?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 600 - $ 800
Geomancy, Astronomy & Astrology. Della Geomanzia. Manuscript in Italian on Paper.
Italy, 17th century.
Quarto format manuscript on laid paper consisting of approximately 80 pages, inscribed on both sides throughout; written in a looping scribal hand in dark brown ink; illustrated with diagrams and symbols in the text; deckle edges; some faint foxing; a few occasional instances of iron gall ink eating through the paper; generally fresh; legible; bound in modern half parchment with patterned paper boards; 8 3/4 x 6 1/4 in.
"Often summarily described as the art of tracing images and drawing meanings from them regarding future events and hidden things, geomancy is a form of divination that cannot be reduced to the merely operational aspect, because it is divided into several phases, is supported by a robust conceptual framework, analogous to the astrological one, and includes a component of psychological hermeneutics that seems to prelude depth psychology. [...] Far from being a corruption of astrology, geomancy was argued to correct the defects of astrological method. Such defects could be overcome if the numerous and obscure judgments were collected in a single book with a few useful words and their obscurity were opened to the certain boundaries of truth by making them evident. Geomancy is thus presented as a clear and synthetic alternative to astrology, [with the] aim to reveal the meanings of the stars in mundane realities, quickly and usefully, and thus to remove from the reader all doubt in these matters." (Quoted from Alessandro Palazzo's Dibattiti Filosofici e Scientifici sulla Geomanzia nel Medioevo Latin, https://revistas.marilia.unesp.br/index.php/transformacao/article/view/9598/9759).
