collection Geomancy ; theme lotbook

1
From the 5x14-article:

Geomancy very easily is connected to chess:

1111 = King
2222 = Queen

1221 = Rook
2112 = Rook

1212 = Knight
2121 = Knight

1122 = Bishop
2211 = Bishop

4 Pawns =
1222
2122
2212
2221

4 Pawns =
2111
1211
1121
1112

... just for mathematical reasons. However, there seems no confirmation outside in a text, that chess and geomancy was really connected in the 14th century minds (not everybody thinks in the mathematical way). Also we observe, that chess players experimented, changed the size of the boards, altered the number of figures, made variations in the rules, had different start positions.

Evrart da Conty had 16 other gods and another row, clearly dominated by the planets gods (which are the top 7 of his row) and also he felt it necessary to fulfill the chess dream with definitions from the Roman de la rose. Why not? This chess symbols enrichment game was a discussion and card designers fulfilled different visions of a possible allegory.
There is no truth in such mental games, there was just the game of building an analogy between different systems, occasionally "elegant" and "understandable by our modern mind" and occasionally "strange" and "not understandable".



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Interesting article:

http://www.shikanda.net/ancient_models/ ... 201996.pdf

has a lot of interesting researches (an attempt to get some order in the geomantic chaos) and finally presents as an idea and observation:
But there is a shocking alternative to this attractive view. One Greek manuscript – the Codex Harleianus 5596, British Museum, from the 15th century CE presents a simplified geomancy based not on tetragrams but on trigrams, i.e. only three lines of one or two dots each – out of which of course only eight different configuration can be constructed:
Image


... which is then related to the figures of I-Ching:

Image


I don't discuss, if this "translation" is very clever.
In the more complex versions like al-Zanati’s (Footnote 22) the first twelve of these sixteen configurations are identified with the twelve astrological houses and interpreted accordingly, while taking into account the usual correspondences and conventional meanings of the twelve houses, the planets and the zodiacal signs.

Footnote 22: al-Zanati, Muh.ammad, 1320 H./1923 CE, al-Fasl fi usul cilm al-raml, Cairo; al-Zanati, Muh.ammad, 1341 H./1902 CE, al-Aqwal al-mardiyya fi macrifat al-acmal al-ramliyya, Cairo; both in the University of Leiden library.
Here we see, that the 12+4 order is used (for astrological intentions) and this appears also in the Michelino deck with 12 Olympian gods and 4 special figures.
In this aspect it's of interest to know, that Filippo Maria (as others) surely was excited about the finding of the Manilius manuscript in Constance by Poggio ... this shows the 12 Olympian gods as rulers of the monthes or the zodiac (later artflly presented in the Palazzo Schiffanoia. The new elected pope Martin visited as first place after his election the court of Milan. Poggio accompanied him. Filippo should have gotten his information "first hand". His astrologers surely were interested. But the Michelino deck didn't imitate Manilius.
Ibn Khaldun’s Muqaddima, written by the end of the 13th century CE, explains the emergence of geomancy as resulting from a situation when would-be astrologers, typically poor, under-educated and urban, had no longer access to the astronomical tables and the complex techniques necessary for calculating a proper professional horoscope, and therefore replaced the empirical input (the actual, astronomically absolutely correct, position – in most cases simplified to a mere longitude – of the heavenly bodies at the particular moment which the horoscope seeks to interpret) by the mock-astrology of geomancy: a series of chance outcomes of simple manipulations with a stick on sand, with pebbles, beans, shells or with pen on paper, but subsequently interpreted in the light of a conventionalised or better ossified astrological idiom deprived from all spatio-temporally specific astronomical input. This status as a ‘poor man’s astrology’ is confirmed by the fact that only the first four astrological houses receive an independent input, while the contents of the eight others is merely secondarily derived – which is comparable with a hypothetical situation in which some astrologer would only calculate the planets and zodiacal signs for the first four houses, and ignore the others, or (and this as been widely attested practice astrological since Antiquity) as if the horoscope would be based not on the painstaking calculation of the heavens at the time of birth, but by the mere casting of dice.
Here we learn, that geomancy was connected to the terminus "poor man's astrology" already in Arabian sources.
It's said, that many lot books were used in 14th/15th century and that many had an Eastern origin, between them also text with geomantical content. The quality of many of them should be regarded as rather low.

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The I-Ching in its long tradition since ca. 11th entury BC had incorporated other systems or was used inside other contexts, which not really present the original state, similar as astrology was mixed with a lot of themes.

One of these "suspicious sub-systems" of I-Ching are the so called "nuclear trigrams" (1st nuclear trigram: line 2+3+4 ; 2nd nuclear trigram: line 3+4+5), which form then a series of 16 hexagrams formed by the addition a nuclear trigram 1 (then becoming lower trigram) plus nuclear trigram 2 (then becoming upper trigram).

In other words: the 64 hexagrams are somehow artificial reduced to 16:

43-01-44-28 ---> nuclear hexagram 01 ---> Geomancy 1111 via
23-02-24-27 ---> nuclear hexagram 02 ---> Geomancy 2222 populus
54-38-64-40 ---> nuclear hexagram 63 ---> Geomancy 1212 acqusitio
63-37-53-39 ---> nuclear hexagram 64 ---> Geomancy 2222 amissio
etc.

Image

http://shapeless.org/chou_i/structure_hex.html

Image

http://iching.egoplex.com/hidden108.html

The I-Ching is very old, the time of the origin of the nuclear trigram technique is difficult to determine. But China was often the dominant culture, which exported technologies and culture ... so possibly also this.In contrast to the Western culture they never had such a strong interpretation of the planets, at least it appears as not so dominant at the surface.
Last edited by Huck on 05 Mar 2017, 04:25, edited 3 times in total.
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: collection Geomancy

2
A good overview about geomancy is found in ...

http://www.iot.org.br/caostopia/wp-cont ... ingles.pdf

Other Links from mmfilesi:
mmfilesi wrote:Albanus bock of Geomantia

http://books.google.es/books?id=fwY6AAA ... &q&f=false
mmfilesi wrote:This is the pasage where explain the bad, neutral and good figures:
albanus.jpg
Answer Huck:
This evaluation is different to one of of the Eastern evaluations.

http://www.shikanda.net/ancient_models/ ... 201996.pdf
see page 12

At page 15 there is a table with variations in the relations between geomantic sign and astrological house.
Last edited by Huck on 01 May 2010, 21:21, edited 2 times in total.
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: collection Geomancy

4
Palazzo della Ragione (Padova)

http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palazzo_de ... 8Padova%29
Gli affreschi originali, attribuiti a Giotto andarono distrutti nell'incendio del 1420. Il Salone è affrescato da un grandioso ciclo di affreschi a soggetto astrologico (completati tra il 1425 e il 1440) basati sugli studi di Pietro d'Abano.
http://wiki.astro.com/astrowiki/de/Bild ... agione.jpg

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ANSELMI BARTOLOMEO
Parma 1280/1300
Scarseggiano le notizie su questo astrologo e geomante, fiorito a Bologna negli ultimi decenni del secolo XIII, e le poche che si hanno sono ricavate dalle sue opere...

More information in:

http://biblioteche2.comune.parma.it/lasagni/an-ar.htm
When a man has a theory // Can’t keep his mind on nothing else (By Ross)

Re: collection Geomancy

5
I would think, that Palazzo della Ragioni includes an astrological program of Peter of Abano, but it contains nothing which adds to geomancy ... is this true?
So might be better to keep this topic in another thread.

The Skinner text ...
http://www.iot.org.br/caostopia/wp-cont ... ingles.pdf
... has a good overview about Geomancy production with some biographical information. The article to medieval geomanty (page 88 - 120) includes ...

Hugh of Santalla
Gerard of Sabbioneta
Plato of Tivoli
Robert of Chester
Michael Scot
Albertus Magnus
Thomas Aquinas
Ramon Lull
Bartholomew of Parma
Peter of Abano
John de Morys
Nicholas Oresme
Cocles

further
LITERARY REFERENCES TO GEOMANCY
with notes of Chaucer
ROYAL INTEREST IN GEOMANCY
with notes to King Wenzel
ENGLISH GEOMANCERS
with notes to Richard II and Henry IV
DUCAL GEOMANCIES
with John, duke of Bedford and Humphrey of Gloucester

... whereby the acceptance of geomancy by Kings and Dukes short before and contemporary to Filippo Maria Visconti should be of special interest (especially King Wenzel), as this court definitely took influence on Milanese ideas.
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: collection Geomancy

7
The name of astrologos in the circle of Filippo:
Concedeva tanto credito agli astrologi e all'astrologia come scienza da far venire a sé i più esperti di tale disciplina e dal non prendere quasi nessuna iniziativa se non dopo averli consultati: tra i più tenuti in considerazione, Pietro senese e Stefano faentino, ambedue versati nell'arte, mentre negli ultimi tempi del principato s'avalse dell'attivo consigliare di Antonio Bernardigio, talvolta di quello di Luigi Terzaghi, spesso di quello di Lanfranco di Parma. Tra i suoi medici ebbe anche Elia, l'ebreo, noto indovino.
Decembrio. LXVIII

Thats mind:

When its young:

Pietro senese > Pietro Lapini (born in Montalcino).
Stefano faentino > Stefano Fantucci (born in Faenza).

Later:

Antonio Bernardigio aka Antonio Bernaregio
Luigi Terzaghi (born in Luca)
Lanfranco di Parma (don`t appear in other fonts)
Elia, l'ebreo (Doctor, too, of Popes Martino V and Eugenio IV).
When a man has a theory // Can’t keep his mind on nothing else (By Ross)

Re: collection Geomancy

8
mmfilesi wrote:The name of astrologos in the circle of Filippo:
Concedeva tanto credito agli astrologi e all'astrologia come scienza da far venire a sé i più esperti di tale disciplina e dal non prendere quasi nessuna iniziativa se non dopo averli consultati: tra i più tenuti in considerazione, Pietro senese e Stefano faentino, ambedue versati nell'arte, mentre negli ultimi tempi del principato s'avalse dell'attivo consigliare di Antonio Bernardigio, talvolta di quello di Luigi Terzaghi, spesso di quello di Lanfranco di Parma. Tra i suoi medici ebbe anche Elia, l'ebreo, noto indovino.
Decembrio. LXVIII

Thats mind:

When its young:

Pietro senese > Pietro Lapini (born in Montalcino).
Stefano faentino > Stefano Fantucci (born in Faenza).

Later:

Antonio Bernardigio aka Antonio Bernaregio
Luigi Terzaghi (born in Luca)
Lanfranco di Parma (don`t appear in other fonts)
Elia, l'ebreo (Doctor, too, of Popes Martino V and Eugenio IV).
From Storia di Milano:
http://www.storiadimilano.it/Personaggi ... omaria.htm
Medico? Se è anche astrologo è meglio

Marziano da Tortona morì nel 1425, lasciando il suo pupillo in balìa di altri personaggi non meno infarciti di sapere astrologico, ossia i medici di cui si circondava il Duca. A detta del Decembrio, Filippo Maria era iatro- ma non farmaco-dipendente (cap. LVII): “Stava uccellando e, chiamato il medico, insisteva per sapere la ragione di quella fitta alla testa o al petto… Oppure, trattandosi di un dolore nuovo, perché lo avesse provato. Quanto alle medicine che gli venivano prescritte, al momento di prenderle, le faceva portare in giro di qua e di là, poi, chiamato il pranzo, diceva che il loro momento era passato.” La quantità di medici che ebbe al suo servizio è davvero impressionante, ma forse non supera quello che consuterebbe oggidì un capo di stato.

Pietro Lapini da Montalcino era stato medico dell’anti-papa Giovanni XXIII, ossia del cardinale Cossa, ma deposto dal Concilio di Costanza nel 1415. Due anni dopo il Lapini si spostò al servizio di Filippo Maria, per il quale svolse missioni diplomatiche, ma per lo più rimase a Pavia dove insegnò nel locale Studio.

Nel 1428, anno del suo secondo e non meno sfortunato matrimonio con Maria di Savoia, Filippo Maria era assistito dai medici-astrologi Luigi Terzaghi e Stefano Fantucci di Siena, secondo il principio che due e meglio di uno, anche perché la diffidenza era forte e le precauzioni infinite.

Dieci anni dopo fece venire nel Ducato Elia di Sabbato, un professionista di grido, il migliore sulla piazza resosi disponibile grazie all’incresciosa proliferazione degli anti-papi. Il soggiorno di Elia a Milano durò sei anni, poi nel 1444 tornò nelle Marche, lasciando il suo “mecenate” in una condizione fisica ed economica disastrosa. Negli ultimi anni era entrato nelle grazie di Filippo Maria Antonio Bernareggi, che oltre ad essere suo medico-astrologo personale, era anche alchimista. Ebbe una cattedra per l’insegnamento nello Studio di Pavia, ma soprattutto dovette fornire gli ultimi pronostici all’ormai sfatto Duca. Lo assistette nelle cure Filippo Pellizzone, milanese, che “non gliele mandava a dire”, sfidando la incommensurabile suscettibilità ducale.

Il duca non permetteva a nessuno di presentarsi al suo cospetto con colori scuri e lui stesso si vestiva di rosso porpora o di bianco. Le scarpe “militari” erano di due colori diversi: bianca la destra, ametista la sinistra. Quando la sua stazza enorme gli impedì del tutto i movimenti, vestì alla turca, con un kaftano lungo fino ai piedi e con una sorta di turbante in testa che non abbandova mai.

1. Lanfranco di Parma
2. Filippo Pellizzone, milanese
3. Marziano da Tortona

appear not in both lists.
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: collection Geomancy

10
mmfilesi wrote:I don't know whats fonts adoperated Tolfo, but I think Decembrio knows who are the astrologi of Filippo.
Decembrio didn't knew everything about Filippo. And the biography had been written rather quickly short after the death of Filippo, why should he hadn't forget somebody? In Milan the situation was revolutionary and Decembrio had been in Ferrara, when Filippo died. In Milan waited important chances for Decembrio, he finally became a sort of president for the Ambrosian republic (or something similar). At least he made a lot of diplomatic mission. He became so important, that Francesco Sforza never allowed him to return to Milan.
Huck
http://trionfi.com