The Book of Dimas the Greek

A complete English edition of The Book of Dimas the Greek, a treatise of the Arabic astrological tradition, in 47 pages set in a manuscript hand on aged paper, with the page furniture of the original: an ornamented title cartouche, rubricated chapter headings, and the planetary and zodiacal glyphs written inline as the scribe wrote them.

The book builds before it judges. It opens on the seven wandering stars and the twelve signs, then lays out the essential dignities in full: domiciles and detriments, exaltations and falls with their degrees, the four triplicities with their day, night and participating lords, the bounds and the faces. From there: the six causes of a planet's weakness, and the six corruptions of the Moon, including void of course.

Only then does it open the gates of questions. Wealth. Marriage. Illness, and which member of the body the pain sits in. Travel, and whether the traveller returns. The Sultan's office and whether it holds. Theft, lost property, and the description of the thief. The physical description of a person read from the Ascendant and the Midheaven. Timing: whether the answer falls in days, months or years. And a long final section on ships and sea voyages, where al-Kindī is quoted by name.

It is a working text with a complete internal method, which is what makes it worth owning rather than consulting: every judgement it teaches rests on a foundation it has already laid.