The following is a very rough, in-progress translation of the Golden Table of Pythagoras, a medieval prognostic device with an exciting framing structure.
Here begins the book and the teaching of the Golden Table.
Master Pythagoras, the noble philosopher who traveled the whole world, seeking wisdom and seeing many marvels, came into the land and hall of the king called Apollonius. And for this master Pythagoras was a great and wondrous scholar. He made many noble books, and opened and declared the secret of them and many others. He also toiled and translated many crafts, such as the notary science from Chaldean into Arabic and Latin. And in that land he saw many wonderful things, and conceived them all and hid them in his mind. And there he saw, among other things, a rich and wonderful table that the king had made with gold and silver and sable and enamel, and written therein and inscribed in Arabic letters many diverse and wondrous things, and what the table meant and the secret thereof. He lined it according to true astronomy, to know and understand all things of secret that be in doubt, as you shall see hereafter in this book.
In this aforementioned table, Pythagoras saw three fair figures: two of them were round, and one of them was square. The first of the round figures that is called a sphere stood at the eastern end of this golden table. And the second figure that is also called a sphere stood at the western end of the table. And the third figure that was square stood in the middle of the table between the other two round figures called spheres.
The first sphere, that stood in the east end, was made of five circles; and within the sphere were three lines from the east to the west which parted the sphere even in two, and that outer part of the sphere signifies good and that other part evil; and in the space that was under the upper line towards the east was written this word Beronixa,1 that is to say, “short health.” And in the space between the middle line is written this verse: Vita datur celo, de terra mortis ymago. And the other part of the sphere signifies life, goodness, and all manner of play and prosperity. And the nether part, death and wickedness, and all manner of sorrow and mischief.
And the great space of the over part of the sphere is a little circle with two lines, and three stages, and each stage had a certain number. The number of the east stage is of long life. The number of the middle stage is of mean life. The number of the west stage is of short life. In the same manner, it shapes death and other mischief in the nether part of the sphere. For there is such another, a little circle with these lines, stages, and numbers that signify long sickness with death, and mean life after long sickness with death, and short sickness with death.
These words are written in the first space of the sphere about the upper line: “long health, mean health, short health.” And in the same space about the nether little circle are written these words: “long death, mean death, short death, or hasty death”. And the next space that goes about the sphere is written the letters of the alphabet with their numbers, the respective numbers must be put here letters of the proper name, as a man may say hereafter openly. And in the next space about this are written the days of the week or the planets that the days of the week are called after, for all these or one, and the number that fall to them for the champions, flatterers, and the sick. And in the highest space of all that is uttermost of this sphere is written a verse by syllables of words and are these: Infima stant diris respondent summa secundis. “The nether part of this sphere signifies mischief and the other part goodness”.2
In this former sphere, a man may know the truth of whatever thing that ever he would have in this world, without any doubt, if he works wisely with the craft of it, as of life, or of sickness, or of death, or of stealing of things, or of theft, or of health, or of single battle, or general, or of meeting, or of lawsuits, who shall die first or last — the husband or the housewife, of good bargains, or of dearth of years, who is friend and who is not, who loves faithfully and who falls, of pilgrimage, of happiness and unhappiness, of selling and of buying, of matrimony and marriage, of winning and losing in law, and of all other things that come to man’s mind that a man will think of.
Now I shall set an example by which one may know and find how one shall work with all these others, as thus: if any fall sick, look what day he found himself down in that sickness and take the number of that day as it stands in the sphere, and number of the age of the moon in the same day, and number of the sign in that time, and number of the letters of his proper name, and put them all together; and then part them in 30 and look what remains; seek it in the sphere and if you find it in the over part of the sphere, he shall live; if you find it in the nether part, he shall be dead soon after without doubt.
And so shall you do with a champion that should fight and all that other also, save the champion’s number of days and the sick man’s are not all one; therefore, I shall set it here that I may know the one from the other. This is the number of the days of the sick: the Sunday has 15 or 14, the Monday has 17 or 18, the Tuesday, 25 or 15; the Wednesday, 25; the Thursday, 11; the Friday, 15; the Saturday, 17 or 16. Now the numbers of the champions: Sunday has 13, Monday, 18; Tuesday, 25; Wednesday, 25; Thursday, 11; Friday, 15; and Saturday, 26.
Now the number of the signs are as they stand in order: Aries has 1, Taurus has 2, Gemini has 3, Cancer has 4, Leo has 5, Virgo has 6, Libra has 7, Scorpio has 8, Sagittarius has 9, Capricorn has 10, Aquarius has 11, Pisces has 12.
Now I will tell the second sphere that was made — it stood in the west end of the table — and what it serves. This second sphere was made full like the former, save that this has three circles all about the sphere, and the former had 5. These three circles about the sphere serve in the same manner as they did in the former sphere. For in the highest circle of the sphere were written the planets for the days in the week with their numbers, and the next sphere to that the letters of the alphabet with their numbers, and within this sphere lay two rows east and west; between were written the 12 signs. And in another space of the sphere was made a lozenge with 3 stages full of numbers, and they were even, and each one signified life. And in the nether space of the sphere was such another lozenge with numbers, each one was odd, and they signified death.
Now have I told how this sphere was made; now will I tell whereof it serveth. This sphere tells and shows who wedded together shall die first or last, and that may you know in this manner wise. Take tente to the day of the wedding, and take the number of the day as it is in the sphere, and the number of the moon, and the number of the letters of the proper names both, and the number of the sign. And put them all together, and then part them even together in 30, and if the last number is even, the woman shall die and the man shall live. And if it be odd, the man shall die and the woman shall live. The number of the names, and the number of the days, and the number of the signs that thou shalt work with, take as they stand in this next following figure or sphere, and the number of the moon in the day of the wedding, and thou shalt prove it truly.
Now I will tell of the square figure that stands in the middle of the golden table between the two spheres that I have spoken of before: how it is made and what it serves. This square figure serves to show the general of all manner of things that be in doubt: what is true and what is false of any thing that a man will wit. And though it be square, it serves unto the same and on the same wise as doon these other two, and such manner of number of days, and of proper name, and of things, and of all signs of the lesyng that are therein. And right so shalt thou work all as thou did with other spheres.
This square figure is made of two double rules on each side, and in the space between the rules are written the planets and the days of the week with their number that thou shalt work with. In this figure stands a lozenge that is made with two double rules. And in the space of them are written also the letters of the alphabet that fall to that thing that thou seek after, and here numbers with them that thou must work with all. And in the lozenge, there are three rules east and west with two spaces written this word Zoe, that is to say, ‘truth that men seek after.’ And in that other space is written this word Thozatot, that is to say, ‘falsehood of that thing that men seek after.’ In that over part of the lozenge is written the number of the truth that man seeks after. And in the nether part is a number of those things that are false that man seeks after. For the over part is truth, and the nether part is false of things that are not true and stand in doubt.
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