CHAPTER XXXIX
BERNARD SILVESTER: ASTROLOGY AND GEOMANCY
Problem of his identity—His works—Their influence—Disregard of Christian theology—The divine stars—Orders of spirits—The stars rule nature and reveal the future—Plot of the Mathematicus—Different interpretations put upon the Mathematicus—Hildebert’s Hermaphrodite’s horoscope—The art of geomancy—Prologue of the Experimentarius—Pictures of Bernard Silvester—Problem of a spying-tube and Hermann’s relation to the Experimentarius—Text of the Experimentarius—Two versions of the 28 Judges—Other modes of divination—Divination of the physician of King Amalricus—Prenostica Socratis Basilei—Further modes of divination—Experimental character of geomancy—Various other geomancies—Interest of statesmen and clergy in the art—Appendix I. Manuscripts of the Experimentarius of Bernard Silvester.
“Nell’ ora che non può il calor diurno
Intrepidar più il freddo della luna,
Vinto da terra, o talor da Saturno
Quando i geomanti lor Maggior Fortuna
Veggiono in oriente, innanzi all’ alba,
Surger per via che poco le sta bruno.”
Purg. XIX, 1-6.