Genre:

Letter

Subjects:

Astrology, Astronomy, Mathematics, Publishing, Disease, Medical Practitioners, Heterodoxy, Meteorology

    Describes the 'Almanack of Liège, by Matthew Laensberg' as the continental equivalent of the 'celebrated Almanack of Francis Moore, and suggests Moore might have 'borrowed the idea from the German Philosopher, whose publication is of a date considerably older' (71). Discusses whether Laensberg is a real or an assumed name, the latter being viewed as the more likely. (The pseudonym apparently draws on the astronomical authority of Phillip van Lansberge's Tabulae Motuum Coelestium Perpetuæ, which predated the earliest known edition of the almanac by only four years and was widely used by astrologers.) Reports that the physicians of Liège were jealous 'lest the prophet of Liège should extend his dominion over the healing art' and obtained an order suppressing medical astrology in 1679 (72).

See also:

Opsomer 2001