From the book
The Anatomy of Melancholy
Robert Burton · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The word“judicial Astrology” is astrology that judges human dispositions and events from celestial configurations.
- In the Anatomy of MelancholyThe causes subsection opens by classifying heavenly influences as primary and universal, while explicitly marking the account as what astrologers hold.
- In this edition“judicial Astrology” remains “judicial astrology”; “to apologize for” becomes “to defend,” preserving the argumentative sense of apology.
- A place to readthe imagined commonwealth and an astrologer's fee as a proposed contribution
Meaning
“judicial Astrology” is astrology that judges human dispositions and events from celestial configurations. Judicial concerns judgement here, not a law court. An astrologer practises stellar interpretation or prediction; the work also gives the profession questions about weather, disease and contrasting climates. “Iatromathematicall” combines medicine with the mathematical or astrological arts; Burton applies it to practitioners who organize treatment through astrology. An “election” selects a supposedly favourable time, and “Genethliacal” concerns births and natal horoscopes. “Astrologian” is an adjective in “Astrologian Treatises,” but “Astrologians” is a noun for practitioners. Even “Mathematicians” can designate astrologers when the context is prediction and fate. That does not make all mathematics astrology: Burton's delighted account of the “Mathematicks” includes surveying, maps, models and sundials.
Use in the book
The causes subsection opens by classifying heavenly influences as primary and universal, while explicitly marking the account as what astrologers hold. Burton declines to settle, in passing, whether the stars produce events or signify them, and does not attempt a full defence of judicial astrology. He nevertheless resists an indiscriminate dismissal of celestial power: his reference to rules “approved by experience” is part of that defence. He states his own position that the stars incline without compelling. “agunt non cogunt” means that they act but do not force; “sapiens dominabitur astris” says that the wise person will master the stars. Rational resistance and God's government limit their influence. The subsequent image of heaven as a “vehiculum divinæ virtutis,” vehicle of divine power, makes it God's instrument for ordering elemental bodies. It does not promote the stars into independent sovereign agents.
The catalogue that follows contains stronger claims than this opening position. Paracelsus makes knowledge of the patient's birth configuration indispensable even to understanding toothache and gives the stars priority over humours. The body says that the constellation alone produces melancholy “many times”; its accompanying Latin has “interdum,” sometimes. Neither says always. Other physicians are said to accept celestial influence less dogmatically. Burton then presents rules, cases offered as proof and competing authorities, including physicians invoked against the anticipated objection that astrologers are biased judges. The discussion extends into physiognomy and palmistry: bodily features are also read as signs, without becoming identical to the stars themselves. Attribution preserves these differences of force and method. In the later hereditary discussion, secondary causes are even said to alter the decrees of the heavens.
Predictions also have emotional effects. Fear of a foretold illness or death can itself torment the person who consults an astrologer. In the critique of overstudying, Burton asks whether astrology amounts to futile elections and predictions, alongside equally sweeping attacks on medicine, philosophy and his own learned pursuits. That rhetorical catalogue does not erase his more qualified uses elsewhere. Conrad's wait for a “masculine hour,” supposedly favourable to conceiving a boy, ends with the sceptical question “but with what success?”; the anecdote does not give a verified outcome. The account of absorbing recreation permits casting a nativity “in some cases”; the permission concerns an occupation of the mind, not a demonstration that the resulting forecast is true. Astrological and geometrical games appear among recreations especially attractive to mathematical minds, but Burton extends to them his preceding reservation that such games are not altogether suitable for students.
The treatment discussion develops a specific limit. Paracelsus requires the healer to combine the arts of magician, chemist, philosopher and astrologer. His marginal claim that many patients can be cured only by magicians and astrologers preserves both the restriction “many” and the conjunction “and.” Burton reports physicians on both sides of medical astrology and again declines to adjudicate the controversy comprehensively. Magini's claim that physicians ignorant of astrology are killers belongs to the quoted defence, not to an unqualified judgement by Burton. Paracelsus's requirement of a physician predestined for this patient, with birth charts and astrological timing governing herb-gathering and administration, goes further. Burton calls Thurnesserus and some practitioners of astrological medicine too superstitious and dogmatic. The hellebore example belongs to their claim that the cure depends on the particular healer, rather than a general assurance of success. Burton next checks his own authority to judge these matters and insists on the physician's honesty. The sequence combines explicit criticism with a limitation on his expertise.
In love, stars are introduced as the most remote causes, meaning farther back in the causal account than immediate bodily conditions. Ficino's configurations, the Mars–Venus conjunction and Cardan's account of his own sexual thoughts are reported in turn. To interpret the Mars–Venus story “Astrologically” is to read the myth through a planetary conjunction in natal charts; the ensuing judgement says “commonly,” not invariably, and Chaucer's Wife of Bath supplies a further literary voice. Burton's defence of Cardan's candour concerns his frank self-description; it should not be converted into acceptance of every astrological inference. The claim that Ptolemy's aphorisms have been confirmed by practice and experience is expressly Cardan's. The jealousy section likewise offers astrologers' “probable conjecture,” not certainty. In the marriage discussion, predictions are expressly compared with conjectures rather than magistrates' decrees. Wisdom, diligence and discretion can mitigate, perhaps alter, the result; readers are told not to surrender to fear or vain hope.
The religious discussion draws the boundary more sharply against claims that stars are immediate, inevitable causes of every future event, including the rise and fall of religions. Burton reports a naturalistic account of celestial cycles through Vanini, then reproduces Vanini's own professed Christian rejection of what he has recited. The first-person disclaimer belongs to the cited author at that point; it is not an unmarked change back to Burton. Nor does the passage by itself settle the sincerity of that disclaimer. The objection to inevitable universal causation is consistent with the earlier insistence that stars incline rather than compel.
A smaller satirical use shows how portable the language is: the “perfect Astrologer” who calculates other people's rise and fall is the successful opportunist, turning social movements to his own advancement. Celestial terminology supplies the joke rather than a literal horoscope. The profession supplies other kinds of comic comparison. A fee for casting a nativity measures the proposed contribution to Burton's imaginary commonwealth; Bonatti's ability to “fore-see” becomes a joke about learned arts that do not pay. Lucretia in Aretino boasts that kisses and embraces achieve more than astrologers and other learned or occult experts can: the claim is her literary speech, not Burton's personal testimony.
Elsewhere an astrologer's expertise enters an argument without the same satirical judgement. Predictions of dearth, storms and plague illustrate natural dangers set against human malice, which no art can avert. The preceding claim about anticipating epidemic disease is qualified by “most part” and “likely.” Leovitius offers the unusually healthy Otto Herwardus as an example of certainty in his art, but Burton places such people among rare exceptions, perhaps one in an age or one in a thousand; Otto's remembered freedom from illness remains the reported evidence. These passages attribute predictive power or claims of proof locally rather than establishing an unrestricted guarantee.
The title also ranges into natural inquiry. Vaughan considers the different seasons of places at similar latitudes a problem worthy of an “Astrologer”; the term should not be silently narrowed to the modern profession of astronomer. Later Burton rejects Scaliger's particular attempt to explain national differences by different arrangements of the heavens. That rejection belongs to an extended examination of rival geographical and celestial explanations, not a cancellation of every possible heavenly influence.
Two comparisons require a further distinction between the topic of a saying and its new application. Tacitus's saying about astrologers in Rome, always shunned yet retained, is borrowed for entertainers. Burton qualifies his criticism with “most part,” “some of them” and a distinction between fiddlers and musicians; the paragraph is not simply a new blanket condemnation of astrologers. In consolation, planets' motions and their supposed strengths and weaknesses provide an analogy for changing human fortunes. “As” the planets change, “so” people rise and fall: the comparison does not say those planetary conditions cause each reversal.
Astrologers can explain affinities as well as predict events. Burton refers readers to them for the supposed love and hatred of planets, next naming Leone Ebreo's fables and their moral interpretation. In human attraction, celestial configurations are one explanation among several: physicians invoke temperament, Cicogna the agreement or disagreement of spirits, and most outward charms. Selection of times also appears in the deferred dispute over whether love and hatred can be compelled. The next paragraph's honourable love, founded on inward worth, cannot be compelled. These are different explanatory and ethical positions, not a single astrological doctrine adopted throughout.
The operative arts have still other limits. Some astrologers are said to remove love through images bearing magical signs, within a catalogue already called unlawful and often absurd. In the jealousy discussion Burton asks what purpose astrological questions about virginity, chastity and sexual experience serve, alongside the strange tests he attributes to a jealous mind. Near its end, consultation of an astrologer to compare partners' natal significators is a conditional proposal, and the predicted enmity remains what the astrologers “hold.” The following seal manufactured at a favourable day and hour of Venus is a separate talismanic promise, among things magicians “put upon us.” In the treatment of possession, Lemnius's advice, approved by Burton, dispenses with astrological selections of time and place and other elaborate exorcistic trappings in favour of the simple invocation of Christ's name. These passages need their local qualifications; neither a list of practitioners nor an apparently imperative recommendation guarantees endorsement or efficacy.
Related entries
Geniture; Astrological aspects; Astrological significators; Jovial and martial; Election; Judicial and judicious; Divination; Primary and secondary causes; Fear
Places to read
- · paragraph 36–41the imagined commonwealth and an astrologer's fee as a proposed contribution
- · paragraph 32–39natural dangers, qualified foresight and the contrast with human malice
- · paragraph 3–9Leovitius's claimed proof and the rare healthy exception
- · paragraph 1–24causes or signs, non-compulsion, medical claims, offered proofs and bodily sign-reading
- · paragraph 25–27the following subsection defines secondary causes relatively and turns to old age, marking the boundary of the stellar account
- · paragraph 43–46hereditary secondary causes can alter heavenly decrees
- · paragraph 24Bonatti's foresight and the poverty of learned professions
- · paragraph 33–35the social climber as a perfect astrologer
- · paragraph 5–11predictive fear, imagination and the reported Chinese example
- · paragraph 19–24the satirical attack on learning, natal studies and the question about a masculine hour
- · paragraph 4–10medical astrology, combined healing arts, excessive certainty and physician honesty
- · paragraph 35–40climate contrasts and Vaughan's proposed question for an astrologer
- · paragraph 8–16competing explanations of national differences and rejection of Scaliger's particular celestial account
- · paragraph 7–12games, mathematical interests and the reservation about students
- · paragraph 13–20the saying about Roman astrologers applied to entertainers
- · paragraph 6–10mathematics as theoretical and practical study, broader than astrology alone
- · paragraph 9–12qualified permission to cast a nativity as an absorbing occupation
- · paragraph 10–15planetary conditions as an analogy for changing human fortunes
- · paragraph 5–10natural affinities, planetary love and hatred, fables and moral interpretation
- · paragraph 5–10competing explanations of attraction and aversion
- · paragraph 20–26elections of time in the dispute about compelled love, followed by honourable love
- · paragraph 1–11remote causes, astrological myth-reading, Cardan's candour and his claim of empirical confirmation
- · paragraph 1–7Lucretia's boast that kisses and embraces surpass astrologers and other experts
- · paragraph 48–54unlawful remedies and some astrologers' talismanic images
- · paragraph 1–8marriage forecasts are conjectures rather than compulsory decrees
- · paragraph 2–4jealousy and a probable conjecture
- · paragraph 38–44disputed virginity tests and the criticism of astrological questions
- · paragraph 6–13conditional horoscope consultation, the Venus-timed seal and the surrounding remedies
- · paragraph 18–29objection to inevitable universal stellar causation and Vanini's quoted disclaimer
- rejection of elaborate exorcistic preparations, including astrological elections
In this edition
“judicial Astrology” remains “judicial astrology”; “to apologize for” becomes “to defend,” preserving the argumentative sense of apology. “Iatromathematicall professors” becomes “practitioners of astrological medicine”: professors here profess or practise the art, rather than necessarily holding modern academic posts. “vain elections, predictions” becomes “futile choices of auspicious times and predictions,” with auspicious times supplying the astrological object of election. “Genethliacal studies” becomes “studies of birth horoscopes,” while “a masculine hour” becomes “an hour favourable to conceiving a boy”: the explanations articulate the technical adjective rather than certify the promised result. “Astrologically observed” is “governed by astrology”; the adverb is redistributed into a prepositional phrase within the statement about timing treatment.
The Latin “agunt non cogunt” is rendered “They act upon us; they do not force us.” The objects us are supplied by the surrounding discussion, while the verbs already encode plural subjects. Substantival “sapiens” becomes “the wise man” in the next maxim. “vehiculum” is vehicle or means of conveyance in the Latin phrase; Burton's own subsequent English supplies the interpretive image of God's instrument. In the wider mixed-language construction, singular “Cœlum” becomes the collective plural “the heavens.” The adjective “prætoriana” becomes the possessive construction “a magistrate's”; “they be but conjectures” is Burton's following explanation, not an additional Latin clause.
The two uses of “Astrologian” must remain grammatically distinct: “Astrologian Treatises” becomes “astrological treatises,” whereas “Astrologians” becomes “astrologers.” Magini's title “Mathematicall physick” becomes “Mathematical Medicine,” in a discussion of astrology's place in treatment. The Latin noun “Astrologiæ,” astrology, occurs within his quoted polemic; its compressed “homicidas medicos Astrologiæ ignaros” is recast as “physicians ignorant of astrology are killers.” Original marginal “Astrologis” and “Astrologi” also mean astrologers, but belong respectively to the Paracelsian curative requirement and Lucretia's boast. Their English translations are editorial explanations inside Burton-labelled notes, not additional original English attestations. “Mathematicians” becomes “astrologers” because that context concerns celestial prediction and necessity; elsewhere “Mathematicks” remains mathematics.
Planetary symbols and conjunctions need local attention rather than automatic normalization. The marginal symbols differ from the body's configurations; the supplied notes preserve that disagreement. The margin has Virgo “et” Pisces while the body gives “or.” Conversely, the modern column reads Saturn “and” Mars where the body prints “or,” because the ensuing “the one … the other” and marginal “et” support the pair. Printed “vitabitur” is translated “shunned”; the edition's note reports Tacitus's different reading without silently importing it. The body, original margin and editorial explanation retain distinct evidential roles. The companion entries explain aspects, significators and natal charts without making this selection a complete astrological concordance.
agunt non cogunt
Printed “agunt non cogunt” (Latin; phrase).
Citation key, Printed form, Source wording, Original wording: agunt non cogunt
They act, but do not compel.
Context: Burton’s stated position: stars incline gently; reason can resist; God rules the stars. The Latin finite verbs encode plural subjects, while their identification as the stars and their human objects come from context.
Source: original body
Modern rendering: They act upon us; they do not force us
Word and construction: Whole Latin dictum compared with its expanded English rendering; no individual verb is equated with the complete maxim.
Supply or redistribution: They makes the Latin third-person plural subjects explicit; their reference to stars is contextual.; Upon us and the second us are supplied human objects; neither is separately written in the Latin dictum.
astrologer · Astrologer · local use 1
Printed “Astrologer” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.
An interpreter or predictor of earthly affairs from the stars; here satirically a calculator of other people’s social rise and fall who turns their movements to his own advantage.
Context: The surrounding catalogue reduces learned arts to ways of gaining advancement.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: A perfect Astrologer, that can cast the rise and fall of others
Modern rendering: a perfect astrologer can calculate the rise and fall of others
Word and construction: Astrologer is the occupation noun within the wider satirical construction; the rise-and-fall calculation is its local application.
Supply or redistribution: The elliptic original noun phrase with relative that can is recast as an independent clause with can.
astrologer · Astrologer · local use 2
Printed “Astrologer” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.
A practitioner who interprets the stars and casts horoscopes; here a fee-taking professional used as the measure of a proposed subscription.
Context: Burton conditionally invites a gentleman to contribute to his imagined project. The fee is attributed to Cardan; its amount and independent source are not supplied.
Source: original body
Source wording: as Cardan allows an Astrologer for casting a Nativity
Original wording: an Astrologer for casting a Nativity
Modern rendering: an astrologer for casting a birth horoscope
Supply or redistribution: Birth horoscope explains the technical Nativity.
astrologer · Astrologers · local use 1
Printed “Astrologers” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.
Interpreters of celestial signs who predict events; here forecasters of scarcity, storms and plagues.
Context: Burton contrasts natural dangers with human malice. The preceding claim says epidemic diseases can for the most part be foreseen and probably avoided; it is not an assurance that every prediction is certain.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: Dearths, tempests, plagues, our Astrologers foretel us
Modern rendering: Our astrologers predict scarcity, storms and plagues
Supply or redistribution: The fronted list becomes the verb’s following object; and unfolds its final coordination.; The explicit recipient us is absorbed into the modern construction rather than separately rendered.
astrologer · Astrologer · local use 3
Printed “Astrologer” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.
A practitioner of stellar judgement; here Leovitius, who offers a man’s remembered good health as evidence for astrology.
Context: Leovitius supplies the claimed proof. Burton frames such healthy people as perhaps one in an age or one in a thousand; Otto’s recollection is not independently established lifetime immunity.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: whom Leovitius the Astrologer brings in for an example and instance of certainty in his art
Modern rendering: whom the astrologer Leovitius offers as proof of his art’s certainty
Supply or redistribution: The apposition is reordered.; Example and instance is compressed as proof, retaining its evidential function without separately repeating the two nouns.
astrologer · Astrologer · local use 4
Printed “Astrologer” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.
A practitioner of stellar interpretation or judgement; here one of the arts Paracelsus requires in a healer of melancholy.
Context: Paracelsus and named followers require the same physician to combine the listed arts. Their following claim about exclusive magical cure concerns many patients, not all; the body’s only by Magick and the margin’s magicians and astrologers remain distinct formulations.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: a Magician, a Chimist, a Philosopher, an Astrologer
Modern rendering: a magician, a chemist, a philosopher and an astrologer
Supply or redistribution: And makes the final coordination explicit; the series denotes combined requirements, not alternative healers.
astrologer · Astrologer · local use 5
Printed “Astrologer” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.
A student or interpreter of celestial conditions and their earthly relations; here a possible investigator of contrasting climates at similar latitudes.
Context: Vaughan considers the investigation worthy of an astrologer. Burton reports the geographical observations and leaves the explanatory problem open; the professional label should not silently become modern astronomer.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: which search he accounts worthy of an Astrologer
Modern rendering: He considers the investigation worthy of an astrologer
Supply or redistribution: The relative clause becomes an independent sentence: which search is recast as the investigation.
astrologer · Astrologers · local use 2
Printed “Astrologers” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.
Practitioners of stellar prediction; here the Roman group in Tacitus’s saying, borrowed as an analogy for entertainers who are condemned yet retained.
Context: The borrowed saying concerns astrologers; Burton applies it to entertainers. Most part, some of them and his distinction between fiddlers and musicians qualify the ensuing criticism. Printed vitabitur is translated shunned; the editorial note reports Tacitus’s different vetabitur without changing Burton.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: as Tacitus said of the Astrologers in Rome
Modern rendering: what Tacitus said of the astrologers in Rome
Supply or redistribution: As is redistributed as what within the modern sentence’s reordered comparative construction.
astrologer · Astrologers · local use 3
Printed “Astrologers” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.
Interpreters of celestial configurations; here authorities for planetary strengths and weaknesses used in a comparison with human fortunes.
Context: As … so makes an analogy: planetary changes resemble human rises and falls. The passage does not assert that those planetary conditions cause each earthly reversal.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: as our Astrologers will, have their fortitudes & debilities
Modern rendering: According to our astrologers, they have their strengths and weaknesses
Supply or redistribution: Will, meaning maintain or have it, is recast as according to.; They restates the planets named earlier after the modern sentence break; their remains explicit.
astrologer · Astrologer · local use 6
Printed “Astrologer” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.
An interpreter of the stars, here treated as an authority on supposed affinities and aversions among planets.
Context: Burton invites consultation of astrologers and then names Leone Ebreo’s explanations drawn from fables and moral interpretations. Planetary love is part of this natural-philosophical and allegorical account, not merely human romance.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: of the love and hatred of Planets, consult with every Astrologer
Modern rendering: On the love and hatred of planets, consult any astrologer
Supply or redistribution: Every in the open invitation is rendered any, retaining the general availability of such an authority rather than naming one exclusive practitioner.
astrologer · Astrologers · local use 4
Printed “Astrologers” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.
Interpreters of stellar configurations; here a group explaining human attraction and aversion by aspects and natal relationships.
Context: The account is one among alternatives: physicians invoke temperament, Cicogna spirits, and most outward charms. The preceding as some suppose qualifies the secret stellar-force explanation.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: Astrologers to trine and sextile Aspects, or opposite
Modern rendering: astrologers to trine, sextile or opposing aspects
Supply or redistribution: The original coordination trine and sextile … or opposite is reorganized as a three-item list ending or; both printed coordinators remain visible in the original unit.; Opposite is interpreted as an aspect and gathered under the plural aspects; the governing attribution verb is inherited from the preceding physicians clause in both versions.
astrologer · Astrologers · local use 5
Printed “Astrologers” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.
Practitioners of stellar arts, here credited with using talismanic images bearing magical signs to remove love.
Context: Some, not all, astrologers are said to do this. Burton has introduced the remedies as unlawful and often absurd; will effect is a reported promise, not verified efficacy.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: Some of our Astrologers will effect as much by Characteristicall Images
Modern rendering: Some of our astrologers will accomplish as much through images bearing magical signs
Supply or redistribution: Characteristicall is unfolded as bearing magical signs, explaining the adjective rather than adding a separate instrument.
astrologer · Astrologer · local use 7
Printed “Astrologer” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.
A practitioner consulted to interpret celestial relationships; here one comparing the partners’ natal significators for agreement or hostility.
Context: The invitation is conditional upon preceding remedies failing; intolerable enmity is what astrologers maintain, explicitly as they hold. The following Venus-timed seal is a different proposed device, described as something magicians foist on readers.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: consult with an Astrologer
Modern rendering: consult an astrologer
Supply or redistribution: With is absorbed into the modern transitive consult construction.
astrologia
Printed “Astrologiæ” (Latin; Latin noun lemma; genitive singular form). Attestation: word form.
Astrology, the art of stellar judgement; the genitive Astrologiæ depends on ignaros, ignorant of.
Context: Within Magini’s quoted defence, physicians ignorant of astrology are called killers. This is the quoted advocate’s polemical charge, not an unqualified judgement issued by Burton.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: homicidas medicos Astrologiæ ignaros
Modern rendering: physicians ignorant of astrology are killers
Supply or redistribution: The compressed Latin accusative construction is turned into a complete English clause with are; physicians are its subject and killers its predicate.
astrologian · Astrologian
Printed “Astrologian” (English; adjective). Attestation: word form.
Astrological: concerned with stellar configurations and their judgements. Here it modifies treatises, unlike the noun Astrologians for practitioners.
Context: Burton lists cases offered to establish the rules; the modern offered as proof keeps their claimed evidential status separate from fresh verification.
Source: original body
Source wording: those Astrologian Treatises
astrologian · Astrologians
Printed “Astrologians” (English; noun). Attestation: word form.
Astrologers, or practitioners of stellar judgement; here a plural noun for holders of the reported celestial and naturalistic doctrines. It is distinct from adjectival Astrologian.
Context: The preceding first-person Christian disclaimer is Vanini’s quoted rejection of doctrines he recites. Burton then names their former adherents; the text does not settle the disclaimer’s sincerity.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: Thus Peripateticks and Astrologians held in former times
Modern rendering: Such were the beliefs of Peripatetics and astrologers in former times
Supply or redistribution: Thus … held becomes Such were the beliefs of: the verb is redistributed into a noun and copular construction.
astrological
Printed “Astrologicall” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.
Based on or concerned with astrology in mathematical games.
Context: Burton extends the preceding assessment of chess to these games with The like: they particularly suit mathematical interests, but are not altogether so suitable for students. Fictions here are devised games, not necessarily false assertions.
Source: original body
Source wording: intricate Astrologicall and Geometricall fictions
astrological aphorisms · Astrological Aphorismes
Printed “Astrological Aphorismes” (English; phrase).
Concise rules of stellar judgement, here described as confirmed by experience.
Context: Burton refers anyone who indiscriminately condemns these rules to their defenders. Approved by experience is the source’s claim, not an independent finding of this lexicon.
Source: original body
Source wording: Astrological Aphorismes approved by experience
astrological aphorisms · Astrologicall Aphorisms
Printed “Astrologicall Aphorisms” (English; phrase).
Concise astrological rules or propositions; here the class within which Burton calls Cardan’s account especially memorable.
Context: Burton defends Cardan’s frankness against Mersenne. Cardan’s own charts and confessions follow. The separate claim that Ptolemy’s rules are confirmed by experience is expressly attributed to his commentator Cardan.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: of all those Astrologicall Aphorisms which I have ever read
Modern rendering: of all the astrological aphorisms I have ever read
Supply or redistribution: Those becomes the; the relative which is omitted in the corresponding English relative construction.
astrological elections of time and place
Printed “Astrological elections of time, place” (English; phrase).
Printed form, Original wording: Astrological elections of time, place
Selections of supposedly suitable times and places according to astrology, here among elaborate exorcistic preparations.
Context: Lemnius, quoted with Burton’s approval, tells anyone attempting a cure to dispense with these and other trappings and follow Peter and John’s simple invocation of Christ. The scope is this rejected exorcistic procedure.
Source: original body
Source wording: without all those jugling circumstances, Astrological elections of time, place
Modern rendering: astrologically chosen times and places
Supply or redistribution: The nominal elections becomes chosen, and Astrological becomes astrologically.; And expands the printed comma; the modern construction takes both time and place under astrological selection, making that local coordination explicit.
astrological questions
Printed “Astrologicall questions” (English; phrase).
Inquiries to be answered by astrology, here about a woman’s virginity, chastity or sexual experience.
Context: The indexed phrase is English; the wider aligned construction includes three Latin questions. Burton asks what use the questions and adjoining absurd tests serve, attributing their invention to jealousy. The three questions remain distinct; they are not assertions about a particular woman.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: all those Astrologicall questions, an sit virgo, an sit casta, an sit mulier
Modern rendering: all those astrological questions—“whether she is a virgin, whether she is chaste, whether she is a sexually experienced woman”
Supply or redistribution: She and the English articles make the Latin constructions explicit.; Sexually experienced is supplied to explain mulier in its local contrast with virgo, supported by the preceding virgin/woman discussion.
astrologically · Astrologically · local use 1
Printed “Astrologically” (English; adverb). Attestation: word form.
According to astrology or its rules; here prescribing how treatment, herb-gathering and administration are to be timed.
Context: Paracelsus is the advocate. Burton criticizes Thurnesserus and some practitioners for excessive superstition and certainty, then qualifies his own authority to judge.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: Astrologically observed
Modern rendering: governed by astrology
Supply or redistribution: The source adverb becomes the prepositional phrase by astrology; observed is interpreted as governed, within the wider prescribed-timing construction.
astrologically · Astrologically · local use 2
Printed “Astrologically” (English; adverb). Attestation: word form.
By reference to astrology; here a mode of interpreting the myth of Mars and Venus through a planetary conjunction in birth charts.
Context: Burton attributes this interpretation to Plutarch. The ensuing judgement says commonly, not invariably, and includes a gendered sexual insult; Chaucer’s Wife of Bath then supplies a quoted literary voice.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: Plutarch interprets Astrologically that tale of Mars and Venus
Modern rendering: Plutarch interprets the story of Mars and Venus astrologically
Supply or redistribution: The demonstrative that becomes the definite article the; the adverb moves to the end of its clause.
astrologus · Astrologis
Printed “Astrologis” (Latin; Latin noun lemma; ablative plural form). Attestation: word form.
Astrologers: practitioners of stellar judgement. Astrologis is ablative plural after the shared agent preposition à, coordinated with Magis.
Context: The marginal quotation attributed to Paracelsus says many of these patients can be cured only by magicians and astrologers; do not turn many into all or replace and with or.
Source: original marginal wording
Source wording, Original wording: horum multi non nisi à Magis curandi & Astrologis
Modern rendering: Many of these patients can be cured only by magicians and astrologers
Edition note: checked against the supplied translation within the Burton-labelled note, not the modern body
Supply or redistribution: Patients is supplied from the disease context to explain horum, of these.; The omitted copula with curandi is supplied in the English can be cured; the translation expresses the curative requirement through a modal passive.
astrologus · Astrologi
Printed “Astrologi” (Latin; Latin noun lemma; nominative plural form). Attestation: word form.
Astrologers, practitioners of stellar judgement; nominative plural among the rival experts whom Lucretia claims to surpass.
Context: The original marginal Latin attributes the boast to Aretino’s dialogue in Barth’s version. Lucretia’s claim about kisses and embraces is literary speech, not Burton’s personal testimony or a report of proven efficacy.
Source: original marginal wording
Source wording, Original wording: Plus possum quam omnes philosophi, Astrologi, Necromantici
Modern rendering: I can do more than all philosophers, astrologers, necromancers
Edition note: checked against the supplied translation within the Burton-labelled note, not the modern body
Supply or redistribution: I is explicit for the first-person Latin verb; do articulates the action implied in Plus possum.
astrology
Printed “Astrology” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.
The art of judging conditions or events from celestial configurations, here its contested use in medicine.
Context: Named physicians are reported to require astrology; the next clause explicitly records disagreement.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: Astrology is required by many famous Physicians, by Ficinus, Crato, Fernelius
Modern rendering: Many famous physicians—Ficino, Crato and Fernel—consider astrology necessary
Word and construction: The original passive statement and its active English restatement preserve the named physicians as the holders of the requirement.
Supply or redistribution: Is required by is redistributed as consider necessary with the physicians as grammatical subjects.; And makes the last coordination of the named physicians explicit.
cast a nativity
Printed “cast a Nativity” (English; phrase).
Printed form, Source wording, Original wording: cast a Nativity
Calculate or construct a birth horoscope; here one of several absorbing studies or occupations.
Context: Burton permits the occupation in some cases despite critics; no general validation of predictions follows.
Source: original body
Modern rendering: cast a birth horoscope
Word and construction: The full verb phrase is aligned; Nativity receives its contextual technical sense, not merely the everyday event of birth.
Supply or redistribution: Birth horoscope explains the technical noun Nativity; it is not an added claim that a forecast is reliable.
election
Printed “elections” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.
Astrological selection of favourable times.
Context: Rhetorical attack on unprofitable study; auspicious times explicates the object of election.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: vain elections, predictions
Modern rendering: futile choices of auspicious times and predictions
Word and construction: Elections is the selection noun within a wider coordinated phrase, not the equivalent of the entire translation.
Supply or redistribution: Of auspicious times explicitly supplies the astrological object of elections.; The comma between elections and predictions is unfolded as and.
election of times
Printed “election of times” (English; phrase).
Selection of astrologically favourable times, here proposed as a means whose capacity to compel love or hatred is disputed.
Context: The opening make a doubt whether governs this elliptical list of methods and authorities; Burton postpones the discussion. The following honourable love cannot be compelled.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: Astrologers by election of times
Modern rendering: astrologers by choosing favourable times
Supply or redistribution: Favourable supplies the intended astrological quality of the chosen times.; The noun election becomes choosing; the unresolved whether construction is inherited from earlier in the sentence.
genethliacal
Printed “Genethliacal” (English; adjective). Attestation: word form.
Relating to judgement from births or natal horoscopes; here modifying studies.
Context: Burton’s rhetorical attack includes astrology alongside medicine, philology, logic and other disciplines; it is not an isolated definitive rejection of every astrological use.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: those Genethliacal studies
Modern rendering: those studies of birth horoscopes
Supply or redistribution: The adjective is unfolded as the explanatory noun phrase of birth horoscopes.
iatromathematical professors
Printed “Iatromathematicall professors” (English; phrase).
Practitioners who combine medicine with astrology. Iatromathematicall modifies professors; professors means people professing or practising the art, not necessarily academic office-holders.
Context: Some are criticized for superstition and certainty; this is not a universal judgement on every physician.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: some Iatromathematicall professors
Modern rendering: some practitioners of astrological medicine
Word and construction: The full indexed practitioner phrase, including its adjective, is compared with the corresponding explanatory English phrase.
Supply or redistribution: The compound Iatromathematicall is unfolded into of astrological medicine; this is lexical explanation rather than an extra class of practitioners.
immediate, inevitable causes
Printed “immediate, inevitable causes” (English; phrase).
Direct and inescapable causes, the universal stellar claim Burton rejects.
Context: As if marks the overreaching doctrine criticized; all/every is essential to its scope.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: as if Stars were immediate, inevitable causes of all future Accidents
Modern rendering: as though stars were the direct, inevitable causes of every future event
Word and construction: Whole as-if clause, preserving the rejected universal claim and its hypothetical framing.
Supply or redistribution: The article before direct is supplied.; All future Accidents is redistributed as every future event: the universal quantifier remains, while the noun becomes singular.
judicial astrology
Printed “judicial Astrology” (English; phrase).
Judgement of human dispositions and events from celestial configurations.
Context: Burton declines a full defence here, alongside postponing the causes-or-signs question.
Source: original body
Source wording: to apologize for judicial Astrology
masculine hour
Printed “a masculine hour” (English; phrase).
Printed form, Original wording: a masculine hour
An astrologically selected hour thought favourable to conceiving a male child.
Context: In the anecdote Conrad waits before approaching his bride. Burton asks but with what success? rather than reporting a verified successful or failed outcome.
Source: original body
Source wording: an Astrologer had told him a masculine hour
Modern rendering: an hour favourable to conceiving a boy
Supply or redistribution: Favourable to conceiving a boy spells out the intended reproductive effect of masculine in this election of time.
mathematical physic
Printed “Mathematicall physick” (English; phrase). Attestation: title phrase.
Medicine associated here with the mathematical or astrological arts; the title of Magini’s cited work, rendered Mathematical Medicine. Physick means medicine.
Context: Burton names Magini’s preface as an authority to decide the dispute; the ensuing quotation defends astrology in medicine. This title does not establish a modern mathematical model of treatment.
Source: original body
Source wording: the preface to his Mathematicall physick
mathematician
Printed “Mathematicians” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.
Astrologers in the polemical catalogue of fatalists.
Context: Context specifies celestial prediction and necessity; not all mathematics.
Source: original body
Source wording: those heathen Mathematicians
mathematics
Printed “Mathematicks” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.
The arts concerned with number, quantity and spatial relations, in theoretical or practical branches; here illustrated by surveying, maps, models and sundials. This broader use is not equivalent to astrology alone.
Context: Burton praises these studies and says the practical occupations have always delighted him. It supplies a contextual boundary for Mathematicians meaning astrologers.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: the Mathematicks, Theorick, or Practick parts
Modern rendering: mathematics, whether theoretical or practical
Supply or redistribution: Whether unfolds the alternative branches; parts is absorbed into the two qualifying adjectives.
non sunt prætoriana decreta
Printed “non sunt prætoriana decreta” (Latin; phrase).
Citation key, Printed form, Source wording, Original wording: non sunt prætoriana decreta
They are not a magistrate’s decrees. The comparison presents astrological predictions as conjectures rather than authoritative orders; binding is an implication of the legal contrast, not an extra Latin adjective.
Context: Wolf’s comparison used to relieve predictive fear; Burton follows it with only conjectures.
Source: original body
Modern rendering: They are not a magistrate’s decrees
Word and construction: Whole Latin denial and its English rendering; the subsequent they be but conjectures is Burton’s further English explanation.
Supply or redistribution: They makes the Latin plural subject explicit.; Prætoriana, an adjective meaning praetorian or belonging to a magistrate, is recast as the possessive noun phrase a magistrate’s.
probable conjecture
Printed “probable conjecture” (English; phrase).
A plausible inference or prediction, here concerning whether a man will be jealous and when; it is explicitly less than certainty.
Context: Astrologers are the subjects; Burton preserves cause-or-sign and probability language.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: will give a probable conjecture whether he will be jealous or no
Modern rendering: will offer a probable prediction of whether he will be jealous
Word and construction: The original whether … or no alternative is rendered by English whether, which carries the unresolved yes-or-no choice without repeating or not.
Supply or redistribution: Of is supplied to connect prediction with its interrogative complement.; The printed or no is absorbed into the modern whether construction; the negative alternative remains part of the question, not a separate forecast.
sapiens dominabitur astris
Printed “sapiens dominabitur astris” (Latin; phrase).
Citation key, Printed form, Source wording, Original wording: sapiens dominabitur astris
The wise person will master the stars.
Context: Wisdom can resist stellar inclination; the following clause places the stars under God.
Source: original body
Modern rendering: The wise man will master the stars
Word and construction: Whole Latin maxim and English sentence; sapiens is a substantivized adjective, not a separate Latin noun meaning man.
Supply or redistribution: The wise man expands substantival sapiens; man and the English article are grammatical articulation, not independent source words.; The article in the stars is supplied in English.
vehiculum divinæ virtutis
Printed “vehiculum divinæ virtutis” (Latin; phrase).
A vehicle or means of conveying divine power; heaven is explained in the following English as God’s instrument for governing elemental bodies.
Context: Burton hopes to conclude with Cajetan. The indexed phrase is Latin; the wider body construction mixes Latin Cœlum and vehiculum divinæ virtutis with English is. The original margin the accompanying note supplies a related all-Latin sentence.
Source: original body
Source wording, Original wording: Cœlum is vehiculum divinæ virtutis
Modern rendering: the heavens are the vehicle of divine power
Word and construction: The indexed Latin noun phrase sits within a wider mixed Latin–English clause, compared with a full English clause.
Supply or redistribution: Singular Cœlum is rendered by collective plural the heavens, with is redistributed as are.; English articles in the heavens and the vehicle are supplied.