been collected by Chichele himself. There are sixteen astronomia, perspectiva and geometria, four geomancia and four other works on occult disciplines.
Alfonso Sammut, Unfredo duca di Gloucester e gli umanisti Italiani (Padua, 1980) Medioevo e Umanismo 41, pp. 68–9.
Sammut, Unfredo di Gloucester pp. 115–116 no. 26; Roberto Weiss, ‘Portrait of a bibliophile XI. Humphrey, duke of Gloucester d. 1447’, The Book Collector 13 (1964), p. 164. The manuscript was copied in Oxford in 1423 by the scribe Frederick Naghel of Utrecht. In 1577 it was owned by John Dee.
See M. J. Barber, ‘The Books and Patronage of Learning of a 15th Century Prince’, The Book Collector 12 (1963), 312; Amundesham. Annales Monasteri S. Albani, ed. H. T. Riley, R.S. no. 28, II 256.
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© 1992 Hilary M. Carey
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Carey, H.M. (1992). The Astrologers: Books, Libraries and Scholars. In: Courting Disaster. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-21800-4_3
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