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The standard handbook on geomancy, a divination system with Arabian origins, including a 12th-century translation of a work by the Arab Alfakini, published here for the first time

FLUDD, Robert, Henri de PISIS and ALFAKINI.
Fasciculus geomanticus, in quo varia variorum opera geomantica continentur.
Verona [= Frankfurt am Main], 1687. With 5 (of 6) large folding letterpress tables, 1 double-page engraved folding plate with 2 engraved illustrations, and some woodcut illustrations and numerous letterpress geomantic figures in text.
With: (2) Tabulae geomanticae, seu liber singularis de tribus ultimis ex antiquo manuscripto de anno MDXXXV. Iam primo luci datus, annexis duabus tabellis huic studio mirè inservientibus, caeteroquin utilibus & jucundis.
Frankfurt am Main, Johann David Zunner, 1693. With 2 letterpress folding tables following text, and nearly 200 pages of letterpress tables with geomantic figures. 2 works in 1 volume, bound in reverse order. 8vo. Contemporary vellum. 647, [1 blank]; 197, [1 blank] pp.
€ 4,500
First edition of a collection of three texts on geomancy, a divination system with Arabian origins. Geomancy comes from the Ancient Greek "geômanteía", a translation of the Arabic term " 'ilm al-raml", the "science of the sand". It includes texts by the English physician and astrologer Robert Fludd (1574-1637), the French physician Henri de Pisis and the Arab Alfakini. It is preceded by its separately published supplement Tabulae geomanticae, together forming "the standard printed Latin source for the rules of geomantic practice ... a handbook and compendium not since rivalled for clarity and completeness" (Skinner).
"Fludd ... tried to present [geomancy] as a science of intellectual soul in which intellectual rays emanated from the mind to mundane affairs and then returned to the center with tidings of the future. ... Fludd's treatise is immediately followed by a longer geomancy by H. de Pisis ... divided into three parts devoted respectively to the theory, practice and questions taken from previous authors. Fludd is cited more than once, also Arabic authors like Geber and Aomar" (Thorndike). The last treatise contain the geomantic questions of the Arab Alfakini, son of Abizarch, based on a manuscript from 1535 and published here for the first time. The manuscript was a Latin translation by Plato of Tivoli (fl. first half of the 12th century), known for his translations of Arabic texts. A supplement to this last text, containing almost 200 pages of tables, is bound first.
Lacking one letterpress folding table in the main work. Browned throughout, as usual, some occasional smudges, a few tears along the folds of the folding tables, and some wormholes in the first two leaves, resulting in a small hole in the gutter of the title-page, otherwise internally still good. Binding soiled and with crudely restored spine. Caillet 4035; S. Skinner, Terrestrial astrology: divination by geomancy (1980); Thorndike VIII, p. 481-482.
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Middle east & islamic world  >  Medicine & Science
Science & technology  >  Alchemy, Astrology & Occult