Skyscript Astrology Forum

Hi Philip,

Thanks for the update. It is always interesting to know what is available even if I cannot afford it. However, I did manage to score the Latin Treatises by Lynn Thorndike that you mentioned. Although not particularly rare or valuable, I am pleased to have a copy. It is in good condition for its age. I got it for $20 US. The postage cost more than the book. If nothing else, it will help to improve my Latin.

Dear Sue,

I thought that bid might have been yours, and was pleased it was unopposed. It was quite a surprise to me to notice that it isn't all that uncommon second-hand, in view of the very academic-sounding title. I had presumed otherwise when I first posted the link, then corrected myself after doing a check, as you may have noticed. But I think the price you paid was a fair and reasonable one all the same.

Some of the 20th century academic works pertaining broadly or more narrowly to astrological topics are very difficult to obtain once they go out-of-print. This is a lesson I've learned as a relatively late starter to collecting the past literature of astrology. Some of the rarest seem to be:

1. 'Egyptian Astronomical Texts 1', 'Egyptian Astronomical Texts 2' and 'Egyptian Astronomical Texts 3' by the legendary Otto Neugebauer (who else?!) - the first and third pertain to the decans, and are thus important to the history of ancient astrology, but apparently the entire set is so rare that not only have I not seen a single copy of any volume listed in the past couple of years of occasionally looking, but also when a complete set of all three went up for auction last summer it fetched (corrected this since my original post after I checked the records - Philip) ?1500 sterling (almost $2900 US at current rates) before buyer's premium, which was another 20% or so on top of that, although the estimate was only ?750-?1000 ($1400-$1900, approximately), which would seem to be the more usual going rate for this set!

However, UMI reprints are available - I have the reprints of No. 1 and No. 3, but unfortunately the reprint quality of plates in the reprint of No. 1 is abysmal, with no proper gradation in the shades of black and white, many of the plates being washed out blackness to the effect of the detail within being entirely undecipherable. In other words, it's a very poor reproduction job by UMI, and buyers should consider the purchase for the text alone as a consequence of the plates being so unusable.

2. 'Al Biruni on Transits' (edited) by Edward S Kennedy, published by the University of Beirut in the late 1950s I believe. I have not seen an original edition of this at all in the year or so since the existence of the title caught my attention. There was a reprint of just one hundred copies by a German university in 1998, one of which I was fortunate enough to come by last Spring after ordering through a German bookdealer that listed it - it is amazing that there were any left after eight years, frankly, considering the print run, but the distribution efforts must have been very poor, probably localised to Germany only, to account for this.

3. 'Abu Ma'Shar and Latin Aristotleanism in the Twelfth Century' by Richard Lemay, from the early 1960s I think - this routinely sells (and I mean sells - not just sits on the dealers' shelves) for $300 per copy on the used book networks. That was the price at which a library-rebound copy sold last year. I managed to buy one in its original binding from Zubal Books for $270 or thereabouts before the other one sold. A heavy price to pay, but it's a book in great demand and there have been no more copies listed since those two sold as far as I'm aware, so the combination of scarcity and high demand justifies a going-rate of $300.

4. 'Astrology, Science and Society: Historical Essays' edited by Patrick Curry, from the mid-1980s - there have been no copies listed on the used book networks all last year. However, two did come up on ebay, one of which I bought for around 50 Euros (fixed price) from a German seller, and the other of which sold for a bargain ?10 or so to a bidder in London - I don't think the academic buyers were out in force on ebay that week looking for it, or it would have fetched a lot more. Probably if listed for sale by a bookdealer it would be priced at at least the price I paid, possibly up to $150 to $200 by a bookdealer who knows how scarce it is.

5. 'Astrology and the Seventeenth Century Mind: William Lilly and the Language of the Stars' by Ann Geneva, from 1998 - very, very scarce indeed! No copies listed on the usual used book networks for the past 18 months at all, and but one was listed on half.com for $375 last October or thereabouts, and I contacted the seller and bargained her down to $250. It probably would be listed at no more than $200 by a used bookdealer in normal circumstances, possibly less if the bookdealer doesn't know how scarce it is, but I was just willing to pay $250 as it's such an important study and is clearly very, very scarce indeed despite its recent publication date.

6. 'Courting Disaster' by Hilary Carey, from 1992 - this is also extremely scarce, with no copies listed on the used book networks or on ebay for at least a year until last week, when one finally cropped up for ?25 on Abebooks, and I bought it immediately. Another important historical astrological study from the academic world! It probably would sell even if listed for ?100 or $200 because it is so scarce, although the demand might not be quite so high perhaps as for some of the titles above.

7. 'Horoscopes and History' by J.D. North - very scarce again - there have been three copies listed on Abebooks last year, but each sold within a few days of listing (the last one to me), and the first two sold within 24 hours of being listed.

8. 'The Arabs and the Stars' by Paul Kunitzsch - the first collection of his essays published by Variorum, out of print and very scarce, with only one copy having come to my attention on the used book networks all last year (I bought it immediately).

9. Almost any out-of-print Teubner critical edition of an astrological work. This includes Dorotheus Sidonius, the original 1976 Pingree critical edition of which is one I'm still after - no copies listed used, and Saur, who bought up the Teubner back-catalogue, did not respond to my request for a reprint by email yet! Also includes Firmicus Maternus, and Hephaistio Thebanis. Some of their critical editions, such as those of Vettius Valens and Ptolemy's 'Tetrabiblios', are still in print, however.

10. Any or all of the original fascicules of the Catalogus Codicum Astrologorum Graecorum (or however exactly it's spelt!) - haven't seen these for sale at all, and I expect if they were listed as a set the price would exceed $2000 as a bare minimum.

11. The A.E. Housman edition of Manilius - sets of the first edition in separate volumes from 1903-1930 I have not seen at all when looking last year, and the second edition from 1937 sells for $500 retail (no copies listed now but there was one which sold) and fetched almost $400 when it came up on ebay too. So even this is very rare, as measured by demand exceeding supply.

12. 'Arabic Astronomical and Astrological Sciences in Latin Translation' by Carmody - I saw just one original copy of this come up on Abebooks in the past two and a half years, and it sold almost immediately to someone (I have no idea who) although priced around $150. I had already bought a UMI reprint before that copy came up.

13. 'Arcana Mundi' by Giuseppe Bezza - have not seen any used copies at all in two years of keeping an eye out. It's barely more than a decade old but terminally out of print by the look of things. What a pity.

14. The original 1934 Luzac edition of Al-Biruni's 'Elements of the Art of Astrology' (or whatever the full title is - I'm sure you know the one I mean), with Arabic text and facing translation. The available reprints only have the translation. A single copy came up on ebay last year and sold for $200.

15. If we can go back into the end of the 19th century, there is of course the first edition of Bouch?-Leclercq's 'L'Astrologie Grecque'. One copy did come up on Abebooks recently but with a tear to the spine. I asked the seller for a picture, but while I was waiting for a reply, someone else bought it - for $150, which was probably a very good buy despite the condition! The reprint from the 1970s is easily purchasable and very durable and well-produced, however.

I expect that there are others that I have hardly even heard of and thus have not been looking out for, but the above fifteen + (more than one in the Teubner category, hence the '+'!) are certainly a lot of trouble and expense to track down if my recent experience is anything to go by! In future I'm buying all academic books on astrology while they are available new - they obviously increase in value quite dramatically after they fall out of print, and become fiendishly difficult to obtain at all.

Philip

More results in the $50+ bracket from ebay in the past week, for books of varying degrees of astrological interest and content.

1. An 1854 first edition of Roback's 'The Mysteries of Astrology and the Wonders of Magic', one of those quite commonplace 19th century popular works on astrology and other 'occult' subjects mixed together (several first-edition copies of this title come up on ebay every year, but this genre is still in much demand with broader occult collectors it would seem, since they always sell for reasonably good money on ebay) sold for $67. It was not in very good condition, hence the price, which is often higher for other copies, although it's very rare to see a copy in really good shape!

2. A copy of T. G. Butaney's partly astrological, partly numerological guide to horse-racing gambling 'Forecasting Winners' sold for $52.07. This was the second copy in a few months to come up - another sold for just $25 late last year, the seller's starting bid, yet in this case the starting bid was only about $10 which attracted a higher eventual sale price. Deserves comparison with Sutaria's 'The Astrology of the Race Course' and, I think, Donald Bradley's 'Picking Winners', among other, more obscure and equally long out-of-print books on this topic! [I'm not a gambling person and never have been; nor do I personally find horse-racing an especially interesting or pleasant sport to watch; but the possible astrological correlations to sporting results are a lot more interesting in some ways than the sports themselves, I find....]

3. A copy of financial astrology researcher Patrick Mikula's 'Gann's Scientific Methods Unveiled' in two hardcover volumes, from the mid-1990s, but out of print since the end of that decade, sold for $300, which was almost exactly its original cost when new. This was a lot less, incidentally, than the equivalent set sold last year on ebay, which went for $499.98! Mikula has reissued his set in ebook-only (but print-disabled) format for just $100 for both books together since that sale, so perhaps most of the bidders last year have bought the ebooks and don't want the second-hand hard copies any more. There are no two-volume sets listed on the used book market. Anyhow, it is reputed to be one of the clearest expos?s in print concerning Gann's observations of correlations between eclipses and trading conditions for commodities, so it is certainly a financial astrology work worthy of attention for those interested by this topic, although it doesn't come cheaply!

4. A 1960s hardcover reprint of C.C. Zain's 'Progressing the Horoscope', one of his twenty-something bound volumes of Brotherhood of Light lessons originally issued separately as softcover pamphlets, sold for a surprisingly high $55.00. Even first editions from the 1920s and 1930s of his bound volumes of lessons rarely list for as much as $50 per volume, since many of them were sold so there are plenty in circulation in any given two-year period. This seller should count himself or herself fortunate in this result.

5. A two-volume edition of Sepharial's 'The Kabala of Numbers' (numerological rather than astrological, first and foremost, but anything written by Sepharial is worthy of a mention here!) from 1913 and 1914, almost but not quite a pure first edition, although identical in content to the first edition from 1911 and 1913, sold in free bidding for $123.50. This was in exceptionally fine condition, and a great buy for the price.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... &rd=1&rd=1

I had to spend more buying a copy with more faded spines previously! Later all-in-one-volume reprints of 'The Kabala of Numbers' from the 1970s and thereabouts had all the chapters reordered, one taken out completely, and much less attractive bindings, although they are a lot cheaper!

6. A beautifully rebound copy of French astrologer Janduz's 'Encyclop?die des Directions Astrologiques' from the 1930s sold for a reasonable 43.07 Euros (just over $55). I think I might have a softcover copy of this; otherwise I would certainly have bid! It's part of a three volume encyclopedic work on astrology that she published around the same time. I have two of the three volumes, but I've forgotten which one I lack. Janduz (a female astrologer, incidentally, though she employed a decidedly gender-non-specific professional name, which perhaps was a wise choice at the time when it came to desiring to gain the public acceptance that her work merited on its own terms, since the world of professional French astrology was heavily male-dominated in those days) was I think a stalwart on the French astrological conference scene in her day - there is a photograph of her in a group of other astrologers from one of the conferences on scientific astrology that W. J. Tucker attended, I seem to recall from an issue of his fascinating mid-1930s-vintage journal 'Science and Astrology'. I believe she was a very popular astrologer in France.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... &rd=1&rd=1

It's often said that rebound books are never worth as much as the originals, even if the originals are in poor condition. Perhaps this is true with vellum-bound books from the 15th to 17th centuries! However, I think that when a rebinding job has been done attractively like this and when the original is a very uninspired mass-produced low-quality paperback, they tend rather to gain value and desirability for collectors. It would cost at least twice as much to pay a bindery for this kind of finish than the resale value realised in this auction by the book, however, so it is the second-hand buyer who has profited here, not the previous owner who had it rebound.

7. A nine-volume set of French ephemerides spanning the years 1715-1800, all original volumes from the 18th century, sold for $1136.12.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... &rd=1&rd=1

Personally I don't see the point for most astrologers of collecting antique ephemerides when all the astronomical data is available on the Internet today at little or no cost, but apparently there is still a collecting market for them. I suppose this set will have been sought after by historians of the development of astronomical and mathematical precision in the calculation of ephemerides, and others with similarly specialised interests!

8. A first edition of Allen's 'Star Names and Their Meanings' from 1899, complete save for a two-inch tear on the title page (but with no loss of paper or text), sold for $70. That is a lot less than the asking price of used copies on Abebooks etc., typically upwards of $200, or considerably more still. It is widely available in reprint form as 'Star Names: Their Lore and Meaning', often in rather hideously coloured 1960s softcover bindings!

9. A signed first edition of Dane Rudhyar's 'The Astrology of Personality' from 1936, in fine conditon but without the dustcover (which seems to be rare), sold for $61.01 (to expert financial astrologer Tim Bost, apparently - a worthy home for sure, even though I may have unintentionally upset him by outbidding him on a couple of Zadkiel publications recently; it's always a bit upsetting to find oneself bidding for the same items as a much-respected astrologer, in truth).

http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... :MEWA:BIDN

10. A common 1916 reprint by L.W. De Laurence of the book originally published, I presume, in the 1870s or thereabouts, and reprinted in 1880 (the 'fifth edition'), as 'The Art of Talismanic Magic' and then credited to the ubiquitous Raphael (presumably Robert Thomas Cross in this case), but retitled by De Laurence for his 1916 reprint as 'Raphael's Ancient Manuscript of Talismanic Magic', sold for a jaw-dropping $250.00, the seller's optimistic but market-canny reserve.

Interestingly, there are unsold copies of the much scarcer 1880 'fifth edition' still available on Abebooks for as little as $100. I have a copy of this edition, and would advise anyone thinking of spending over $100 on the common De Laurence reprint from 1916 'don't do it'! Yet strangely, anything with De Laurence's name on seems to sell like hot cakes on ebay lately, even if it's much more common than the original it plagiarised! I think part of the problem here is that collectors have not made the connection between the De Laurence work and the differently-titled book credited to Raphael of which it was nothing but a reprint. There must be at least ten to fifteen copies of the De Laurence reprint listed on ebay every year currently, possibly a lot more, so it is not at all scarce, yet it still seems to be in high demand while the rare 1880 'fifth edition' remains unsold on dealers' shelves.

11. A 1653 copy of Nicholas Culpeper's 'Pharmacoepia Londinensis' sold for $651 despite lacking the original title page and being in rather creased-looking condition. This is not strictly an astrological work, but I hope I'm not the only one here who finds the non-astrological works by astrologers of some interest as background reading! I can't see myself affording a copy of this any year soon though.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... &rd=1&rd=1

12. A rebound copy of the Ashmand translation of Ptolemy's 'Tetrabiblos' of unidentified printing vintage but clearly not the 1822 original since it is stated as being a 'New Edition' and undated, whereas the original published by Davis and Dickson is clearly dated to 1822, sold for a respectable $92.99.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... &rd=1&rd=1

It could be from any time later in the 19th century, but will never be worth half as much as a true first edition of this most influential of translations. In the circumstances, it sold for a very reasonable price, and the buyer should be pleased with the result. If the condition had been a little brighter it might have sold for $150-$200.

*****

There are at last a few ongoing and upcoming major-auction-house auctions worthy of notice, but I'll start a separate post to describe these a little later. I've rambled on too long for one post already, but then it is Sunday!

Philip

Here are some unfinished auctions that may be worthy of advance notice to collectors:

1. An original pamphlet from 1907 advertising the consulting services of one Miss Evangeline S. Adams of 402-3 Carnegie Hall, New York City. Note how early this is compared with the dates of the printed books credited to her - over two decades earlier!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... &rd=1&rd=1

This was listed in 'Antiques'; if it was listed in 'Books' it would have obtained more exposure no doubt, but even though it is a mere pamphlet I expect it may have some historical interest value to collectors. My guess is that it won't fetch more than $50-100, but I stand to be proven wrong!

2. What appears to be an edited reprint of Hans Niggemann's 'The Key to Uranian Astrology'.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... &rd=1&rd=1

I contacted the seller who told me that it was edited by Gary Christen in 1976. To judge from the seller's reply, it is a cut-down edit of Niggemann's original book from 1969, reduced to just 150 pages. I have a copy of Niggemann's second edition from 1977, published by Niggemann himself, and with no sign of any editors having worked on it, which weighs in at 289 single-sided pages bound in red soft covers backed with grey tape: very much a DIY production job, but then so is this abridged copy by the look if it! So anyway, this 1976 copy appears to have been an abridgement, and as such cannot be worth as much as either Niggemann's first edition (limited to 1500 copies) from 1969 or his own reprint from 1977.

The seller is asking for $99 as a starting bid for the 1976 abridgement. Since it is not the full-length version of Niggemann's book, this would strike me as optimistic. However, since there are no copies of Niggemann's 'Key to Uranian Astrology' in either full or abridged condition on the used book networks, even this abridgement may be in much demand from Uranian astrologers who do not have the full-length version. I suspect it is worth no more than $50-$75, whereas the 1969 original may be worth $150-$200 and the 1977 reprint $75-$125.

My personal advice would be to hold out for a relisting of this book with a lower starting bid, or ideally a copy of the full-length edition, however, even though they are very scarce and it may be a long wait.

3. Another 17th century copy of 'Les Proph?ties de M. Nostradamus'has materialised. The high starting-bid of 399 Euros and stained-looking condition of some pages pictured may be a disincentive to competitive bidding, however, but it could well still sell.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... &rd=1&rd=1

4. An apparent first edition from 1925 of Charles Carter's 'The Principles of Astrology'. If this is a genuine first edition it is somewhat valuable since it was limited to 2000 copies, and may be worth a bid up to ?20 or so. There is a very low starting bid. Charles Carter changed the contents of his various books subtly during his career, and the earlier editions can be valuable to compare with the later ones for this reason. I would advise asking the seller further questions if in any doubt though.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... &rd=1&rd=1

5. An unusually late standalone edition of the first Zadkiel's 'The Grammar of Astrology' from 1849, presumably the third edition, since it certainly isn't the first or second and I'm not aware of any others, and quite possibly the last before it began to be reissued in combination with his abridgement of Lilly in the 1860s. It looks in quite nice condition and may be worth a bid up to ?25-?50 (ie about $50-$100) or so for someone who does not have the first or second edition and wants an original copy of this work preceding the combined editions.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... &rd=1&rd=1

6. An 'original astrology manuscript' by John Gadbury is being offered by Dominic Winter auctioneers - it is lot 315 in their upcoming Printed Books auction on Wednesday January 31st, 2007. If you go to www.dominic-winter.co.uk and click 'Catalogue Available' you can navigate from there. Three pictures are available too. I haven't checked to see if it is one of Gadbury's well-known works, though it may be worth checking against the Gadbury offerings on Christopher Warnock's 'Renaissance Astrology' CD to be sure that it is not before considering bidding on this. I suspect that this will be bought by someone who already has a substantial collection of original 17th century astrology works, since it is likely to be too obscure for anyone else.

7. Lot 236 in the same Dominic Winter sale is an astrological manuscript of unidentified authorship also believed to be from the late 17th century. I haven't checked to see if the Dominic Winter website has pictures of this too, but for someone who is serious enough about collecting 17th century astrology books and manuscripts to even consider bidding on such an item this would appear to be worth checking out.

8. Last but not least, an original early (though not first) edition of Ebeneezer Sibly's delightful 'Key to Physic and the Occult Sciences' is on offer at Bloomsbury Auctions on February 15th. It is Lot 294 - you can scroll down to the listing here:

http://www.bloomsbury-book-auct.com/auction/601#221

However, it is an 1806 reprint, thus not one of the original and much sought-after 1790s first editions that had hand-coloured plates; and it also lacks one of the plates, as is all too common with surviving copies of this book in any edition - indeed it is the norm rather than the exception for at least one plate to be missing as far as I've observed. But the estimate in the ?125 sterling ($245) region is on the low side for any copy of this work so it may still be of interest to someone who just wants a half-decent copy of the book!

I personally have a copy with coloured plates, but with two plates lacking, which was appallingly falling apart in the binding but very clean inside when I bought it just over a couple of years ago on Abebooks for $335 US, the price reflecting the broken binding and two missing plates. I opted for the cheapest copy available at the time because it was all I could afford, and could only look on dolefully as the remaining two or three brittle threads holding together the spine broke in quick succession as I delicately turned the pages of the book, and it split into three pieces!

I'm just in the process of getting it professionally rebound by a local enthusiast here in Stockholm (for about ?70 / $130, very reasonable really for such a large-format book of almost 400 pages), after waiting fruitlessly for another copy with colour plates to come onto the market in the past two years in the hope that I could duplicate the lacking plates and make up a complete copy. Copies with all plates present but monochrome are listed for upwards of ?500 ($1000) on the used book dealer networks, so I suspect that a copy with the hand-coloured plates all present would be worth considerably more than that, maybe ?750 ($1500) at least.

The copy listed by Bloomsbury Books has only one plate lacking and has an estimate only a quarter of the price of the unsold copies with all monochrome plates present. I suspect it will surpass its estimate, but there's some bargain potential there for someone who doesn't mind having only one plate missing when all the text is present! It's a fine, large-format book by any reckoning, and has not been reprinted since the early 1800s so originals are the only available option for someone wanting the text.

By the way, Sibly lived in both Bristol, England and Edinburgh, Scotland (where he studied medicine) in his youth, both being places where I've spent more than a few years of my early adult life, so it might be said I feel a certain identification with the fellow for reasons beyond the simply astrological!

Philip

Have to briefly record a few results for auctions I described while they were still running a week ago.... A further update will have to wait though since it's too late for tonight.

1. The Evangeline Adams pamphlet sold to a sole bidder whose bid had already been placed before I posted the link to the auction here, for $29.95. I thought it might have fetched upwards of $50 but below $100, but since nobody else bid it didn't have the chance.

2. The abridged reprint of Niggemann's 'Key to Uranian Astrology' was unsold, as expected. It has been relisted at the same starting price of $99, and but for a miracle can confidently be expected to go unsold again.

3. The edition of Les Propheties de Michel Nostradamus, as predicted, did not attract any competitive bidding because of the highish start price, and ended up selling to a sole bidder for 399 Euros.

4. The first edition of Charles Carter's 'The Principles of Astrology', limited to 2000 copies (1925), sold to a sole bidder for the ridiculous bargain price of 99 pence. A case of a book whose very success in reprints has left almost every astrologer with a copy of some later edition or other, I expect, limiting the interest in a first edition on the rare occasion that one does come up!

5. The third edition of Zadkiel's 'Grammar of Astrology' from 1849 sold for ?12.50 ($24) sterling.

6. The 'original astrology manuscript' by John Gadbury sold for ?2300 (about $4500), almost twice the pre-sale mid-estimate of ?1250. There must have been at least two very serious collectors after that one!

7. The astrological manuscript of unidentified 17th century authorship sold for ?560, also above the upper estimate of Dominic Winter's auctioneers, although not by such an enormous margin as in the case of the Gadbury sale above.

The Sibly auction is still over a week away. There are more results and listings of some interest from ebay to report another day - perhaps next Sunday!

Philip

Auguste Bouch?-Leclercq. It amazes me that no one has translated any of his works into English. ... If there are any French speaking astrologers out there this would be a fantastic project. There was someone translating some of his work at some stage (Lester Ness, I believe) but he had been doing it for ten years last I heard. The one I am trying to work with Histoire de la Divination Dans L'Antiquite is four volumes.

Hello Sue,

Please let me know when your work is ready for other eyes! A provisional version of Ness' translation of "L'Astrologie Greque" was available in full on the internet 6 or so years ago. I recently found several chapters I had printed out, a bit dog eared but still readable. Lester Ness might be reachable through the journal 'Culture and Cosmos' (where he 'recently' published a review of a book published some years ago, 'Astronomy Across Cultures'). It would be great if he would put his translation of Bouche-LeClercq back out there for the world to examine.

It doesn't feel entirely palatable to continue this strand, since it was one of those many strands to which Sue contributed her great knowledge from time to time, and the triviality of rare astrology book values in the used marketplace seems extreme when set against the profound gravity of life and death.

But I expect she would have wished for it to be continued for the sake of any others who also take a keen interest in astrological literature and may read it from time to time whether they comment or not, and with this thought in mind, I feel more inclined to resume my contributions here.

So here is a summary update of astrological books (and others by astrological authors) that have fetched significant prices at auction in recent weeks:

1) The copy (c. 1806) of Ebeneezer Sibly's 'Key to Physic and the Occult Sciences' that had only monochrome plates and one of them missing sold to a floor bidder at the Bloomsbury Auctions auctionhouse for ?140, although this was equal to an advance bid I had placed (wanting the plates absent from my copy), which I had expected would force a price of ?150, but owing to the way that bids are called in live auctions it did not. I don't think it was worth more than the (?140 + approx. 19.5% commission) for which the floor buyer bought it. I certainly wouldn't have paid more than this.

2) A copy of the c. 1970s reprint of L. Edward Johndro's 'The Earth in the Heavens' sold for a very surprisingly high $76.05, higher than the prices dealers are asking for it on Abebooks on a 'Buy It Now' basis! This just goes to show that some ebay bidders do not research the fixed-price competition thoroughly in advance and bid more on instinct, which can sometimes be deceptive!

3) A copy of the Joan McEvers-edited set of essays on Financial Astrology published by Llewellyn around 1990 sold for $60.01. This is within the normal price range sold by dealers on a fixed-price basis for this book. It used to be impossible to buy used for less than $50 a year or two ago. But still this was a high result for an ebay auction.

4) A hardbound copy from 1888 of the first edition of Ely Star's 'Les Mysteres de l'Horoscope' sold for 73 Euros (c. $95)

5) An 1886 (the only) edition of Anna Kingsford's reprint (with long introductory essay of her own) of 'Astrology Theologised' by Valentine Weigelius (first published in 1649), which had been sitting unsold in the inventory of Moe's Books priced around $150 for years, was auctioned off by the shop and sold for $52.01, about half the cheapest price of any other unsold copy in decent condition. But it still attracted several bidders to take it to this price. I have a copy of this in less good condition, but haven't had the time to read it yet. It was recommended as a classic early text on esoteric astrology by an experienced astrologer in another forum. There is also a reprint of Weigelius's book on its own (which is barely 50 pages long without Kingsford's essay) that is more cheaply and plentifully available on the used market, published in the 1940s or thereabouts.

6) A 1932 edition of the classic medical astrology text 'The Zodiac and the Salts of Salvation' by Perry and Carey fetched a decent $52.00 thanks partly to the seller including the phrase 'Art Deco' in his or her listing, which brought in bidders who would not normally go for a book of this nature. It is much more attractive-looking than the much later reprint I have, but I couldn't justify spending over $50 on a first edition of this - I think that a cheaper opportunity will come up! It annoys me a little when sellers push up the prices of astrology books by including keywords that attract non-astrologers to purchase them. Certain astrology books become completely unaffordable in these circumstances - Varley's Treatise on Zodiacal Physiognomy, which sold for several thousand pounds at auction last summer because of the connection with William Blake, would be an extreme case in point, but there are lesser examples too, such as Broughton's 'Monthly Planet Reader and Astrological Journal', which regularly fetches $500 but can sell for a whole lot more when it is marketed by memorabilia shops in the light of Broughton's predictions relating to the American Civil War and US presidents of the time.... I suppose, however, that I could justifiably be accused of living in an unrealistic dreamworld if I were to contend that the sale of scarce second-hand astrology books should be restricted to genuine astrologers, astrology students and astrological historians, although the idea is an attractive one!

7) Yet another edition of 'Les Propheties de Michel Nostradamus', this one appearing to be dated 1568 yet possibly a reprint of the 1568 edition from a later (but not much later) century, sold for 625 Euros ($820), a lot higher than the previous listing for which there had been only one bidder, although in this case the bidding was started much lower, stimulating competition. Also it was in very well-rebound condition, which helps. This was the third early edition of this work to be auctioned and sold for a good price on ebay in barely three months, and believe it or not there has been a fourth listed since. Statistically, it would seem highly probable on this evidence that there were tens or even hundreds of thousands of copies of these editions sold in the first place, yet the demand for them remains strong and widespread enough to keep prices high although they come up for sale so frequently.

8: An 1835 first edition (thus) of 'An Introduction to Astrology' by William Lilly, as edited by Richard Morrison (Zadkiel I), sold to a sole bidder for the opening bid of ?40 (c. $78.00). This is far (several times) beneath the price that dealers ask for this edition. I don't have it, and nor am I that interested since it was only an abridgement of 'Christian Astrology' in any case and in this abridged form is readily available in later editions at very little cost. Morrison's other works are more interesting, however.

9) The same vendor who managed by carefully marketing it and setting an astronomical reserve price to sell an 1875 second edition of Francis Barrett's 'The Magus' late last year for a record-breaking $2750 (although there was only one bidder who bid more than $1000, he kept coming back with higher bids until he had cracked the reserve!) this time listed a copy of Weiser's recent hardcover reprint, which can still be bought new, directly from Weiser Antiquarian Books, for $85, for a starting bid of about $185 with a Buy It Now option for $210. To my astonishment, an ebay newcomer with zero feedback paid the Buy It Now price of $210. This just goes to show that some ebay sellers can make a handsome profit trading on buyers' marketplace naivete. It's not illegal of course, and some would say 'good luck to them'. It would seem that there is little room for full-information ethics in the competitive world of sales.

10) A copy of the Sacred Science Institute's reprint of three rare early financial astrology manuscripts of uncertain authorship followed by a host of more commonly available and well-known financial astrology books to pad out the publication, which is offered by the SSI for $1000 new, sold for $525 second-hand on ebay. This was on its second listing. The first one featured a start-bid of $500 and attracted no bidders. Bidders often want to have proof that a book has a particular market value before they are willing to pay it, and there is nothing like competitive bidding to serve that purpose. The seller's reserve was not much below his original start bid on the second listing in any case, but it was comfortably met by two of the bidders this time. The Sacred Science Institute reprints a number of scarce early 20th century and late 19th century astrological publications that are unavailable from any other source, and is certainly a valuable source of astrological materials. The manager of the reprint side of the business, Brad, is a very pleasant and courteous gentleman to deal with. This particular book, however, lies far outside my personal framework of affordability for the material concerned, although I can understand active financial astrologers justifying that kind of price. All the same, I'd love to see those three early documents if I could!

Lastly, thought I should mention one which didn't fetch the price I had expected it to although it is rare: 1901 reprint of Robert Thomas Cross (a later Raphael)'s rare 60-page booklet on the individual degrees, 'A Description of the Faces and Degrees of the Zodiac', first published in the 1880s according to Gardner, and last commercially reprinted probably not later than 95 or 100 years ago, if at all after the 1901 printing. It is certainly extremely scarce in any edition, and I have not seen any listed on the used book market outside ebay at all. I would have bid up to $50 or more, but was able to buy it for just $21.50 in this instance since there was only one other bidder.

I have to cut this short, though I'd like to add some listings still ongoing, but send my best wishes and thoughts to all Skyscript members,

Philip

Philip,

Actually there are several people, some who dont even necessarily contribute who watch this thread for books they are seeking, please do continue. the research is valuable!

Granny

Thank you for the supportive words, Granny!

I think this thread will become more valuable if it (and the auction-watching that underpins it) is sustained for an extended period of time, since then a clearer picture of how often and for what prices the scarcer and more valuable astrological books are selling will be built up in time.

Three months of records do not constitute an adequate snapshot to achieve this with any useful measure of completeness. Two years would probably be quite useful. When it comes to the really rare books, though, it would have to be kept going for five or ten years at least to stand a good chance of including at least one record of each one, and in some cases even this would not be enough.

But as time allowed, a database of rare astrological book sale values on ebay could be gradually built up to complement those that can be found in print for the major auction house auctions. The only real drawback is that it takes so much time! But at least it's fun for an astrological bibliophile....

Yesterday, a first edition in one volume of Alan Leo's 'How to Judge a Nativity' from 1903 sold for ?25.90 (just over $50). The bidding went substantially higher than I expected for any single book from Alan Leo's best-selling 'Astrology for All' series, even though it is a first edition. A bidding war broke out very early in the listing between two individuals who kept topping each other's bids higher and higher as the auction progressed, leading to this result.

This said, for someone who doesn't have any early edition of this influential work by Alan Leo, or someone who was desperately after the first edition, no expense spared, this was still a worthwhile purchase, as it was in decent condition.

The 1903 first edition was also simultaneously made available in two volumes as an alternative to the one-volume edition, incidentally, but the contents were identical.

Although I have no first edition copy of this famous work myself, I do have the much-expanded two-volume presumed second edition from 1908 and 1909 - the second volume of which is subtitled 'Part II: Synthesis' and the first 'Part I: Analysis'.

In the presumed third edition and afterwards, from around 1912 I believe, the second volume was then to be renamed 'The Art of Synthesis' instead of 'How to Judge a Nativity Part II: Synthesis', but the contents were to the best of my awareness more or less unchanged. I personally rather like the old-style titles on the spines of my second edition!

Similarly, the volume which in later editions became 'Casting the Horoscope' was originally called 'Astrology For All Part II'. It's probably the least interesting of all Alan Leo's books - the name says it all - and for that reason I'm not in any hurry to seek out an original edition, although I do have an early edition of its companion volume 'Astrology for All Part I', which was later renamed 'Astrology for All'! The first edition of 'Astrology for All' back in 1899 was a much slimmer single volume; in subsequent editions, much expanded, it was split into two volumes labelled Part I and Part II, and then when Part II was pensioned off with a title of its own Part I re-adopted the title of the original edition.

That was probably almost everything you never needed to but might just possibly have been slightly interested to know about the name and format changes from edition to edition in the early editions of the first four volumes in Alan Leo's 'Astrology for All' series... aside perhaps from the fact that several of them in their earliest editions were also serialised in the pages of 'Modern Astrology' magazine, being bound into the journal sporadically with their own separate numbering that was not integrated into that of the rest of the journal at all.

No doubt, some reading this knew all the above years before I found it out myself - I apologise for the superfluousness in these cases!

Looking ahead on ebay (don't really have time for links, but please input the titles as search text, checking the 'search title and description' box, if these are of interest), there are coming up over the next few days:

1) An original copy from the late 19th century of Ellen Bennett's 'Astrology: Science of Knowledge and Reason', which is not all that rare but still an interesting book

2) A first edition from the 1930s of Robert DeLuce's 'Complete Method of Prediction' (the last one sold for about $70 late last year; this one has a low starting bid and no bids at all so far, so this is an opportunity for the taking, though it may have a US-only bidding restriction which would need to be lifted by prior contact with the seller, and which itself has almost certainly stifled bidding - it's been my observation that sellers who ship only to the United States usually end up selling their astrology books for between a quarter and a third of the value they would attain if they were open to international bidding, no doubt because the market of active collectors is a small and worldwide one, and without competition from collectors outside the US prices are severely restricted)

3) An early 1936 edition of Henry Gordon's 'Rectification of Uncertain Birth Hours' (so much more attractively designed in its binding than the common c. 1970s reprint)

4) A copy of Wolfgang Dobereiner's 'Patterns of Experience in the Astrological Diagnosis and Homeopathic Treatment of Illnesses Volume I' (an important medical astrology text translated from the German; volume II was never printed in English so this is the only one available used in English)

5) And one that probably does deserve a link: two booklets on the Great Comet of 1577 in Latin, but the starting price of $3000 will almost certainly result in no bids at all being cast for them
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... :IT&ih=016

It's been a relatively quiet time for really old, rare astrology books the last few weeks - this is about all I can offer by way of advance notices from ebay for now, and I haven't seen anything of note on Americana Exchange either since the Sibly sale.

So until the next update,

Good night to all from Stockholm,

Philip

Time for a quick update:

1. The original booklets about the Great Comet of 1577 were unsold, as expected, but have been optimistically relisted by the same seller for the same starting bid of $3000. But for a miracle, they will go unsold again until the seller learns to reduce the starting price by at least 50%, preferably 75%.

2. The copy of Ellen Bennett's 'Astrology: Science of Knowledge and Reason' from 1897 sold for $52.02, which is within the normal range for copies on the used book markets at fixed price, so a very good result.

3. The 1936 copy of Henry Gordon's 'Rectification of Uncertain Birth Hours' sold for a miserly $4.25, quite a bargain.

4. The original first edition copy (albeit with some faults to the condition) of Robert Deluce's 'Complete Method of Prediction' that the seller would ship only to the United States sold for just $13.49, to a buyer from Australia who is quite a regular astrological collector on ebay and sniped the auction with a last minute bid, presumably so that the seller could not reject the bid on grounds of the buyer's location being outside the United States! That's one way to get around the rules, I suppose.... Still, the book would have fetched a lot more if it had shipped worldwide with the seller's authorisation.

5. A three-volume set of 'Numerology Quarterly' magazine covering the first (only?) three years of its existence in twelve issues, 1933, 1934 and 1935, sold for a pitiful $29.99. This journal is very scarce in OCLC. Although numerology takes the interpretations of numbers a lot further than astrology does, there is some overlapping ground to be found in the harmonic theory of aspects, and this kind of journal should be somewhat interesting even to astrologers sceptical about some numerologists' practices I think. Well, I hope so because I was the only bidder on this one, much to my surprise... I just didn't want it to go for a pittance when it's so scarce and deserved a good home to preserve it for posterity!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... :IT&ih=016

6. The fourth copy of 'Les Propheties de Michel Nostradamus' of antiquity to be sold in recent months fetched $760.00

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... :IT&ih=007

7. A 1900 second edition in only good overall condition of 'The Law and the Prophets' by Frank Ormsby sold last night for $95.99.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... :IT&ih=007
A look at the table of contents should show that this is an interesting example of an astrological / metaphysical work of its time. The Sacred Science Institute has reprinted this for about half the price this original sold for. It is just the kind of work the SSI loves in fact! I actually bid on this original but was outsniped by someone! Roll on the next copy, and may it be in fine condition....

Looking ahead, the interesting offerings are still looking on the lean side compared to normal.

1. There is however a first edition of Howard Leslie Cornell's Encyclopedia of Medical Astrology coming up for anyone looking for that:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... :IT&ih=016

2. And a nice, though not the first, hardcover edition (which is long since out of print, only a softcover being available now) of Mark Edmund Jones's book on the Sabian Symbols has been relisted after failing to sell the first time:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... :IT&ih=002

3. Staying with Jones, a first edition of his 'Key Truths of Occult Philosophy' from 1925 is sure to fetch a reasonable price:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... :IT&ih=010

4. And here's something positively on the weird side, to which I could find no references whatsoever anywhere on the Internet - no copies and no articles mentioning it either: 'The Logic of History' by Jas S. Taylor
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... :IT&ih=012

I can't say that it inspires much confidence in me based on the seller's minimalistic description, but it may sell because it's scarce and has a metaphysical theory of a kind to offer! Reportedly 500 copies were printed, but there's no trace of the other 499 anywhere on the world wide web. Perhaps they were mostly pulped (he said a little uncharitably)....

Still nothing to note from the major auction houses at this time.

Must get to work!

Some results first:

1) The 1933 first edition of Cornell's Encyclopaedia of Medical Astrology sold for just over $46. This was quite a bargain for a first edition - there are very few left on the used market and they start at well over $100 in any decent condition, though there is one in appalling condition that is under half that price.

I personally have both an Astrology Classics reprint of the third edition and also (purchased more recently) an original 1939 second edition which looks identical outwardly to the first edition but internally is distinguished by the additional foreword by another leading medical astrologer of the time, Henry Gordon, who apparently was a close colleague of Cornell in his lifetime and reissued the encyclopedia following Cornell's death. (In fact the second edition was mis-sold to me as a first edition, but I wasn't going to send a book that heavy all the way back from Sweden to Australia, and I don't believe the content is any different but for the added foreword.)

Another copy of the first edition recently sold to a sole bidder for only about $20 - this was in poorer exterior condition, but it was still a bargain price.

2) The Mark Edmund Jones hardcover copy of his book on the Sabian Symbols, a 1976 printing, fine in a very good dust jacket, once again failed to sell, and has been relisted for a third time at just about $5. A bargain at the price.

3) Jones's first edition of his Key Truths of Occult Philosophy sold to a bookdealer for a very low $20.50.

4) The mysterious Jas S. Taylor book 'The Logic of History' of which no copies exist in OCLC, in used bookstores worldwide that are on the Internet, or in any references on the Internet that can be found by google.com (possibly now apart from this strand and the expired ebay listing itself) sold to a sole bidder who is quite a regular collector of astrology books for the starting price of $24.99.

These listings of which advance notice was previously given apart, there have also been a few other listings ended recently that fetched moderately noteworthy prices:

5) A fifth antique copy of 'Les Propheties de Michel Nostradamus' to be listed in recent months, this one seriously defective as it lacks several pages altogether, as is apparent from the description, still managed to sell for over 350 Euros!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... &rd=1&rd=1

6) A copy of Moore's Vox Stellarum almanac for a single year, 1828, fetched ?27 ($51).

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... &rd=1&rd=1

Some other copies did not attract competition and sold for their starting bids, which were around ?20.

7) Another two-volume early edition of Sepharial's 'The Kabala of Numbers' from 1914, in apparently excellent condition (though the terminologically naive ebay newcomer who listed it described it as 'good condition', which in bookseller lingo usually means that there are some serious faults including typically internal ink notes, highlighting or underlining, but not apparently in this case), sold for a bargain $53, less than one third of its value when sold by book-dealers. Its success was arguably limited by a shortage of keywords in the listing, a United-States-only delivery policy and a personal-cheque-only payment method acceptance policy. It sold to a bookdealer, who no doubt will make an excellent profit on this investment.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... &rd=1&rd=1

8} A run of ten consecutive issues in excellent condition of Andre Barbault's quarterly journal 'L'Astrologue', Issues 71-80, spanning two and a half years from 1986 to 1988, sold to the same bidder for a total of 56,40 Euros (about $73.86 US). They were listed separately for starting bids of 1,99 Euros each, and fetched on average over 5 Euros (7 dollars) each, showing that there is plenty of life in the used astrology journal market if the right buyers are around at the right time!

PS: I am quite interested in French astrological journals and bid on all ten of these but was outbid on all ten, almost all of which bidding happened in the last six minutes of the listings!

Looking ahead, now, we find:

1) Someone is asking for offers over ?99 for a fine Regulus edition of 'Christian Astrology' by none other than William Lilly.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... &rd=1&rd=1

The asking price for this edition has been on the rise in recent years, and this is not unreasonable within the marketplace, so it might sell, but alternatively the high starting bid might put everyone off bidding. This sale has only about a day to run as I write this.

2) Just over a day remains to bid on an extremely scarce copy of a book credited to Raphael, The Astrologer of the Nineteenth Century, of which only one copy could be found in OCLC and none in the British Library when I checked. It is called 'The Fortune Teller's Own Book and Master-Key of Futurity' and is in only good to fair condition overall because the front cover is almost detached and there is heavy internal foxing as well as serious cover wear. But the bidding has still risen from $5 to $196, and with 34 hours of bidding left, it may well rise to about $250 or even higher by the close of the auction.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... &rd=1&rd=1

This particular copy was printed in 1846 by a publisher in Philadelphia called Kay and Troutman, though both OCLC and Amazon.com (who must have had another one in stock at some time in the past) record the publisher of the first edition to have been Fisher and Brother, in 1841, but they too were based in Philadelphia so presumably the book was sold between publishers or one publisher took over the other one some time between 1841 and 1846.

I have discussed this book quite extensively off-forum with Skyscript's resident Raphael expert Kim, and I'm sure she won't mind me sharing some of her thoughts about it. Philadelphia at that time was notorious for book piracy, she informs me, so it is highly possible that this was an illegal copy of a British book. However, since there are no records of any libraries worldwide holding any copies of a British edition of this book, the mystery only deepens. Could the Raphael name have been used under false pretences for a book that was not in fact written by any of the recognised British Raphaels?

I have personally cross-checked the contents of the book shown in the ebay seller's pictures against those of my copies of the Book of Fate, the Book of Dreams, the Astrologer of the Nineteenth Century, and the Familiar Astrologer, but there is no apparent match in any of them. Indeed, the content in the dreams pages pictured in the ebay copy of this book is definitely altogether different from the content in Raphael's Book of Dreams, which I presume to have been the same work as the Royal Book of Dreams, reprinted later in the 19th century by Robert Thomas Cross.

So either this work was not written by any Raphael at all, and the name of Raphael was used in vain by an American imposter, or in fact it was written by a Raphael but is an extremely rare book of which no copies of the original British edition (if ever there was one) have survived in any institution whose holdings are catalogued on OCLC or in the British Library.

If it was written by a genuine Raphael, the dates of 1841 and 1846 both make it the work of Medhurst (as Kim first pointed out to me), who was known for dealing in occult manuscripts and was Raphael for quite long enough to have compiled at least one of his own from ancient and more recent sources!

If it is indeed Medhurst's work, the mystery remains of why only American copies survive. Was the book sold by him through a private deal purely to the American market? Was it compiled from works so recent that he feared copyright problems if it were published in the UK? Or was it simply slightly more successful in the US, to the effect that no copies of the British edition have survived in any library records to be found on the Internet?

Whichever of the above may be true, there is no doubt that this book presents some fascinating enigmas in the context of Kim's research on the various Raphaels and the history of their publications. If any Skyscript viewer fancies launching a late bid having read all that, please be warned that we don't yet have any firm evidence that this book was written by one of the genuine Raphaels, but we can be fairly sure that it was not cribbed from any of the the better-known works of the first Raphael Robert Cross Smith! It may be very valuable if it can be shown by metalinguistic analysis and other research to be the work of Medhurst, or its value may be limited to that of any scarce forged work from 1840s Philadelphia published misleadingly under somebody else's nom de plume without a provenance to justify it!

Also I suspect that the current high-bidder, and another in the running, will be very determined to secure the book, so there would be little point in bidding only one increment up from the current high bid. If absolutely determined to buy this, one would probably have to bid substantially in excess of $300, as late as possible in the listing, and even then there would be no guarantees.

There are probably more listings worth advance notice, but this post has consumed all the time I had for it already so I'll have to cut it short for now.

Philip

The very scarce 1846 copy of an unidentified Raphael's (but most probably Medhurst's) book 'Fortune-Teller's Own Book and Master-Key to Futurity' easily met my prediction that a winning bid would have to be 'substantially in excess of $300'. It sold for $392 to an ebay trader who mostly sells on ebay, interestingly, suggesting that possibly its true valuation is much higher again.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... &rd=1&rd=1

(Please note that when results of completed auctions are posted, advertisements appear between the top of the page and the listing details so it is necessary to scroll down past them!)

In any case, this was quite a good result for a tiny-format popular fortune-telling work from the mid-19th century, although the fact that it is over 250 pages long, bears the name of Raphael, and is found in only one OCLC-member library in the world in any edition, must have helped its chances.

The Regulus copy of 'Christian Astrology' was unsold at ?99 and has been relisted at ?75.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... &rd=1&rd=1

For anyone that doesn't know (and I suspect that almost anyone interested in this strand does), the Regulus edition is the 1985-published full facsimile of all three books together in a single well-finished hardcover simulated-leather-bound volume, with an excellent full-colour reproduction of the original frontispiece portrait of Lilly himself in the front. It has become quite valuable since it's the only affordable full facsimile in one volume and the only hardcover reprint at all that has been made of the whole book since 1659. It also tends to be in much better condition than original first and second editions because of its youth, so is far preferable as a working copy to those expensive antiques.

But it still lacks the wonderful annotations on the Ascella (UK) / Spica (Australia) edition, the last unsold copies of the Spica imprint of Books 1 and 2 of which were available only from the son of Spica's owner / manager Anne Elliot in his small ebay shop the last time I checked, and indeed there are still ten copies left now:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Christian-Astrology ... dZViewItem

Anyhow, coming up now, there are once again very few seriously interesting listings, but if I have to pick out the next best, I'd probably want to mention:

1) A hardcover copy in original dust jacket of the 1972 third edition of Cornell's Encyclopedia of Medical Astrology, with a low starting price of $9.99. One for bargain-hunters more than collectors I think, but still looks a solid copy!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... &rd=1&rd=1

2) From the fringes of financial astrology but the heart of Gann analysis, a relisted copy of Jeanne Long's 'Universal Clock' which last time failed to attract any bids at all with a starting price of $135, and the same is again likely until the starting price is lower, considering the defects to the condition. It appears to be a guide to one of Gann's methods. I don't have a copy and couldn't personally justify paying nearly this much for this book.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... &rd=1&rd=1

3) From the heart of financial astrology, a study by Raymond Merriman into astrological influences on the prices of Silver. Another one I don't have yet - I suspect the astrological correlations observed are extremely interesting though, although the narrow focus on silver puts me off a little I must admit. This was also relisted after attracting no bids the first time. Because of slight defects, it may or may not fail to sell again. But it is still cheaper than new copies of the same title.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... &rd=1&rd=1

4) For the year 1719, an almanac in Henry Coley's name but published for a year that came fifteen years after his death, and thus presumably written by one of his successors.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... &rd=1&rd=1

5) Six successive bands of the famous Die Deutsche Ephemeride spanning 1850-1980, starting at a bargain price of $0.99. With free ephemerides covering longitude spanning thousands of years so readily available online, I suspect that printed ephemerides will have very poor value retention nowadays unless they are true antiques. But it might still be handy to have these very detailed printed ephemerides (which also include, if I'm not mistaken, declination information) for the years from 1850 readily accessible for ancestral and other historical research, so this one is worth considering in my view, though I personally must pass on it because of depleted finances!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... &rd=1&rd=1

6) A beautifully hardbound copy of Papus's 'Trait? ?l?mentaire d'occultisme et d'astrologie', a later 1936 edition, but one which, because of the fine rebinding, must be quite desirable for someone who doesn't have a copy of this already.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... &rd=1&rd=1

I think I have a standard softcover copy, but can't afford to upgrade even if it remains on the bargain starting bid. Good luck to anyone after this! It might be of interest to those who have read Lee Lehman's translation of 'Astrology for Initiates' by Papus, the French original of which was I think a posthumous work by Papus, and not one of his more famous works, whereas the present listing is I believe his best-known work connected with astrology, although he is perhaps best known overall for his Traite Elementaire de la Magie Pratique and other books on magic with relatively little astrological content. He was an occultist with an interest in astrology rather than the other way around, it might be surmised.

7) This one might not be of much interest at all to most Skyscript members, but just in case - a lot of 79 popular astrology books from the more lightweight end of the market for a starting bid of $200, which works out to $2.50 per book. Might make a good gift for someone who lacks the intellectual appetite for the more serious side of astrology but loves popular astrology, or a gift to children to whet their appetites for the subject, or even the subject of an academic research project into the popular astrology publishing industry and its presentational standards and techniques? Seriously though, I suspect that even with international M-bag shipping this would work out a lot more expensive per book once delivery is factored in, and I certainly couldn't justify this purchase to myself even if I had the money to spend, which I don't, but for the record, here it is:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... &rd=1&rd=1

PS: On second look at the list of titles, I haven't been entirely fair. There is at least a handful of really good astrology books in there, albeit in a late 20th century mould!

8} An original edition of Elizabeth Aldrich's pioneering standalone book on the influence of The Planet Neptune. Since this seller ships only to the United Kingdom by default, permission would have to be sought for other destinations. It's a fairly scarce book second-hand in its original pocket-sized hardback form, though currently there seem to be two copies on Abebooks for $20 and ?10 in the US and UK respectively, so there would be little point in bidding above that.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... &rd=1&rd=1

9) An early 1931 hardcover reprint edition of William Tyler Olcott's 'Star Lore of All Ages'. The first edition was from 1911 and there seems to be a decent copy on Abebooks of the 1931 printing for $50, so this copy is not especially valuable, but it's still very similar in format to the first edition, and far preferable to recent softcover reprints. With a starting price of $9.99 it is also potentially eminently affordable.

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