ASTROLOGY

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Astrological Physician

Simon Forman was a self-taught medical astrologer who came from a modest background. The Rev Richard Napier, a wealthy Oxford graduate, became his assistant and then successor.

Their casebooks survive. 66 volumes. 80,000 case notes covering 65,000 people.

Isaac Bickerstaff

Swift sometimes adopted the pseudonym Isaac Bickerstaff. He had a distaste for the freethinking almanac-make John Partridge. In 1708, as Bickerstaff, Swift published a set of prophecies that included one that Partridge will infallibly dye upon the 29th of March next, about Eleven at Night, of a raging fever. In March he followed this up by publishing a pamphlet that claimed that his predictions had all come to pass. Partridge's response was that the exercise ruined his livelihood.

In 1709, in the first edition of The Tatler, Richard Steele assumed the guise of Bickerstaff and made a jibe at Partridge.

Jerome Cardano

Gerolamo Cardano (1501-1576) was a Milanese physician and astrologer who spent time working in London. He deduced the nature of probability. He became fascinated by algebraic numbers believing that they might be able to explain how the universe worked. He laid the basis for quantum theory.

Nicholas Culpeper

Nicholas Culpeper was an astrologer among other things.

Location: 92 Commercial Street, E1 6LZ (purple, red)

William Lilly

William Lilly (1602-1681) was a leading astrologer of the C17th.

Location: (168) Strand, WC2R 1ES (purple, blue)

Richard James Morrison

Zadkiel - the name used by Richard James Morrison (1794-1874) when compiling his popular almanacs.

David Backhouse 2024