Astrological-divinatory text, consisting of a fortune-telling game which matches birds to zodiacal signs

Written in a neat French gothic script, capitals picked out in red.

Contents

1. ff. 1r-8v Anonymous astrological-divinatory text

A fortune-telling game which matches 12 birds to zodiacal signs ff. 1r-7r, followed by instructions for playing the game ff. 7v-8v. On f. 1r are sketches of birds with names, and the qualities associated with each bird, and the zodiacal sign. One of the birds is a bat, classified as a bird in medieval encyclopedias

Incipit f. 1v: 'Viues competenter nec queras amplius...'

Explicit: '...deinde divide per 30 partes equales et quod remanebit erit numerus expartem'.

Middle 15th century

1 volume 8 ff. 4to. 231/2 x 16 cm. On vellum, 18th cent. calf binding.

Purchased 1936.

Probably written in France.

Database description transcribed from S.A.J. Moorat, Catalogue of Western Manuscripts on Medicine and Science in the Wellcome Historical Medical Library (London: Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, 1962-1973).

This material has been digitised and can be freely accessed online through Wellcome Collection catalogue.

Covers stamped in gold with the arms of Louis François de Villeneuve-Trans (1784-1850), archaeologist and historian.