Skyscript Astrology Forum

Hi everyone,

Anyone here ever got the chance to explore the (voluminous) works of the 17th century astrologers in the title of this post?

Lilly, who is their contemporary, is obviously the 'go to', in terms of English renaissance / early-modern astrology.
However, Gadbury, Coley & Ramesey wrote lengthy treatises of their own, and they were all contemporaries.
We have other contemporary "greats", in the form of Nicholas Culpeper and Richard Saunders, if someone is interested in medical astrology.
* Are there any contemporaries I'm forgetting?

Anyhow, I somewhat get the feeling that the works of Gadbury, Coley & Ramesey weren't sufficiently explored. That is, while Lilly's CA became a staple within the traditional astrology community.
To be more specific I mean Gadbury's Doctrine of Nativities and Doctrine of Horary Questions, Coley's Key to the Whole Art of Astrology, and Ramesey's Astrology Restored.

Any thought on the subject, and/or the authors of these works, would be welcomed.
Especially about their astrology, and maybe also differences in approach, as compared to Lilly.

Hi Dima ... Steven Birchfield transcribed Ramesy's book Astrologia Munda but I can't recall what he said about its use. While I've read works by Ramsey and Coley I can't say I've actually used them since most of my mundane work followed Zain.

Funny you should mention Gadbury, I am working my way through (transcribing) his A Collection of Nativities; I'm on the 31st chart, the King of Poland. From what I can see so far he:

• uses Lilly's table of Essential Dignities (including Lilly's terms)
• uses Regiomontanus houses
• he follows Morin's methods for Primary Directions
• he uses Solar Returns (or Revolutions as he calls them)
• he describes Profections and their use in his Doctrine of Nativities and Doctrine of Horary Questions but I haven't run across and example of where he's used it as yet

I haven't looked at Lilly's primary direction methods in years, hopefully someone more familiar with them will pipe up and describe them.

Hello Dima,

To explore 17th Century astrologers around the world.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category: ... strologers

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Of the 3 astrologers you mention in your title

Of Ramesey, Steven Birchfield in his revised English edition of William Ramesey's 'Astrologia Munda',p. 8 says...
https://www.skyscript.co.uk/birchfield.html#munda

"In his own words, he never practiced astrology. In fact, it would appear he was a very reticent and reclusive man only having three friends.
Ramesey lived along side other astrologers such as William Lilly, but by all appearances in his autobiography, Lilly never mentions William Ramesey as being a known astrologer.
This is perhaps something that should be understood about this work. It is not based on Ramesey's personal experience from practice of it! But Ramesey, being a noble and having good means, had a very respectable Library containing not only the works of European philosophers and astrologers, but he himself says he owned a large selection of Arabic works.
The real value of this text is that within, we find a very broad compilation of ancient authors such as Masha'allah, Abu Ma'shar, Haly, Bonatti and probably others we no longer have. There are several conceptions and techniques of delineation; and by all appearances has some basis in ancient doctrine but whose texts are no longer extant or perhaps lost. This work must be seen in the same way as the work of earlier compilers such as Al Biruni and most of the time, Ramesey is very careful to faithfully transmit the counsel of the ancients."

For this reason, his work on Mundane Astrology is worth looking at.
--------------

Of John Gadbury
It seems that he established himself as a precusor of Lois Rodden with his book 'A Collection of Nativities'.
"But his lifelong war with Lilly and Partridge did not bode well for his legacy.
And his last reflections in his almanac of 1703 convey the disappointment he must have felt as he came to terms with the realisation that his longed-for reformation of astrology had failed to come about." (David Plant)
https://www.skyscript.co.uk/gadbury.html
-------------------

Of John Coley
Laura Zimmerman did a transcript of his 'Astrologiae Elimata' below
https://www.skyscript.co.uk/clavis.html
His book is almost like an encyclopedia
Good read as a 17th Century astrologer
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Check 'William Lilly and his method of Primary Directions' by Rumen Kolev
Detailed explanations on how he used the method.

Jane:

By the sound of it, astrological practice in 17th century England was quite uniform.
By the look of it, Lilly used pretty much the same methods and technique.

--

By the way, I've been browsing through your rendition of Valens recently, and I'm quite impressed by it.
The best edition of Valens I know of - my humble opinion


Ouranos:

To explore 17th Century astrologers around the world.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category: ... strologers

Oh, I almost forgot Joseph Blagrave, amongst the big names of that era. Known for his medical treatise.

In his own words, he never practiced astrology. In fact, it would appear he was a very reticent and reclusive man only having three friends.
Ramesey lived along side other astrologers such as William Lilly, but by all appearances in his autobiography, Lilly never mentions William Ramesey as being a known astrologer.
This is perhaps something that should be understood about this work. It is not based on Ramesey's personal experience from practice of it! But Ramesey, being a noble and having good means, had a very respectable Library containing not only the works of European philosophers and astrologers, but he himself says he owned a large selection of Arabic works.
The real value of this text is that within, we find a very broad compilation of ancient authors such as Masha'allah, Abu Ma'shar, Haly, Bonatti and probably others we no longer have. There are several conceptions and techniques of delineation; and by all appearances has some basis in ancient doctrine but whose texts are no longer extant or perhaps lost. This work must be seen in the same way as the work of earlier compilers such as Al Biruni and most of the time, Ramesey is very careful to faithfully transmit the counsel of the ancients

Fascinating. Wasn't aware of it.

But his lifelong war with Lilly and Partridge did not bode well for his legacy.

How so? The crown ended up winning the civil war.
I'll have to refresh on my history...

About Laura Zimmerman's transcript of Coley:
Just browsed through it. It seems like a transcript to modern English of Coley's entire book. Isn't it?

Hi Dima,

By the sound of it, astrological practice in 17th century England was quite uniform.
By the look of it, Lilly used pretty much the same methods and technique.

Yes, from my own readings I'd agree, although I've been a bit surprised by Morin's influence on Gadbury, I don't remember Lilly referring to him but then I read Lilly quite a while back and before I knew who Morin was so perhaps he was mentioned and just didn't register with me at the time.

--

By the way, I've been browsing through your rendition of Valens recently, and I'm quite impressed by it.
The best edition of Valens I know of - my humble opinion

Thank you, glad you find it of use