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  • Article

The enigma of the medieval folding almanac

With its combination of rich, portable data and high-end style, this folding almanac could have been the medieval equivalent of the latest iPhone.

  • Article

Divining the world through an artist’s almanac

Amanda Couch's artists book, 'Huwawa in the Everyday: an almanac' is inspired by the entrail like folds of a medieval folding and its function as a guide for astrological divinations linking the body, health and the heavens. Like the original almanac her work is designed to be carried out into the wider world.

  • Article

Mapping the body

These intricate anatomical drawings show how Ayurveda practitioners have explored the human body and how it works.

  • Article

A medieval guide to practical magic

With few sources of effective help available when treating an injured patient, the medieval physician could instead stage a healing ceremony using a practical how-to guide he carried with him.

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Images

  • Anima astrologiae: or, a guide for astrologers. Being the considerations of the famous Guido Bonatus, faithfully rendred into English. As also the choicest aphorisms of Cardans Seaven segments translated and methodically digested under their proper heads. ; with a new table of the fixed stars, rectified for several years to come, and divers other necessary illustrations. A work most useful and necessary for all students, and recommended as such to the sons of art / [Ed.] By William Lilly.
  • An astrologer. Watercolour by an Indian artist, ca. 1825.
  • Simon Forman, astrologer. Oil painting after J. Bulfinch, ca. 1900.
  • Simon Forman, astrologer. Oil painting after J. Bulfinch, ca. 1900.
  • The dance of death: the astrologer. Woodcut by Hans Holbein the younger.
  • An astrologer telling a lady's fortune. Lithograph by J. Prat after C.C. Renoux.
  • An unidentified Persian astrologer or mathematician. Gouache painting by a Persian artist, Qajar period.
  • Astronomy: an astrologer sits in a landscape with his hand on a globe. Line engraving, 1707 [?].
  • An astronomer and astrologer in his study, plotting points on a globe with a pair of dividers. Woodcut by J. Amman, 1568.
  • An astrologer wearing spectacles sits in his study reading by a globe. Line engraving by G.L. Heitel(?) after J.J. Vliet, 1634.
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