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Details
ORACULUM KABALISTICUM, in Latin, decorated manuscript on paper [Italy, early 18th century]
A handsome kabbalistic manuscript drawing on Renaissance reinterpretations of the great Classical Roman poet Ovid as a prophetic philosopher, astronomer and cosmogonist.
260 x 179mm. i + 27 + i leaves (the final three leaves blank). 18 diagrams on double-page spreads, 1 diagram on final verso, 5 double-pages of computational tables (minor marginal thumbing, a few small stains). Contemporary calf gilt over pasteboards (a little scuffed and rubbed).
Provenance: Angelo Pasutto (1840-1910) of Valvasone, in Friuli-Venezia Giulia: his ownership inscription dated '9 Giungno [sic]' on f.29.
Content: 'Oraculum Kabalisticum percunctationibus Universis numerice respondens', with astronomical computational tables including extensive excerpts from Ovid's Fasti and Tristia, ff.1-24v.
In his Fasti, the Roman poet Publius Ovidius Naso (43 BCE - 17/18 CE) provides dates for a number of astronomical phenomena. The poem is a poetic version of the religious Roman calendar, but it also draws on the parapegmatic tradition, with Ovid giving dates for the rising and setting of various stars and constellations, and for the journey of the sun through the zodiac. The present manuscript is a fascinating example of a functional computational interpretation of Ovid's texts (see M. Robinson, 'Ovid, the Fasti and the stars', Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies, 50, 2007, pp.129-159).
A handsome kabbalistic manuscript drawing on Renaissance reinterpretations of the great Classical Roman poet Ovid as a prophetic philosopher, astronomer and cosmogonist.
260 x 179mm. i + 27 + i leaves (the final three leaves blank). 18 diagrams on double-page spreads, 1 diagram on final verso, 5 double-pages of computational tables (minor marginal thumbing, a few small stains). Contemporary calf gilt over pasteboards (a little scuffed and rubbed).
Provenance: Angelo Pasutto (1840-1910) of Valvasone, in Friuli-Venezia Giulia: his ownership inscription dated '9 Giungno [sic]' on f.29.
Content: 'Oraculum Kabalisticum percunctationibus Universis numerice respondens', with astronomical computational tables including extensive excerpts from Ovid's Fasti and Tristia, ff.1-24v.
In his Fasti, the Roman poet Publius Ovidius Naso (43 BCE - 17/18 CE) provides dates for a number of astronomical phenomena. The poem is a poetic version of the religious Roman calendar, but it also draws on the parapegmatic tradition, with Ovid giving dates for the rising and setting of various stars and constellations, and for the journey of the sun through the zodiac. The present manuscript is a fascinating example of a functional computational interpretation of Ovid's texts (see M. Robinson, 'Ovid, the Fasti and the stars', Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies, 50, 2007, pp.129-159).
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