Details

Subjects:

Numerology -- Early works to 1800.
Divination -- Early works to 1800.
Divination.
Astrology -- Early works to 1800.
Astrology.
Magic -- Early works to 1800.
Magic.
Prophecies -- Early works to 1800.
Prophecies.
Numerology.

Form/Genre:

Codices.
Manuals (instructional materials)
Manuscripts, Latin.
Manuscripts, European.

Language:

Latin, some English (p. i-vi, 195-200), with some French (p. 58-63), Italian (p. 28, 57), and Greek and Hebrew characters (throughout p. 70-175).

Summary:

A perpetual card (an infinite calendar), with explanation on how to read it, followed by various predictions using a collection of astrological, numerological, divinatory, and magical techniques. These techniques are described through text, tables, and charts. Examples of prediction-types in the Vaticinia varia include childbirth, matrimony, disputes, and traveling. The majority of these predictions involve a form of numerology using names and dates. The majority of the book after the Vaticinia varia deals with complex charts, diagrams, and symbols for what appears to be divination through numerology and astrology. Since explanations of how to read and interpret such charts end after the Vaticinia varia, it seems that a previous knowledge of the subject is assumed in order to comprehend the majority of this book.

Contents:

1. p.i-vi: Perpetual card.
2. p.1-55: Vaticinia varia.
3. p.56-68: [Tables of dominant planets, signs, kabbalistic predictions, and some numerology]
4. p.69-100: Calendarium. Naturale magicum perpetuum, profundissimam verum secretissimarum contemplationem, totius, philosophia cognitionem complectens.
5. p.100-105: Septem planetarum tabulae onomanticae, sanitatem, fortunam, vitam et mortem praesagientes.
6. p.106-136: Septem planetarum imagines magicae. Cum fortunii et infortunii statu, et aliis ipsis subiacentibus.
7. p.151-159: Sigilla decem nomina dei principalia complectentia.
8. p.160-176: Duodecim signa coelestia, eorumque sigilla magica.
9. p.177-192: Observatio generalis cum brevi delineatione calendarii magici.
10. p.195-200: [Planetary symbols and explanations]

Notes:

Ms. codex.
Title from incipit.
Pagination: Paper, i (18th-century[?] paper) + 109 + i (18th-century[?] paper) leaves; [xii], 1-95, [i], 95-193, [194-216]; contemporary pagination in ink, modern pagination in pencil, upper outer corners.
Script: Written in a variety of cursive hands.
Decoration: Sun and phoenix in separate circles (p. 70); Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden (p. 74); horned Moses with ten commandments (p. 75); two cherubs holding the ark of the covenant (p. 75); God the father within star of David within circle (p. 79); Jesus with cross and pennant within pentagram (p. 81); Holy Spirit as bird with faint six-pointed star behind (p. 83); various stars with text within circles (p. 79-4); sun and scrolls, with zodiac figures (p. 87); two hands with zodiacal symbols, one holding a stick, within circles (p. 93); bull-headed man forming a triangle with outstretched arms, covered in zodiacal symbols (p. 94); figure of a man with zodiacal symbols forming a pentacle within a circle (p. 94); Saturn wearing a crown and cape, holding a flag, riding a crowned gryphon (p. 106); crowned Jupiter holding three arrows, riding a winged stag (p. 109); Mars in battle gear in front of a lion (p. 112); the sun as a man with a sun for a head in a chariot carried by two lions (p. 115); Venus holding a heart with a small winged cupid by her side (p. 118); Mercury wearing petasus and talaria, holding caduceus and open book (p. 121); the moon as a woman with a crescent on her forehead, on a swimming bull, holding a torch (p. 124); Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sol, Venus, Mercury, and Luna as gods in circles (p. 127-135); the figures of the zodiac in respective spheres and accompanying magic symbols (p. 160-171); sator square (f. 217).
Binding: Contemporary gilt calf, rebacked (Zacour-Hirsch), with two metal clasps on upper cover.
Origin: Written in London, 1688.

Penn Provenance:

Formerly owned by Henry Charles Lea (bookplate, inside lower cover and inscription dated 1888, f. i verso).
Formerly owned by Richard H. Buel (bookplate, inside upper cover).

Cited in:

Described in Zacour, Norman P. and Hirsch, Rudolf. Catalogue of Manuscripts in the Libraries of the University of Pennsylvania to 1800 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1965), p. 177 (Ms. Lea 144).

Cited as:

UPenn Ms. Codex 1196

Contributor:

Lea, Henry Charles, 1825-1909, former owner.
Buel, Richard H. (Richard Hooker), 1842- former owner.

OCLC:

231634398