[Rarebooks] fa: ASTROLOGY - WILLIAM LILLY/PAUL GREBNER: MONARCHY OR NO MONARCHY IN ENGLAND - 1651

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, along with other 17th, 18th & 19th-Century English titles,  
auctions ending Sunday, October 2. More details and images can be  
found at the URL below or by searching under the seller name arch_in_la.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/arch_in_la/m.html?_trksid=p4340.l2562

Thanks,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.

William Lilly: Monarchy or No Monarchy in England. Grebner his  
Prophecy concerning Charles son of Charles, his Greatnesse, Victories,  
Conquests. The Northern Lyon, or Lyon of the North, and Chicken of the  
Eagle discovered who they are, of what Nation. English, Latin, Saxon,  
Scotish and Welch Prophecies concerning England in particular, and all  
Europe in generall. Passages upon the Life and Death of the late King  
Charles... By William Lilly, Student in Astrology. London: Printed for  
Humfrey Blunden, dwelling at the sign of the Castle in Corn-hill,  
1651. Disbound 4to (19 x 14 cm); [8] + 108 [only] pp.; woodcut  
decorations and initials, and astrological diagram. Presumed first  
edition, though ESTC notes a variant published the same year without  
the word "dwelling" in the publisher's imprint (no priority given).  
WING L2228; ESTC R202726.
An imperfect copy: complete through leaf P2 (p. 109), but with leaf P3  
missing the bottom half, and lacking all subsequent leaves (pp.  
111-119, [1], 20). Title-page loose, soiled and chipped at the edges;  
chipping and bumping to the edges and corners of the first 5 leaves  
(not affecting any text); leaves toned, mild damp-stain to the top  
margin of the first half of the text, occasional small spots and  
touches of soiling; otherwise sound.

William Lilly (1602-1681) was one of the most famous and influential  
astrologers of his time—his Christian Astrology (1647) is considered a  
foundational text of horary astrology—as well as a vigorous proponent  
of the parliamentary cause during the aftermath of the English Civil  
Wars. He pursued both these interests in Monarchy or No Monarchy, a  
reply to a pamphlet recently published, A Brief Description of the  
Future History of Europe (1650). This pamphlet argued that the  
Elizabethan astrologer Paul Grebner had prophecied the restoration of  
the Stuarts to the throne, in the person of "one Charles, descendant  
of Charles... who shall be greater than Charles the Great  
[Charlemagne]." Lilly attacks the pamphlet as "corrupt and purely  
false," a tissue of willful mistranslations and "Falshoods... penned  
subtilly," and published "purposely to stir up Rebellion against the  
State" (the future Charles II was at the very moment in Scotland,  
raising an army to march on England.) Lilly goes on to interpret  
Grebner's prophecies, as well as those of "the Scottish, Welch, and  
English Prophets," in a manner more favorable to his own political  
bent: "That England shall no more be Governed by Kings, or that this  
Parliament shall be subdued by any of the Issue or Race of the late  
King." On this question at least, he proved to be less than prescient.  
Lilly's adherence to the parliamentary cause led to his falling into  
disfavor after the Restoration, and his prediction of the Great Fire  
of London, years before the event, led to a popular suspicion that he  
had started it, and to a trial for the offence before Parliament, but  
he was found innocent.