Anglo-Saxon Prognostics
Anglo-Saxon Prognostics: An Edition and Translation of Texts from London, British Library, MS Cotton Tiberius A.iii.
Edited with a translation by R. M. LIUZZA
Series: Anglo-Saxon Texts
Volume: 9
Copyright Date: 2010
Published by: Boydell and Brewer,
Pages: 312
https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7722/j.ctt81xzs
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Book Info
Anglo-Saxon Prognostics
Book Description:

Medieval prognostic texts - a survival from the classical world - are the ancestors of modern almanacs; a means of predicting future events, they offer guidance on matters of everyday life, such as illness, childbirth, weather, agriculture, and the interpretation of dreams. They give fascinating insights into monastic life, medicine, pastoral care, the transformations of classical learning in the middle ages, and the complex interconnections between orthodox religion, popular belief, science and magic. This volume provides the first full critical edition, with a facing-page translation, of a diverse and peculiar group of prognostic guides and calendars, in Latin and Old English, found in an eleventh-century manuscript from Christ Church, Canterbury; they are collated with related versions in both Anglo-Saxon and continental manuscripts. A lengthy introduction and commentary examine the transmission and translation of these texts, and shed light on their origins and uses in late Anglo-Saxon monastic culture. Roy Liuzza is Professor of English at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

eISBN: 978-1-84615-928-2
Subjects: Language & Literature
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  1. Front Matter
    Front Matter (pp. i-iv)
  2. Table of Contents
    Table of Contents (pp. v-vi)
  3. Preface
    Preface (pp. vii-ix)
  4. Abbreviations
    Abbreviations (pp. x-x)
  5. Manuscript Sigla
    Manuscript Sigla (pp. xi-xii)
  6. Introduction
    Introduction (pp. 1-78)

    The texts known to Anglo-Saxon studies as ‘prognostics’ comprise, by scholarly consensus, approximately forty to fifty items of various lengths in Latin and Old English. They are a diverse and somewhat loosely defined group,¹ including such things as predictions based on the day of the week on which something occurs, predictions based on natural phenomena such as thunder or wind,² lists of lucky and unlucky days in the year (sometimes called ‘Egyptian’ days),³ lunaria or calendars for the lunar month listing good and bad days for illness, bloodletting, childbirth, or the interpretation of dreams,⁴ alphabetical lists giving the meaning of...

  7. ANGLO-SAXON PROGNOSTICS: Texts and Translation
    ANGLO-SAXON PROGNOSTICS: Texts and Translation (pp. 79-220)

    Fols. 27v¹²–32v¹⁶. Variants from Æ68 (154 items) and S11, which ends imperfectly after 29 items. Minor orthographical variants are not noted.

    be swefena mistlicnesse æfter endebyrdnessæ

    DE SOMNIORUM DIUERS⟨I⟩TATE SECUNDUM ORDINEM

    abecedes danielis þæt witegan.

    ABCHARII DANIELIS PROPHETE

    fugelas on swefenum se þe gesyhð ⁊ mid him winneð saca sume hit getacnað.

    Aues in somnis qui uiderit & cum ipsis pugnauerit lites aliquas significat.

    fugelas on swefnum gefon gestreon hit getacnað.

    Aues in somnis capere. lucrum significat

    fugelas sum þincg fram him gegripan hearpan hit getacnað.

    Aues aliquid a se rapuisse damnum significat

    assan oððe hecenu gesihð gylt ceapes hit...

  8. Commentary
    Commentary (pp. 221-252)
  9. Glossary
    Glossary (pp. 253-278)
  10. Bibliography
    Bibliography (pp. 279-290)
  11. Index
    Index (pp. 291-294)
  12. Back Matter
    Back Matter (pp. 295-295)