Popular and Practical Science of Medieval England ed. by Lister M. Matheson

Abstract

STUDIES IN THE AGE OF CHAUCER period in terms of Chaucer-the priorities of editors and conference orga­ nizers, the academic curriculum, and, perhaps not least, genuine belief in Chaucer's greatness. In offering another view of fifteenth-century culture through the Chaucerian lens, Lerer revitalizes a paradigm of critical subjec­ tion whose slow decline might better have been left uninterrupted. Yet, in doing so, he demonstrates that, however "diminished" we may perceive a text to be by subjection to Chaucer, we may nonetheless find it rich and intriguing. KAREN A. WINSTEAD Ohio State University LISTER M. MATHESON, ed. Popular and Practical Science of Medieval England. Medieval Texts and Studies, vol. 11. East Lansing, Mich.: Col­ leagues Press, 1994. Pp. xiii, 425. $68.00. The scientist of the late Middle Ages, no matter what his discipline, could no more distance himself from the tenets of astrology than can his modem counterpart from the principles of mathematics. Believing strongly in the continuity of matter, the medieval scientist firmly held that all sciences were linked by astrological dependencies and a common astrological lan­ guage. Five areas offourteenth- and fifteenth-centuty scientific inquiry are addressed in this book, and all are in one way or another dependent on celestial configurations, which to the medieval mind initiated tendencies, but not necessity, toward certain outcomes. The divisions offered in this volume are "Astrology," "Prognostication," "Medicine," "Horticulture," and "Navigation," and within them are twelve texts culled from manu­ scripts referring to the various titles. Under "Astrology," Peter Brown has edited British Library manuscript Sloane 1315, folios 33-36v, under the title "The Seven Planets." Brown's description of the manuscript, and even of similar manuscripts, is full and rewarding. The text itselfis short and tells the reader little more than what the influences of the seven planets were believed to be. A companion piece under "Astrology" is "A Treatise on the Elections of Times," edited by Lister M. Matheson and Ann Shannon from Bodleian Library manuscript Ashmole 337 and bolstered by five similar manuscripts. The title refers to 234 REVIEWS those times which, because of certain astrological configurations, are favor­ able for the initiation of any endeavor. The text is documented with tables and contains some Latin passages. Three editors appear under "Prognostication." Laurel Means has edited from Bodleian Library manuscript Ashmole 360, folios l5-26v, a fifteenth­ century English translation ofMartin ofSpain's Latin treatise on geomancy, which is a means of divination based on patterns of dots caused by the random casting of pebbles on the ground or marks on a paper. Various configurations are associated with planets or signs of the zodiac and assimi­ late all of their characteristics. Linda Ehrsarn Voigts has edited from Gon­ ville and Caius College, Cambridge, manuscript 336/725, folios 63v-66v, a text known as "The Golden Table of Pythagoras," which is a means of prognostication based, as usual, on the reader's familiarity with astrological configurations. Paul Acker and Eriko Amino have edited from Columbia University manuscript Plimpton 260, aided by University College, Lon­ don, manuscript Angl. 6, a text called "The Book of Palmistry," also con­ cerned with divination, this time from the patterns of lines in a subject's hand. The text is again well illustrated with drawings ofhuman hands and the lines found on them. Five texts appear under "Medicine." Ralph Hanna III has edited an excerpt of "Henry Daniel's Liber Uricrisiarum" from Huntington manu­ script HM 505, which he has bolstered with collations from a number of other manuscripts. The text is a translation of a Latin book of urology, and the author's death date was 1379. The second text under "Medicine" is George R. Keiser's edition of"Epilepsy: The Falling Evil." Keiser relies on two manuscripts: the fourteenth-century British Library manuscript Royal 17.A.viii and the sixteenth-century Bodleian Library manuscript Rawlin­ son A.393. The third text in this division is "Diet and Bloodletting: A Monthly Regimen," by Linne R. Mooney. Acknowledging that the subject matter was so widespread that it appears in many manuscripts, Mooney has chosen Bodleian Library manuscript Ashmole 1477, part 1, folios 95-96 as her example. Joseph P. Pickett is...