Medieval Divination by Unexpected Incidents: The Tabula prenostica Salomonis

This article explores a little-known prognostic table, the so-called Tabula Salomonis, in its four oldest Latin manuscript witnesses from between ca. 1000 and 1300. Unusually for Latin prognostic texts, the table employs unexpected incidents such as animal sounds, sneezes, and bodily twitches combin...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Hertogh, Tim (Author) ; Rhijn, Carine van (Author) ; Schalekamp, Bruno (Author) ; Schmidl, Petra G. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Brill 2023
In: International journal of divination and prognostication
Year: 2023, Volume: 4, Issue: 2, Pages: 81-103
Further subjects:B history of knowledge
B Alfeal secundum motum lune
B Kitāb al-Tabṣira fī ˁilm al-nujūm
B prognostication
B Manuscript studies
B Tabula prenostica Salomonis
B al-Ashraf ˁUmar
B Medieval History
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Summary:This article explores a little-known prognostic table, the so-called Tabula Salomonis, in its four oldest Latin manuscript witnesses from between ca. 1000 and 1300. Unusually for Latin prognostic texts, the table employs unexpected incidents such as animal sounds, sneezes, and bodily twitches combined with the signs of the zodiac as its starting point. Interestingly, the sources for the Tabula, a series of Late Antique texts from which the author “picked and mixed,” are not extant in Latin. Given a parallel tradition in Arabic, the authors argue that the Tabula’s direct precursor is not a Greek text (as is the case for many contemporary prognostic texts in Latin), but an Arabic work. This would make it the earliest attested prognostic text translated directly from Arabic into Latin.
ISSN:2589-9201
Contains:Enthalten in: International journal of divination and prognostication
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1163/25899201-bja10003