Divination through dream interpretation in the 16th century

Artemidorus Daldianus. De somniorum interpretatione.

€ 1,500.00

A fascinating volume of two 16th century divination texts, beginning with the famous work on the interpretation of dreams by the Greek Artemidorus (b. ca. 170) , translated by J. Cornarius. The earliest extant Greek work on the subject, its value is great and twofold: both as a working divination text of the second century, and due to the important quotations from other, lost ancient texts collected in it (Tusc. Lex. Lit., p. 42). Its influence was certainly significant to Renaissance magic and thought, which, while forms of divination were often sporadically criminalized, was a culture on the whole eternally hungry for textbooks on different divinatory practices. The book's pioneering importance was once more realized in the 19th century by Arthur Schopenhauer and Sigmund Freud.

Another such example comes in the second text bound alongside "De somniorum interpretatione", the "Introductiones apotelesmatice elegantes" of German theologian and astrologer Johannes Indagine (1467-1537). This was his most important work and serves as an interesting complement to Artemidorus. Famous as an astrologer and practitioner of palmistry (also known as chiromancy), Indagine illustrated his text with numerous diagrams on the art of palm-reading and the use of horoscopes. Despite facing similar pushback from the church, this became a standard work, shaping the theories of palmistry in particular.