Description
Book SynopsisRecent scholarship on the Anglo-Saxon prognostics has tried to place these texts within the realm of folklore and medicine, inspired largely by studies and editions from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. By analysing prognostic material in its manuscript context, this book offers a novel approach to the status and purpose of prognostic texts in the early Middle Ages with particular attention to the Anglo-Saxon tradition. From this perspective, it emerges that prognostication in Anglo-Saxon England was not folkloric but a scholarly pursuit by monks not primarily interested in the medical aspects of prognostication. In addition, this book offers, for the first time, a comprehensive edition of prognostics in Old English and Latin from Anglo-Saxon and early post-Conquest manuscripts. Brill's Texts and Sources in Intellectual History, vol. 3
Trade Review"A very interesting study." Antonella Sannino, Nuncius 14:2 (2009) 509-510.
Table of ContentsFigures, Plates, Tables Acknowledgments Abbreviations Introduction 1.. Prognostics Defined 2. The Manuscript Context 3. Language, Date and Place of Origin of English Manuscripts Containing Prognostics 4. Superstition and Prognostication 5. Intended Use of Prognostic Texts Conclusion TEXT EDITION Introductions to the Texts Edition of the Texts Alphabet Prognostic Apuleian Sphere Birth Prognostics Bloodletting Prognostic, Day of the Week Brontologies Dog Days Dreambook Egyptian Days Lunaries Month Prognosis Moon Colour Regimen Sortes Sanctorum Sunshine Prognostic Unlucky Days Wind Prognostic Year Prognosis Appendices Appendix I. Handlist of Prognostics in English Manuscripts of the Ninth to Twelfth Centuries Appendix II. Reference List Appendix III. Concordance to Anglo-Saxon Prognostics Appendix IV. Values, Dates, Composition Bibliography Index of Names Index of Subjects
