ASTROLOGY

['Zadkiel' (Richard James Morrison, ' the most famous astrologer of Victorian times').] Ten-year run of ‘Zadkiel’s Almanac’, 1851 to 1860.

Author: 
'Zadkiel', i.e. Richard James Morrison (1795-1874), 'the most famous astrologer of Victorian times'; Zadkiel’s Almanac, London
Publication details: 
1851 to 1860; London. 1851 and 1852 published by Hall & Co.; 1853 and 1854 by Piper Brothers & Co.; 1855 to 1858 by Piper, Stephenson & Spence; 1859 and 1860 by George Berger.
£450.00

Morrison’s entry in the Oxford DNB describes him as ‘the most famous astrologer of Victorian times’. The present nonce-collection contains ten yearly issues of ‘Zadkiel’s Almanac’, in workmanlike black-cloth binding. Some of the outer leaves heavily discoloured, and the whole somewhat worn, otherwise in fair condition. All in 12mo, and with much the same lay-out of the title-page. Occasional illustrations. Title-pages state print-runs between ‘Twentieth Thousand’ (1851) and ‘Forty-second Thousand’ (1855 and 1856).

[Nicholas Culpeper, herbalist, botanist, physician and astrologer.] Printed list of ‘Ten several Books by Nich. Culpeper Gent. Student in Physick, and Astrology.’

Author: 
Nicholas Culpeper (1616-1654), English herbalist, botanist, physician and astrologer
Publication details: 
Extracted from ‘Medicaments for the Poor; Or, Physick for the Common People’ (London: Printed by John Streater, for George Sawbridge, 1670).
£80.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 12mo, with verso paginated 135 and ending ‘FINIS.’ The items are described over forty-five lines. The text is complete and clear, but the laid paper is in a delicate condition, discoloured and with chipping to extremities. The longest title is the first, at ten lines: ‘I. The Practice of Physick, containing seventeen several Books: wherein is plainly set forth, the Nature, Cause, Differences, and several sorts of Signs; together with the Cure of all Diseases in the Body of Man.

[R. H. Naylor, astrologer.] Typed Signed Horoscope of President Roosevelt, with letter to John Gordon, editor of the Sunday Express, reporting 'queer indications therein'. With typed copy of report of Naylor's 1936 trial, brought by Maurice Barbanell

Author: 
R. H. Naylor [Richard Harold Naylor] (1889-1952), Britain's first newspaper astrologer [John Rutherford Gordon (1890-1974), editor of the London 'Daily Express'; Maurice Barbanell (1902-1982)]
Publication details: 
Letter from Naylor to Gordon: On his letterhead, 43 Museum Street, London, WC1. 21 January 1941. Horoscope dating from a round the same time. Report of trial undated [March 1936].
£250.00

Three items from the papers of John Gordon, editor of the Daily Express. The first two in good condition, lightly aged and creased; the third creased and torn, with slight loss to text. ONE: Typed Letter Signed ('R. H. N.') from Naylor to Gordon. 1p., 12mo. Headed 'Confidential'. He writes: 'Having drawn up an Astrological Chart for the time of the official inauguration of Roosevelt's Third Term I find some queer indications there. To me they are tremendously interesting and as I think you might find them interesting too I am sending you a copy of the notes I have filed.

[The Holbein-Society's Fac-simile Reprints] Pronosticatio in Latino, by John Lichtenberger; A Reproduction of the First Edition (Printed at Strasburg, 1488). Edited by W. Harry Rylands, F.S.A. [with facsimiles of 56 woodcuts, eleven hand-coloured]

Author: 
John Lichtenberger [Johann Lichtenberger; W. Harry Rylands, FSA, editor; The Holbein-Society's Fac-simile Reprints; Manchester and London; astrology]
Publication details: 
Published for the Holbein Society by A. Brothers, 14, St. Ann's Square, Manchester, 1890.
£480.00

89pp, 4to; consisting of half-title, title, three-page introduction by Rylands, seventy-three page unpaginated facsimile of the main work on consecutive pages, and eleven pages (each with a blank reverse), each carrying a hand-coloured plate. On watermarked wove paper, with top edge gilt, and other edges deckled. Good, on aged paper (first and last pages dusty), in recent black-cloth quarter binding, with grey boards and white label on spine.

Autograph Letter Signed from Rosa Baughan, graphologist and writer on fortune-telling, to 'Dear Miss James'.

Author: 
Rosa Baughan (fl. 1880), graphologist and writer on palmistry, physiognomy and astrology
Autograph Letter Signed from Rosa Baughan, graphologist
Publication details: 
28 November [no year]. 44 Queens Road, Bayswater.
£56.00
Autograph Letter Signed from Rosa Baughan, graphologist

Landscape 12mo. 17 lines. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged and lightly-creased paper. For a graphologist Miss Baughan's handwriting is curiously angular and crabbed. Explaining that 'these together with some 2 dozen others were overlooked in the July packet - at least this was how it was - each week a packet is sent & I do the packets in rotation of their dates'. She is 'really now doing the September studies'. Continues in same vein. Baughan published a number of works on what would now be called 'new age' subjects in the 1880s.

Centuries Prophetiques revelees par sacre Theurgie & secrette Astrologie a M. Jean Belot Cure de Mil-monts, professeur es [sic] Mathematiques Divines & Celestes.

Author: 
Jean Belot
Publication details: 
Paris: Chez Anthoine Champenois, rue vieille Drapperie, devant le Palais, MDCXXI
£850.00

Pamphlet, [23] pages, sm.8vo, grey wraps (prob. not original), one gathering partially detached, pages dulled, some pages opened crudely, no loss of text, mainly good. COPAC records on the BL copy and there is a copy at the Houghton. No other yet traced.

Wood's Edition. Napoleon's Book of Fate. [with two woodcuts, including one on cover of David's 'Napoleon crossing the Alps']

Author: 
J. T. Wood [Joseph Thomas Wood (d.1874)] [Napoleon Bonaparte; fortune-telling; astrology; oraculum; chap book]
Publication details: 
Undated [between 1858 and 1874]. London: Published by J. T. Wood, 278, Strand.
£150.00

12mo: 8 pp, unpaginated. Stitched. In original green printed wraps. Text and illustrations clear and complete, on browned high-acidity paper with damp staining at head. Wraps foxed and with slight chipping to extremities. The cover features a striking crude woodcut (12 x 9 cm) of David's 'Napoleon crossing the Alps'. The first page features another woodcut (9 x 7 cm) of a martial figure on horseback, with sword drawn.

Corrected Typescript of 'Der Pyramidenbauer'; Corrected Typescript of German lecture; photocopy of Manuscript article 'Der Kanon des Kosmos', with English translation; two pages of German manuscript notes; 56 printed cosmological diagrams.

Author: 
Eberhard Wortmann [Hermann Hesse; Sacred Geometry; Neoplatonism]
Publication details: 
Der Kanon des Kosmos' dated '24. II. 71, Berkeley, California'; the whole in envelope postmarked 1975.
£450.00

Wortmann - whose 'Das Gesetz Des Kosmos' (1965) is considered a cosmological masterpiece - corresponded with Hermann Hesse, and was the only modern author to be described by him as a master of the Glass Bead Game. The Sacred Science Institute in America is presently working with Wortmann's family to bring out an edition of his work. The collection is discoloured with age and some leaves are slightly dog-eared, but the whole is in good condition.

Syndicate content