Liber Physignomiae

UK publishing powerhouse Hadean Press has another of their Guides to the Underworld pamphlets issuing forht. This one is a reprint of the mediaeval text Liber Physignomiae. The posted description say:

The mysterious figure of Michael Scot (1175-1235) is shrouded in dark legend. He has come to represent for many the imaginative epitome of the Medieval necromancer. Despite this sinister reputation, Michael Scot, a scholar, priest and possibly a Franciscan friar, was highly esteemed as a physician, mathematician, philosopher, linguist and astrologer. During his own lifetime Scot’s most famous and celebrated work was undoubtedly his great Liber Physignomiae, a veritable treasure trove of late Medieval wisdom and lore.

Although the Liber Physignomiae was widely circulated and frequently cited in the late Medieval and early Modern eras, it remains largely untranslated to the present day. This Guide offers for the first time in contemporary English some of the curious tracts from the Liber Physignomiae. Inside you will find the interpretation of augurs, the prognosticatory meaning of sneezes (the present translator has coined the word ‘sternutomancy’ for this practice, derived from the Latin word sternutare: to sneeze), as well as selections from Scot’s treatise on the art of reading faces and various features of the face (which was a key part of the discipline of medieval physiognomy).

As to their accuracy and reliability as divinatory tools or as methods of determining character, we leave it for others to test and judge; for, as always, experientia est optima rerum magistra.

Available as pamphlets and digital edition.

https://hadean.press/products/sternutomancy-augury-and-the-art-of-reading-faces.

Frater Lux Ad Mundi

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