Divination

Use in the book

Critias describes Apollo's enigmatic greeting as the speech of a mantis at 164e. Socrates later says he “divines” that temperance is beneficial and good (169b). The latter wording acknowledges conviction without presenting the missing proof; any ironic echo of Critias' divine authority is an interpretation.

In the dream Socrates offers an additional concession: let divination be knowledge of the future, and let temperance distinguish true diviners from impostors (173c). This is not an unconditional assertion that prediction is a science or that any particular oracle is reliable. It strengthens the imagined regime of expert action by granting control over a field where false claims are especially consequential.

At 173e–174a the prophet becomes a candidate for the person who lives knowledgeably and well. Socrates then expands the example to someone knowing past and present as well as future. Even that greater extent of knowledge does not answer which knowledge makes life good. Prophecy's chronological range is therefore separated from the normative issue eventually answered by knowledge of good and bad.

Places to read

1. 164eApollo speaks enigmatically as a prophet
2. 169bSocrates’ prophetic hunch about temperance
3. 173cDivination admitted as knowledge under a concession
4. 173e–174b2Future knowledge expanded into complete temporal knowledge and then evaluated

Translation in this edition

The edition's “prophetic hunch” at 169b distinguishes Socrates' manteuomai from a demonstrated conclusion. “Let us grant” at 173c is equally important: the passage does not settle the epistemic standing of actual divination.

μαντεύομαι

Attested: μαντεύομαι (manteuomai). I divine or have a prophetic hunch; Socrates avows, without presenting a proof, that temperance must be something good and beneficial. References: 169b. Lexical identification: lemma: μαντεύομαι. See Prophecy.

μαντική

Attested: μαντικὴν (mantikēn). Divination or the prophetic art; provisionally treated as knowledge of future events in the dream of a society whose experts are all genuine. References: 173c. Lexical identification: lemma: μαντική. See Prophecy.

μάντις

Attested: μάντις / μάντεις / μάντιν (mantis / manteis / mantin). A diviner or seer; Critias likens the god’s enigmatic greeting to a seer’s speech, and Socrates’ dream later assumes genuine seers who know future events. References: 164e, 173c, 174a. Lexical identification: lemma: μάντις. See Prophecy.

μέλλω

Attested: μέλλοντος / μελλόντων / μέλλοντα / μέλλουσιν (mellontos / mellontōn / mellonta / mellousin). To be going to occur; the substantivized forms designate future events, the proposed objects of divination and one part of a hypothetical person’s all-encompassing knowledge. References: 173c, 174a. Lexical identification: lemma: μέλλω. See Prophecy.

προφήτης

Attested: προφήτας (prophētas). Spokesmen or foretellers; genuine seers are installed as interpreters of future events under the dreamed supervision of temperance. References: 173c. Lexical identification: lemma: προφήτης. See Prophecy.

καθιστάναι (kathistanai)

Appoint or establish; genuine seers would be installed as interpreters of future events. References: 173c. Lemma: καθίστημι. See Prophecy.

Use in the book

At 107b divination is one of the subjects on which a specialist would advise better than Alcibiades. The diviner's height, beauty, birth, or wealth makes no difference to the relevant expertise. The example is part of an argument about the basis for advice; Socrates does not here offer a philosophical validation of every practice of divination.

At 115a the adjective becomes ironic. Alcibiades has said that answering will do him no harm, and Socrates replies that he is a prophet. The coming argument will unsettle his opinions. The edition’s note suggests that this may be truer than he knows because refutation can be beneficial, while marking that explanation as interpretive.

At 127e Socrates invokes his own divination conditionally: if Alcibiades answers, if the god wills, and if his prophetic judgment deserves trust, both will be better. The qualifications prevent turning the line into a guaranteed prediction. It expresses hopeful educational judgment under divine dependence. The ending's fear about the city's strength confirms why an unconditional forecast of success would misread this language.

Places to read

1. 107bA diviner is the proper specialist regardless of physical or social advantages
2. 114e–115aSocrates ironically calls Alcibiades prophetic about the absence of harm
3. 127eSocrates tentatively predicts improvement through continued answering, if the god wills

Translation in this edition

The edition distinguishes the craft noun μαντική from μαντεία, though both receive “divination” in English. The capitalized forms shown follow the beginnings of Socrates' speeches. The curative interpretation of the irony is the edition’s note's comparison with Gorgias 475d, not a sentence explicitly spoken here.

μαντική / μάντις / μαντεία

Attested: μαντικῆς (mantikēs; 107b); Μαντικὸς (mantikos; 115a); μαντείᾳ (manteiai; 127e). At 107b: Divination as a subject requiring an expert adviser. At 115a: Prophetic, the ironic description of Alcibiades’ assurance that answering will not harm him. At 127e: Socrates’ cautiously qualified prediction of improvement through continued inquiry. Lexical identification: family label: μαντική / μάντις / μαντεία. See Divination.

Use in the book

Socrates introduces the new threefold proposal as an act of divining. The compound ἀπομαντεύομαι appears beside μαντεύομαι in the same stretch. Both mark the tentative manner in which he puts forward the neither-good-nor-bad as friend of the good.

The dramatic vocabulary should not be turned into a claim that the answer has divine authority. Socrates immediately tells the boys to hear the considerations behind it, and the proposal must still pass through the medical and colour examples and the later causal tests.

Places to read

1. 216dπρὸς ἃ δὲ λέγων μαντεύομαι, ἄκουσον — Hear what I am speaking of when I divine it.

Use in the book

Eryximachus describes divination as protecting and healing love in the communion between gods and humans. It creates friendship through knowledge of the relevant relations. The medical vocabulary gives this account its distinctive model of religious expertise.

Places to read

1. I.9.16.2Divination is assigned a healing role in divine-human relationships.

Translation in this edition

“Divination” is broad enough for the passage; “prediction” would be too narrow.

Use in the book

The synopsis places signs drawn from physiognomy, forehead-reading and palmistry alongside the stars among natural primary causes. In the actual subsection, the heading calls the stars a cause but the following discussion asks whether they cause events or signify them. Burton declines a full adjudication and states that they incline without compelling. He subsequently inserts bodily signs because cited authors relate them closely to astrology and because they may satisfy curious readers. The distinction matters: a line read as a sign of melancholy is not thereby described as its efficient cause.

Palmistry supplies a worked example. The line of Saturn is said to run from the “Rascetta,” the wrist crease, through the hand to Saturn's mount, the area beneath the middle finger. Crossings of that line supposedly indicate melancholy. Other rules concern angles or triangles formed by named lines. Burton then reports a broader catalogue of anxieties and habits supposedly associated with the marked mount. In forehead-reading, Hagecius infers disposition from Saturn's forehead lines; Porta's nearby observations concern spots elsewhere on the body and are assigned a humoral explanation. These are attributed rules and corroborating anecdotes, not established diagnostic procedures. Burton finally calls the material “toyes” while defending its inclusion on the scholarly standing of its authors. The love section returns to palmistry: “Chiromantici,” palm readers, draw their conjectures from features called the girdle and mount of Venus. The next unit contrasts physicians who predict from bodily temperament. The methods share a predictive purpose while using different signs: physicians “divine wholly” from temperament and constitution, a predictive use of the verb rather than a claim that physicians are theologians or necessarily use magical rites.

The fire and water terms occur in the survey of spirits. Burton associates volcanic dwellings with devils formerly worshipped through pyromancy. The water-spirit narrative moves from nymphs and fairies to Macbeth and Banquo's encounter with three women, then mentions sacrifice through hydromancy. The nouns identify methods of divination; worship and sacrifice are further claims made by Burton about the practices. Neither noun alone means worship. The water passage is a compressed association, not a detailed account of a single coherent ritual.

The consequences of consulting predictions become part of the psychology of fear. Burton reports distress caused by astrologers, sorcerers and oracles, including a young man made melancholy by anxiety about the future. In his use of Ricci's account of China, trust in diviners makes fear itself contribute to the predicted outcome. The Latin says that fear establishes credibility, with the prediction understood; Burton’s English goes further and says that fear and imagination cause it to happen. The earlier imagination chapter uses the same Latin construction in a longer marginal account, but there the supplied translation renders it as making the prediction true. That stronger rendering must not be mistaken for a different Latin verb. Those are distinct claims. His sweeping judgement about a whole people and the reports of illness or death remain attributed historical assertions.

Divination also enters the rhetoric of love. In the Branchus story, Apollo rewards the beautiful young man with the gift of prophecy; the episode illustrates beauty's supposed power over gods. Elsewhere, young people seek a future husband's image in a mirror, names and marriage forecasts through onions, fasting or a cake ritual. Burton's margin specifies names written on the objects of inquiry. The source leaves what is burned uncertain, and the final “&c.” does not authorize completing the procedure. The next chapter attributes Apollo's invention of divination to love's inventive energy. These mythological and social examples differ from the diagnostic signs in the first partition.

The religious discussion disputes claims to inspired foresight. Fracastoro is reported as reducing prophetic women and false prophets to melancholy; other accounts combine melancholy, demonic action, fasting and solitude. Burton then questions the authenticity of the supposed Sibylline predictions of Christ. His doubt does not erase the existence of people claiming inspiration, whom he discusses next. These causal claims sit within Burton’s wider classification of diviners among the superstitious, a confessional judgement rather than a neutral taxonomy. In the medical discussion, by contrast, Porta’s “divinosi,” prophetic people, belong to a hot group that helps Burton qualify the claim that melancholy always entails fear and sorrow. The causal disagreement, polemical judgement and textual-authenticity question remain distinct.

Supposed foreknowledge is also an object of satire. A poetic speaker tells Glycere that he is no “divinus,” no prophet, yet can infer what her elaborate appearance is meant to achieve. In the Petronian story, the narrator thinks a vegetable seller is a “divina,” printed “divinam,” because she seems to know his home; she actually leads him to a brothel. The first example denies any need for prophecy, the second exposes misplaced trust. The political consequences can be violent: Burton blames Valens’s killings of men whose names begin Theo on a prediction about his successor.

Augury moves between accounts of government, ritual and anxiety. Spirits allegedly govern through omens in the survey of ancient beliefs; augurs later join other priesthoods in Burton’s attack on religious manipulation. In the Angerona passage, however, their named action is sacrifice, intended to expel care. Elsewhere omens intensify the fearful person’s troubles, and the warning against sailing during an eclipse becomes Burton’s explanation of Nicias’s disastrous delay. These examples concern different uses of signs and different consequences, rather than one uniform divinatory mechanism.

The necromancy vocabulary likewise exceeds prediction alone. The spirit survey reports practitioners’ claim to summon and dismiss apparitions at will. Bale’s “necromantic friars” and Benzo’s “necromantic” popes are hostile religious accusations, while Lucretia in Aretino boasts that her embraces accomplish more than necromancers and the other supposed experts. Lucian’s Necyomancy has a different status: Burton cites it against philosophers, joins its fool Menippus in self-mockery, imagines an underworld inquiry into natural mysteries, and borrows Tiresias’s advice to live cheerfully. The later religious chapter uses Lucian’s fasting preparations as a satirical parallel, before turning to alleged manipulation of minds by religious authorities. The literary title does not certify a real journey or an effective rite.

A boundary appears in the dispute over games. Opponents call cards, tables and dice unlawful because they are “sortilegious.” Burton praises Gataker’s answer and calls these honest recreations in themselves. He then attacks their common abuse through fraud, greed and financial ruin. His rejection of the first objection therefore does not become approval of every way of playing.

Finally, divination appears as a bibliographic subject. Peucer’s abbreviated title supports the reported longevity of households and states; Boissard’s titles accompany apparitions, prophetic claimants and the demonic appropriation of oracles; Cicero’s On Divination supports the account of Stoic necessity. Palmistry titles introduce Indagine’s non-compulsion argument, Rothmann’s comparison with astrology and Goclenius’s repeated rule. These are uses of books within Burton’s argument, not independent confirmations that their predictions work. The source Table provides its own retrieval labels for palmistry and forehead-reading, both pointing to printed page 59.

Related entries

Astrology; Astrological significators; Geniture; Physiognomy; Fear; Imagination; Enthusiasm; Divine; Daemon and genius

Places to read

1. · paragraph 20–23Lucian’s title among attacks on philosophical pretension
2. · paragraph 17–21Peucer’s divination title cited for households and states
3. · paragraph 11–13Menippus and Burton’s admission of his own folly
4. Preliminary scan label 98synopsis grouping stars and bodily signs; this is not printed main-text
5. · paragraph 46–48Boissard’s marginal divination-and-magic title among apparition witnesses
6. · paragraph 49–50pyromancy and reported worship of fiery spirits
7. · paragraph 13–15water beings, prophecy and hydromancy
8. · paragraph 32–35necromancers’ claimed power over apparitions and wandering spirits
9. · paragraph 1–4government through auguries in Burton’s account of ancient spirits
10. · paragraph 1–24heading, non-compulsion, bodily methods, worked examples and concluding defence of inclusion
11. · paragraph 21–24predictors, frightened expectation and the stronger supplied rendering of fidem faciat
12. Repeated through suppliedaugurs and pontiffs sacrifice to Angerona, with the festival-date discrepancy retained
13. · paragraph 1–11ordinary omens, the effect of fearful belief, diviners and Burton’s stronger English paraphrase
14. · paragraph 24–29prophetic people in the qualification of fear and sorrow as symptoms
15. · paragraph 8–10Menippus’s descent imagined as a means of investigating the earth
16. · paragraph 30–32a second imaginary consultation of Tiresias before the return above ground
17. · paragraph 1–5sortilegious lots, innocent recreation and the separate condemnation of abuses
18. · paragraph 23–26Tiresias’s counsel to Menippus in the argument for cheerfulness
19. · paragraph 31–35Bale’s Latin necromantic-friars allegation within anti-monastic polemic
20. · paragraph 1–11palm readers and physicians predict from different signs in the love discussion
21. · paragraph 26–28Apollo's gift of prophecy in the Branchus narrative
22. · paragraph 11–15no prophet needed: inference from Glycere’s appearance
23. · paragraph 61–64a supposed female diviner turns out to be an untrustworthy guide
24. · paragraph 72–74necromantic friars, feigned possession and separate sexual-deception stories
25. · paragraph 1–6Lucretia’s boast against necromancers and the contrasting claims attributed to witches
26. · paragraph 47–51marriage inquiries through mirrors, onions, fasting and the uncertain cake ritual
27. · paragraph 1–2mythological invention of divination in the praise of love
28. · paragraph 27–30a succession prediction and Valens’s jealous violence
29. · paragraph 17–25diviners at the superstitious extreme, omens and the contrast with true religion
30. · paragraph 17–19the repeated marginal augury claim within Burton’s demonological account
31. · paragraph 18–21augurs in the polemical catalogue of priesthoods and religious power
32. · paragraph 13–17rival explanations of prophecy and doubts about Sibylline texts
33. · paragraph 18–25Lucian’s abbreviated necromancy title, fasting preparations and the polemical continuation
34. · paragraph 38–42Boissard’s divination title used for the demonic appropriation of oracles
35. · paragraph 27–30Nicias’s augurs and military loss as Burton’s example of excessive scruple
36. · paragraph 36–40the attributed accusation against a few necromantic popes
37. Cicero’s On Divination cited for Stoic necessity in a polemical survey
38. Unnumbered source Tablepalm-reading and forehead-reading index entries, both referring to

In this edition

The synopsis expands “Metoposcopy” as “reading the forehead” and “Cheiromancy” as “palmistry”; the section heading retains “metoposcopy and chiromancy.” The practices are the same although the level of explanation changes. “Πυρομαντεία” becomes “divination by fire,” while “ὑδρομαντεία, or divination by waters” becomes “hydromancy, or divination by water.” The fire or water component specifies the medium; it does not supply the surrounding worship claim.

“spirit of Divination” becomes “gift of prophecy,” a phrase-level rendering of the capacity granted by Apollo. “Divinators” becomes “diviners.” The edition translates the Latin's credibility claim separately from Burton's stronger English claim of causation. It explicitly repairs the awkward “Hector Boethius, or Mackbeth” into Boece telling the Macbeth story; that supplied syntax is editorial, not an additional original attestation. The original “Amphitomantia” remains recoverable even though its name and procedure are unresolved.

The title abbreviations “de divinat.,” “Chirom.,” “Chiros.” and “Necromant.” are expanded in the supplied rendering; their printed forms remain retrievable. “Chiromantical” in the Table becomes the fuller “found in palm-reading.” The original forms “divinus” and “divinosi” have prophetic senses here; “divinam” names a supposed female diviner with uncanny knowledge of the narrator’s home, while “divine wholly” is an English verb of prediction. The translation of the Petronian Latin supplies “she was”; the words are implicit in its construction, not separately printed. The original margin is already English, so the explanation of “sortilegious” is an editorial gloss rather than a second primary witness.

amphitomantia

Printed “Amphitomantia” (Latin; printed_technical_name). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

Printed name of a divinatory procedure using beans in a cake; relation to alphitomancy uncertain.

Context: What is burned and the precise procedure remain unresolved; no completion of etc.

Source: original body

Source wording, Original wording: by Amphitomantia, by beans in a Cake, &c. to burn the same

Modern rendering: by amphitomancy, using beans in a cake and burning it, and so forth

Word and construction: The printed name becomes amphitomancy without resolving its relation to alphitomancy. Beans in a Cake supplies the materials; the modern burning it chooses an English pronoun for the ambiguous the same. Neither layer establishes the complete ritual or what exactly is burnt.

Alignment convention

augur · Augures · local use 1

Printed “Augures” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

Meaning: Religious officials interpreting omens; plural.

Here: Here the augurs perform an annual sacrifice rather than deliver an explicit prediction.

Context: Burton associates the rite with Angerona and release from care. The supplied note identifies his erroneous festival date; the article retains that uncertainty rather than certifying his calendar.

Source: original body

Locator qualification: Do not remove bracketed or repeated-page qualifier.; This source group includes repeated printed 96–97 and supplied 98–99; see SUPPLIED_OPENING and SOURCE_DJR_040.

Source wording, Original wording: their Augures and Bishops did yearly sacrifice

Modern rendering: their augurs and pontiffs offered her an annual sacrifice

Word and construction: Augures gives augurs and Bishops gives pontiffs. Her is supplied from Angerona; yearly becomes annual. Sacrificing is the local activity, not the literal meaning of Augures.

Alignment convention

augur · Augures · local use 2

Printed “Augures” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

Meaning: Interpreters of omens; plural.

Here: Their warning is blamed for Nicias’s delaying departure until defeat.

Context: The causal attribution is Burton’s historical example of excessive scruple, not an independently established sole cause of the defeat. Earlier 154-19 places Roman augurs in the polemical catalogue of priesthoods.

Source: original body

Source wording, Original wording: because the Augures told him it was ominous to set sail from the haven of Syracuse whilest the Moon was ecclipsed

Modern rendering: Because the augurs told him it was an evil omen to sail from Syracuse’s harbour during a lunar eclipse

Word and construction: Augures supplies augurs. The evil omen explains ominous; told him retains the reported warning rather than making the eclipse itself a verified predictor.

Alignment convention

augurium · auguriis

Printed “auguriis” (Latin; lemma). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

Meaning: By or through auguries; ablative plural.

Here: The marginal list presents signs as instruments of rule; the later religious discussion repeats auguriis with prophecies.

Context: The guardianship analogy belongs to the ancient account as Burton frames it, not to a modern validation of spirit-government.

Source: original marginal quotation

Source wording, Original wording: regunt auguriis, somniis, oraculis, præmiis

Modern rendering: they govern through omens, dreams, oracles, rewards

Word and construction: Regunt supplies they govern; the ablative list is rendered through. Somniis, oraculis and præmiis supply the other instruments separately.

Alignment convention

Edition note: checked against original quotation and supplied translation within the accompanying note

augurium · de Augurijs

Printed “de Augurijs” (Latin; lemma). Attestation: title phrase.

Citation convention

Meaning: On auguries; plural in a book title.

Here: Nifo’s book is cited for everyday ominous signs such as a crossing hare, fallen salt and a mark on a nail.

Context: Burton next explains their effects through imagination, fear and the Devil’s craft, asserting that neglecting them would remove their power.

Source: original body

Source wording, Original wording: in his book de Augurijs

Modern rendering: in his book On Auguries

Word and construction: De Augurijs gives On Auguries. The bibliographic in his book is English in the surrounding original clause; the exact indexed title is Latin.

Alignment convention

augury · auguries · local use 1

Printed “auguries” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

Meaning: Omens or interpreted signs; plural.

Here: One claimed means by which spirits govern provinces and kingdoms.

Context: Burton first announces a survey of ancient beliefs, then assimilates their beings to devils; the means of government are attributed within that framing.

Source: original body

Source wording, Original wording: by Oracles, auguries, dreams

Modern rendering: through oracles, omens, dreams

Word and construction: Auguries gives omens, distinct from oracles and dreams. By/through governs the list; the governing spirits are its agents, not the signs themselves.

Alignment convention

augury · auguries · local use 2

Printed “auguries” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

Meaning: Omens or interpreted signs; plural.

Here: The signs become objects of continual fear in Burton’s polemical account of superstition.

Context: He contrasts this torment with the comfort of true religion in the following unit; the classification belongs to his argument.

Source: original body

Source wording, Original wording: with auguries, prodigies, false tales, dreams

Modern rendering: by omens, portents, false tales, dreams

Word and construction: Auguries gives omens, prodigies portents. With/by introduces the objects tormenting the fearful; the two source nouns are not interchangeable components of one translation.

Alignment convention

chiromancy · Cheiromancy

Printed “Cheiromancy” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

Divination from the hand, or palmistry.

Context: The two methods have distinct media; palmistry aligns to Cheiromancy.

Source: original body

Locator qualification: Source record identifies these leaves as unnumbered; plain numerical passage labels are scan numbers.

Source wording, Original wording: Metoposcopy, Cheiromancy

Modern rendering: reading the forehead, and palmistry

Word and construction: Cheiromancy gives palmistry; reading the forehead belongs to Metoposcopy. The modern adds and between the two methods.

Alignment convention

chiromancy · Chiromancy · local use 1

Printed “Chiromancy” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

Palmistry supplying purported rules for predicting melancholy.

Context: Rules attributed to Taisnier’s compilation, not present-day diagnostic guidance.

Source: original body

Source wording, Original wording: Chiromancy hath these Aphorismes to foretel melancholy

Modern rendering: Chiromancy has these rules for predicting melancholy

Word and construction: Chiromancy retains its name. Aphorismes gives rules and to foretel gives for predicting; melancholy is the predicted condition, not part of the noun’s definition.

Alignment convention

chiromancy · Chirom.

Printed “Chirom.” (Latin; related_family). Attestation: abbreviated title.

Citation convention

Meaning: Chiromancy; abbreviated book subject.

Here: The cited book supplies Indagine’s formulation that the stars incline but do not compel.

Context: The margin says that, if minds follow reason as guide, the stars accomplish nothing; if minds follow nature, the stars act almost as they do upon beasts.

Source: original marginal quotation

Source wording, Original wording: Chirom. lib.

Modern rendering: Book on chiromancy

Word and construction: The abbreviation and lib. jointly supply Book on chiromancy. The text does not here print a fully expanded Latin title.

Alignment convention

Edition note: checked against original quotation and supplied translation within the accompanying note

chiromancy · Chiromancy · local use 2

Printed “Chiromancy” (English; lemma). Attestation: title.

Citation convention

Meaning: Palmistry, here the subject or short title of a book.

Here: Rothmann’s writing is cited for the affinity between bodily sign-reading and astrology.

Context: The modern moves recent into the selected phrase from not longe since; widen the comparison to include that source qualifier.

Source: original body

Source wording, Original wording: not longe since in his Chiromancy

Modern rendering: in his recent Chiromancy

Word and construction: The source’s not longe since becomes the adjective recent in the modern. His refers to Rothmann, not to Indagine or Porta; Chiromancy is the cited work, distinct from the general practice named earlier in the unit.

Alignment convention

chiromancy · Chiros.

Printed “Chiros.” (Latin; related_family). Attestation: abbreviated title.

Citation convention

Meaning: Chiromancy; abbreviated title as printed.

Here: The source cited for repeating the large-triangle palm rule.

Context: The body says Goclenius repeats the rule verbatim from Taisnier; no independent collation of either work is claimed.

Source: original body

Source wording, Original wording: Goclenius cap. 5. Chiros.

Modern rendering: Goclenius, Chiromancy, chapter 5

Word and construction: Chiros. is expanded as Chiromancy in the supplied rendering, with chapter 5 moved after the title; retain the abbreviation rather than inventing a full Latin title.

Alignment convention

chiromantical

Printed “Chiromantical” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

Meaning: Pertaining to palmistry.

Here: The source Table’s index label for the worked signs on printed page 59.

Context: This is an original unnumbered Table entry; its trailing 59 is a destination page, not the Table’s own pagination.

Source: original body

Source wording, Original wording: Chiromantical signs of melancholy

Modern rendering: Signs of melancholy found in palm-reading

Word and construction: The adjective is expanded into found in palm-reading, while signs of melancholy remains the noun phrase; found is an explanatory supply.

Alignment convention

chiromanticus

Printed “Chiromantici” (Latin; lemma). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

Meaning: Palm readers; substantivized nominative plural adjective.

Here: Palm readers, here predicting erotic disposition from named hand features.

Context: A reported general practice; plerumque means generally, and the following unit turns to physicians and temperament.

Source: original body

Source wording, Original wording: Chiromantici ex cingulo Veneris plerumq; conjecturam faciunt, & monte Veneris

Modern rendering: Palm readers generally draw their conclusions from the girdle of Venus and the mount of Venus

Word and construction: Chiromantici gives Palm readers; plerumq; supplies generally, conjecturam faciunt draw their conclusions, and ex cingulo...& monte the two hand features. Neither generally nor the Venus features are part of the noun’s literal definition.

Alignment convention

cromnyomantia

Printed “Cromnyomantia” (Latin; lemma). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

Divination with onions, here an inquiry about future marriage.

Context: Reported practice; attached margin specifies written names.

Source: original body

Source wording, Original wording: by Cromnyomantia, a kind of Divination with onions laid on the Altar on Christmas Eve

Modern rendering: by cromnyomancy, a kind of divination using onions laid on the altar on Christmas Eve

Word and construction: Cromnyomantia becomes cromnyomancy. The rest of the span is Burton’s own explanation of onions, altar and date; it is not all contained in the technical name.

Alignment convention

divina

Printed “divinam” (Latin; lemma). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

Meaning: A female diviner; accusative singular.

Here: The deceived Petronian narrator mistakes a woman leading him to a brothel for a person with uncanny knowledge of where he lives.

Context: The belief belongs to the character, not to Burton’s personal experience or to a confirmed description of the woman. Burton’s body renders her a wise woman.

Source: original marginal quotation

Source wording, Original wording: divinam ego putabam

Modern rendering: I thought she was a diviner

Word and construction: Ego supplies I and putabam thought. She was is supplied to express the implicit object and predication; divinam alone does not contain either word.

Alignment convention

Edition note: checked against original quotation and supplied translation within the accompanying note

divinatio · de divinat.

Printed “de divinat.” (Latin; lemma). Attestation: abbreviated title.

Citation convention

Meaning: On divination; abbreviated title.

Here: A bibliographic reference for the alleged lifespan shared by households and political bodies.

Context: Burton reports Bodin and Peucer drawing on Plato; the six- or seven-century span is not asserted here as a verified historical law.

Source: original marginal quotation

Source wording, Original wording: Peucer. lib. 1. de divinat.

Modern rendering: Peucer, On Divination, book 1

Word and construction: The modern expands the abbreviated subject and transposes book 1 after the title. Peucer is an author name, not part of the definition of divination.

Alignment convention

Edition note: checked against original quotation and supplied translation within the accompanying note

divinatio · de Divinatione et magia

Printed “de Divinatione et magia” (Latin; lemma). Attestation: title phrase.

Citation convention

Meaning: On divination and magic.

Here: The marginal book title accompanies the Boissard reference in the catalogue of witnesses to apparitions.

Context: The body gives a title about apparitions of spirits. The relation of the two titles remains uncollated, so they are not silently equated.

Source: original marginal quotation

Source wording, Original wording: Lib. de Divinatione et magia

Modern rendering: A book On Divination and Magic

Word and construction: Lib. supplies A book; de Divinatione gives On Divination and et magia and Magic. The title names subjects, not a proved mechanism.

Alignment convention

Edition note: checked against original quotation and supplied translation within the accompanying note

divinatio · De divinatione & Magicis præstigiis

Printed “De divinatione & Magicis præstigiis” (Latin; lemma). Attestation: title phrase.

Printed form, Source wording, Original wording: De divinatione & Magicis præstigiis

Citation convention

Meaning: On divination and magical illusions.

Here: Boissard’s book title accompanies the catalogue of people claiming inspiration and oracular powers.

Context: Burton’s assurance that such claimants exist follows his challenge to alleged Sibylline predictions of Christ. The title recurs at 157-40 under Mopsus in a demonic explanation of oracles.

Source: original marginal quotation

Modern rendering: On Divination and Magical Illusions

Word and construction: De divinatione is On Divination; Magicis modifies præstigiis, Magical Illusions. The title’s subject does not authenticate any prediction.

Alignment convention

Edition note: checked against original quotation and supplied translation within the accompanying note

divinatio · de divinatione

Printed “de divinatione” (Latin; lemma). Attestation: title phrase.

Citation convention

Meaning: On divination; a book title.

Here: Cicero’s work is cited as evidence for Stoic necessity, not here as advice to practise divination.

Context: Burton groups Zeno and Chrysippus with Seneca’s doctrine that God is bound to secondary causes, in a polemical survey of denials of divine freedom.

Source: original body

Source wording, Original wording: Tully 2. de divinatione

Modern rendering: Cicero’s On Divination, book 2

Word and construction: Tully is modernized to Cicero and 2 is expanded and moved as book 2; the title is a source reference within the argument about necessity.

Alignment convention

divination · spirit of Divination

Printed “spirit of Divination” (English; lemma). Attestation: phrase.

Citation convention

Gift or capacity of prophecy in the mythological story.

Context: Apollo grants it to Branchus in a tale illustrating beauty’s power.

Source: original body

Source wording, Original wording: the spirit of Divination

Modern rendering: the gift of prophecy

Word and construction: Spirit of Divination as a whole becomes gift of prophecy: spirit gives the capacity or gift in context and Divination the prophetic activity. Apollo is the giver and Branchus the recipient in the surrounding sentence.

Alignment convention

divination · Divination

Printed “Divination” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

Foretelling or obtaining hidden knowledge, attributed to Apollo’s invention.

Context: Mythological catalogue used to argue that love motivates inventions.

Source: original body

Source wording, Original wording: Physick, Divination, Oracles

Modern rendering: medicine, divination and oracles

Word and construction: Divination retains divination; Physick gives medicine and Oracles oracles. The modern supplies and. First inventor and Love’s motivating role belong to the encompassing mythological argument.

Alignment convention

divinator · Divinators · local use 1

Printed “Divinators” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

People consulted for predictions.

Context: Burton’s use of Ricci’s report; sweeping national judgement remains attributed.

Source: original body

Source wording, Original wording: attributing so much to their Divinators

Modern rendering: placing such trust in their diviners

Word and construction: Divinators gives diviners. Attributing so much is interpreted as placing such trust, rather than assigning that whole act to the noun.

Alignment convention

divinator · Divinators · local use 2

Printed “Divinators” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

Meaning: Diviners; people claiming or practising prediction.

Here: Burton includes them among the groups placed at the superstitious extreme.

Context: This is Burton’s confessional classification, extending to whole communities. The preceding argument criticizes presumptuous knowledge and explicitly excludes excessive love of God as such.

Source: original body

Source wording, Original wording: Enthusiasts, Divinators, Prophets, Sectaries, and Scismatiques

Modern rendering: enthusiasts, diviners, prophets, sectarians and schismatics

Word and construction: Divinators corresponds to diviners; the adjacent religious categories remain separate. The wider all and superstitious grouping are Burton’s polemical quantification, not the noun’s universal definition.

Alignment convention

divino

Printed “divinare” (Latin; lemma). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

To practise divination or prophesy.

Context: Isolated original Latin in the Burton-labelled margin; all-frantic-melancholic characterization belongs to the cited claim.

Source: original marginal quotation

Source wording, Original wording: qui divinare solent

Modern rendering: who practise divination

Word and construction: Divinare means to divine or prophesy; qui supplies who and solent the customary or habitual force, compressed into practise in the rendering. Omnes and the frenzied-melancholic predication govern the wider attributed claim, not the infinitive alone.

Alignment convention

Edition note: checked against editorial translation within the Burton-labelled note; translation is not original evidence

divinosus

Printed “divinosi” (Latin; lemma). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

Meaning: Prophetic or given to divination; nominative plural adjective.

Here: The prophetic disposition belongs to the hot group in Porta’s contrast with those having cold black bile.

Context: Burton uses this distinction to qualify the claim that all melancholy entails fear and sorrow, concluding usually, not always. The later cited universal formulations remain visible.

Source: original marginal quotation

Source wording, Original wording: ingeniosi, amasii, divinosi, spiritu instigati

Modern rendering: gifted, amorous, prophetic, impelled by a spirit

Word and construction: Divinosi gives prophetic. Gifted, amorous and impelled by a spirit belong to separate items in the list; none should be put into the adjective’s literal definition.

Alignment convention

Edition note: checked against original quotation and supplied translation within the accompanying note

divinus

Printed “divinus” (Latin; lemma). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

Meaning: A diviner or prophet; here a predicate noun.

Here: The poetic speaker denies needing prophetic powers to infer the intention behind Glycere’s cosmetics and ornaments.

Context: Burton follows the Latin with a separate free English verse and an accusatory explanation; the judgement is part of the satirical attack on artificial beauty.

Source: original body

Source wording, Original wording: Non sum divinus, sed scio quid cupias

Modern rendering: I am no prophet, but I know what you desire

Word and construction: Divinus gives prophet; non negates sum divinus, and sed marks the contrast. Scio gives I know; the whole quid cupias gives what you desire, with quid supplying what and cupias the second-person verb. Prophet here is not the adjective divine or the noun theologian.

Alignment convention

metoposcopia

Printed “Metoposcopia” (Latin; lemma). Attestation: title.

Citation convention

Title naming the art of reading the forehead.

Context: Hagecius is the reported author; inference of disposition follows from lines attributed to Saturn.

Source: original body

Source wording, Original wording: in his Metoposcopia

Modern rendering: in his Metoposcopy

Word and construction: Metoposcopia is a Latin title form rendered Metoposcopy. In his remains in his, referring to Hagecius; the title is not a second observation independent of the ensuing forehead rules.

Alignment convention

metoposcopy · Metoposcopy

Printed “Metoposcopy” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

Reading lines or markings of the forehead as signs.

Context: Synopsis of Burton’s historical classification; a preliminary scan label, not main-text pagination.

Source: original body

Locator qualification: Source record identifies these leaves as unnumbered; plain numerical passage labels are scan numbers.

Source wording, Original wording: Physiognomy, Metoposcopy, Cheiromancy

Modern rendering: physiognomy, reading the forehead, and palmistry

Word and construction: Metoposcopy gives reading the forehead; Physiognomy remains physiognomy and Cheiromancy gives palmistry. And is supplied to coordinate the final list item.

Alignment convention

metoposcopy · Metoposcopy fore-shewing mel.

Printed “Metoposcopy fore-shewing mel.” (English; related_family). Attestation: index phrase.

Printed form, Source wording, Original wording: Metoposcopy fore-shewing mel.

Citation convention

Meaning: Forehead-reading predicting melancholy.

Here: The Table condenses the forehead-sign discussion and directs readers to printed page 59.

Context: The abbreviation mel. is expanded; the entry preserves the source’s prediction claim without validating it.

Source: original body

Modern rendering: Forehead-reading as a way of predicting melancholy

Word and construction: Metoposcopy gives Forehead-reading; fore-shewing gives predicting; mel. expands to melancholy. As a way of supplies a connective explanation.

Alignment convention

metoposcopy and chiromancy

Printed “Metoposcopy, Chiromancy” (English; phrase).

Citation convention

Forehead-reading and hand-reading named as sources of signs.

Context: Section heading; names retained where synopsis explains them.

Source: original body

Source wording, Original wording: Signes from Physiognomy, Metoposcopy, Chiromancy

Modern rendering: Signs from physiognomy, metoposcopy and chiromancy

Word and construction: The two names remain metoposcopy and chiromancy; and is supplied between them. Signs from Physiognomy supplies the rest of the heading and does not make either practice an efficient cause.

Alignment convention

mount of Saturn

Printed “Saturnes mount” (English; phrase).

Citation convention

Palmistry’s area below the middle finger.

Context: The crossing belongs to the Saturnine line at the named area.

Source: original body

Source wording, Original wording: to Saturnes mount, and there intersected by certain little lines

Modern rendering: to the mount of Saturn, and crossed there by certain little lines

Word and construction: Saturnes mount gives mount of Saturn. There/crossed and the little lines belong to the larger rule; the entity being crossed is the Saturnine line, carried over from the preceding clause.

Alignment convention

necromancer · Negromancers

Printed “Negromancers” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

Meaning: Practitioners claiming magical dealings with spirits; plural.

Here: An older spelling used for alleged control over apparitions, extended to midnight wanderers in the next sentence.

Context: Take upon them marks a claim. Them refers to spirits in the surrounding catalogue, not only dead human souls.

Source: original body

Source wording, Original wording: Negromancers take upon them, to raise and lay them at their pleasures

Modern rendering: Necromancers claim to summon and dismiss these spirits at will

Word and construction: Take upon them gives claim; raise and lay gives summon and dismiss; at their pleasures gives at will. These powers belong to the asserted predicate, not to the spelling variant alone.

Alignment convention

necromancer · Necromancers

Printed “Necromancers” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

Meaning: Practitioners of supposed magical dealings with spirits; plural.

Here: Lucretia boasts that kissing and embracing surpass the powers of all the listed experts.

Context: The speaker is a literary character in Aretino, not Burton. Her only-philter boast is followed by Erastus’s contrasting account of witches’ claims.

Source: original body

Source wording, Original wording: all Philosophers, Astrologers, Alchymists, Necromancers, Witches, and the rest of the crew

Modern rendering: all the philosophers, astrologers, alchemists, necromancers, witches and the rest of that crew

Word and construction: Necromancers is one of several listed groups. All belongs to the encompassing boast; the modern supplies articles and that while preserving the list.

Alignment convention

necromancy

Printed “Necromant.” (Latin; lemma). Attestation: abbreviated title.

Citation convention

Meaning: In Necromancy; abbreviated title.

Here: Lucian’s underworld journey is used to exemplify fasting and ritual preparation.

Context: Burton calls Lucian a scoffer and the preparations idle; the next passage turns to an anti-Jesuit allegation about induced mental disturbance.

Source: original marginal quotation

Source wording, Original wording: In Necromant.

Modern rendering: In Necromancy

Word and construction: The abbreviation is expanded to Necromancy. In is already present; the following diet is a separate marginal statement, not part of the title.

Alignment convention

Edition note: checked against original quotation and supplied translation within the accompanying note

necromantic

Printed “Necromantick” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

Meaning: Associated with forbidden magic or dealings with spirits.

Here: The repeated anti-friar epithet occurs beside a story of women pretending to be possessed to give friars access.

Context: The Estienne and Bale references are reported allegations; Boccaccio’s adjacent comic abbess is a separate literary example.

Source: original body

Source wording, Original wording: wenches could not sleep in their beds for Necromantick Friers

Modern rendering: girls could not sleep in their beds for necromantic friars

Word and construction: Necromantick becomes necromantic; could not sleep preserves the negative claim. Girls and friars translate separate nouns, and the charge is kept attributed.

Alignment convention

necromantical

Printed “Necromantical” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

Meaning: Necromantic; associated with forbidden magic.

Here: An abusive adjective in the claim that certain popes harmed Christians more than pagan persecutors.

Context: The comparative allegation is attributed to Benzo, whose identity and exact locus remain unresolved. A few must not become an assertion about every pope.

Source: original body

Source wording, Original wording: by a few Necromantical, Atheisticall Popes

Modern rendering: by a few necromantic, atheistic popes

Word and construction: Necromantical is modernized to necromantic; a few, Atheisticall and Popes retain separate contributions. The comparison of harm belongs to the surrounding attributed sentence.

Alignment convention

necromanticus · necromanticos

Printed “necromanticos” (Latin; lemma). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

Meaning: Necromantic; accusative plural adjective.

Here: A hostile description of friars within Bale’s allegation that girls could not sleep in their beds.

Context: Burton explicitly cites Bale and surrounds the sentence with anti-monastic sexual accusations. The adjective is an allegation, not evidence of actual necromantic practice.

Source: original body

Source wording, Original wording: ob fratres necromanticos

Modern rendering: because of the necromantic friars

Word and construction: Ob gives because of and fratres gives friars; necromanticos is the modifying adjective. The English article the is supplied.

Alignment convention

necromanticus · Necromantici

Printed “Necromantici” (Latin; lemma). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

Meaning: Necromancers; substantivized nominative plural adjective.

Here: The Latin margin’s shorter comparison class in Lucretia’s boast.

Context: The body also lists alchemists and witches, absent from this selected Latin list. The margin and body are retained as separate wordings.

Source: original marginal quotation

Source wording, Original wording: omnes philosophi, Astrologi, Necromantici

Modern rendering: all philosophers, astrologers, necromancers

Word and construction: Omnes supplies all; necromancers is the nominal use of Necromantici. The singular first-person boasting clause precedes this comparison, not part of the indexed word.

Alignment convention

Edition note: checked against original quotation and supplied translation within the accompanying note

necyomantia

Printed “Necyomantia” (Latin; lemma). Attestation: title.

Citation convention

Meaning: Necyomancy: consultation of the dead, here a literary title.

Here: Lucian’s satire is cited against philosophical pretension.

Context: Other references use the same work for Burton’s confession of folly, imagined subterranean inquiry, and Tiresias’s counsel to be cheerful. They are literary uses, not reports that Burton summoned the dead.

Source: original body

Source wording, Original wording: Lucians Piscator, Icaromenippus, Necyomantia

Modern rendering: Lucian’s The Fisherman, Icaromenippus, and Necyomancy

Word and construction: Necyomantia is rendered Necyomancy; Piscator is a separate title, The Fisherman. The modern supplies and between the final titles.

Alignment convention

rascetta

Printed “Rascetta” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

Wrist crease from which the named palm line runs.

Context: Part of the cited palmistry rule; the route of the line is retained.

Source: original body

Source wording, Original wording: from the Rascetta through the hand, to Saturnes mount

Modern rendering: from the wrist crease through the hand to the mount of Saturn

Word and construction: Rascetta gives wrist crease; through the hand and to Saturnes mount specify the line’s course separately. The area beneath the middle finger is the mount, not the wrist crease.

Alignment convention

sortilegious

Printed “sortilegious” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

Meaning: Involving the casting of lots, with a suspected divinatory association here.

Here: An objection to games of chance that Burton distinguishes from their actual abuses.

Context: The original margin records the opponents’ reason. Burton praises Gataker’s refutation and calls the recreations honest in themselves before condemning fraud, greed and harmful excess.

Source: original marginal English

Source wording, Original wording: They account them unlawfull because sortilegious

Modern rendering: they consider these games unlawful because they involve drawing lots

Word and construction: The original margin is already English. The supplied explanation expands sortilegious into involve drawing lots and them into these games. It reports the objection, not Burton’s endorsement of a universal equation between games and divination.

Alignment convention

Edition note: checked against original quotation and supplied translation within the accompanying note

toy

Printed “toyes” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

Trifles, Burton’s qualified description of the foregoing sign-reading material.

Context: The next clause nevertheless defends inclusion by reference to scholarly authorities.

Source: original body

Source wording, Original wording: I am overtedious in these toyes

Modern rendering: I have dwelt too long on these trifles

Word and construction: Toyes gives trifles; I am overtedious is recast as I have dwelt too long. Burton immediately calls adverse judgements too severe and invokes learned authorities, so trifles alone does not cancel the accompanying defence.

Alignment convention

ut ipse metus fidem faciat · local use 1

Printed “ut ipse metus fidem faciat” (Latin; phrase).

Citation key, Printed form, Source wording, Original wording: ut ipse metus fidem faciat

Citation convention

Meaning: So that fear itself establishes belief or credibility.

Here: So that fear itself makes the prediction credible.

Context: Burton’s following English intensifies credibility into production of the event; do not collapse them.

Source: original body

Modern rendering: that fear itself makes the prediction credible

Word and construction: Metus is fear, ipse itself, and fidem faciat establishes credibility. The prediction is contextually supplied as the object made credible; it is not an explicit noun in this Latin span. Burton’s following English changes the claim to causing the event.

Alignment convention

ut ipse metus fidem faciat · local use 2

Printed “ut ipse metus fidem faciat” (Latin; phrase).

Citation key, Printed form, Source wording, Original wording: ut ipse metus fidem faciat

Citation convention

Meaning: So that fear itself establishes belief or credibility.

Here: The earlier Ricci margin uses the same credibility construction that recurs at 055-09, but the supplied translation here renders it as making the prediction true.

Context: The longer margin and Burton’s body assert illness and sometimes death after prediction. Distinguish this contextual causal interpretation from the literal fidem construction.

Source: original marginal quotation

Modern rendering: that fear itself makes the prediction true

Word and construction: The prediction is a contextually supplied object. True is the stronger supplied interpretation of fidem faciat here, whereas 055-09 renders credible; neither difference changes the printed Latin. The asserted bodily effects are stated in the surrounding account, not supplied by a different verb.

Alignment convention

Edition note: checked against original quotation and supplied translation within the accompanying note

πυρομαντεία

Printed “Πυρομαντεία” (Greek; lemma). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

Divination by fire.

Context: Burton associates the practice with worship; the Greek noun itself names the divination.

Source: original body

Source wording, Original wording: by that superstitious Πυρομαντεία

Modern rendering: through that superstitious practice of divination by fire

Word and construction: Πυρομαντεία supplies divination by fire; practice of is an explanatory supply. By becomes through and superstitious retains Burton’s judgement; none of these additions means worship.

Alignment convention

ὑδρομαντεία

Printed “ὑδρομαντεία” (Greek; lemma). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

Divination by water.

Context: Sacrifice is asserted in the encompassing clause, not included in the noun’s lexical meaning.

Source: original body

Source wording, Original wording: ὑδρομαντεία, or divination by waters

Modern rendering: hydromancy, or divination by water

Word and construction: The Greek noun becomes hydromancy; the following or divination by waters is Burton’s own explanatory phrase, separately modernized to singular water. Sacrifice occurs outside this span.

Alignment convention