De l’astrologie judiciaire, entretien curieux

Paris: Louis Lucas, 1689. FIRST EDITION. Nineteenth-century half-Russian morocco over marbled boards. A fine copy with the Lindhurst bookplates of railroad tycoon Jay Gould (1836-1892) which pictures the gothic estate on the Hudson River in Tarrytown, New York. First edition of this uncommon treatise on judicial astrology. Written in the form of a dialogue, this text questions the role of celestial bodies in determining events on Earth. The interlocutors, Dorante and Alcidon, debate whether astrology could have predicted the death of Henry III, the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the New World, comets, and more. They note the success of Alexander the Great, Nostradamus, the Chinese, and the ancient philosophers who used astrology to guide their movements, and they attempt to classify the sex of planets and constellations. They also recommend talismans to one another based on common annoyances, like snakes.

Bordelon (1653-1730) was a French abbot and author. His satirical novels were not well regarded by the intellectual elite in his time but were nonetheless bestsellers.


Caillet 1419; Dorbon 426.