Onomantic Divination in Late Medieval Britain: Questioning Life, Predicting Death

Onomancy, the divination practice that predicts the future from calculations based on the numbers that correlate to the letters of personal names, was widely used in medieval Britain to predict the future. This book analyzes the intellectual and physical contexts of onomantic texts in 65 manuscripts from 1150 to 1500 and seeks to answer why a divinatory device condemned in canon law as Pythagorean necromancy enjoyed such popularity in mainstream books of religion, medicine, and scholasticism.

Format: Hardback
Length: 282 pages
Publication date: 05 March 2024
Publisher: York Medieval Press

In the later Middle Ages, people sought to navigate their uncertainties about the future in diverse ways, ranging from profound to mundane concerns. One of the most prevalent prognostic methods surviving in medieval manuscripts is onomancy, the branch of divination that predicts the future through calculations based on the numerical associations with the letters of personal names. Despite its widespread prevalence, onomancy has received relatively limited scholarly attention. This book delves into the intellectual and physical contexts of onomantic texts in approximately 65 manuscripts of British provenance, spanning from around 1150 to 1500. It focuses on two main varieties of onomancy and demonstrates that these practices were copied, owned, and utilized by individuals from various literate societies in late medieval England, including medical practitioners, the gentry and aristocracy, university scholars, and monks. The book also aims to answer the intriguing question of why a divinatory device, condemned in canon law as Pythagorean necromancy, enjoyed such popularity in mainstream books of religion, medicine, and scholasticism.

In the later Middle Ages, people sought to navigate their uncertainties about the future in diverse ways, ranging from profound to mundane concerns. One of the most prevalent prognostic methods surviving in medieval manuscripts is onomancy, the branch of divination that predicts the future through calculations based on the numerical associations with the letters of personal names. Despite its widespread prevalence, onomancy has received relatively limited scholarly attention. This book delves into the intellectual and physical contexts of onomantic texts in approximately 65 manuscripts of British provenance, spanning from around 1150 to 1500. It focuses on two main varieties of onomancy and demonstrates that these practices were copied, owned, and utilized by individuals from various literate societies in late medieval England, including medical practitioners, the gentry and aristocracy, university scholars, and monks. The book also aims to answer the intriguing question of why a divinatory device, condemned in canon law as Pythagorean necromancy, enjoyed such popularity in mainstream books of religion, medicine, and scholasticism.

Weight: 1g
Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781914049248