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.

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

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).