Introduction

Summary

This is a ruele of my devise

Howe thou shalt knowe yf thou be wise

Thy frind from foe, for to discerne

And how to save thyselfe from harme

And whom to truste for happy mate

Yf thou wilte lyve in quiete estate

And whoe shall by thy perfecte foe

Amonge the rest and others noe

And whom to admit thy counsell to

Yf thou have matters great to doe

And yf thou liste to wedd a wife

Howe thou shalte shune both rare and strife

And all by letters of their name

Is knowen the truth of all this fame.

Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Ashmole 354, produced at the very end of the sixteenth century, was written by the London-based astrologer-physician Simon Forman (1552–1611). Thanks to the book-collecting tendencies of Elias Ashmole (1617–92), many of Forman's autograph manuscripts survive in what is now the Ashmole collection. This particular volume contains treatises on divination and astronomy, and opens with Forman's own treatise on geomancy – De arte geomantica. After this opening text there is another predictive treatise in Forman's hand, beginning with the verse above on fol. 174r, with a corresponding figure on fol. 174v. This is a procedure to predict the outcome of a variety of life events: from choosing friends or a spouse, finding out the winner or loser in combat, and avoiding danger, by using the letters of someone's name; it is called onomancy.

To anyone familiar with Forman's character, it won't be a surprise that he wasn't being completely truthful about the origin of this art. ‘This is a ruele of my devise’ is a falsehood, at least concerning the art of onomancy as a whole. While he may have come up with elements of the specific version copied into his book, onomancy – divination by converting the letters of personal names into numbers – can be documented as far back as fourth-century CE Greece, although it is almost definitely a much older practice. Onomancy was present in a host of ancient and early medieval cultures and languages outside of the Latin West, including Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, Syriac and Ethiopic. That this was so isn't surprising. One of the most unifying themes in human experience is anxiety over big, unanswerable life questions, such as Will I get married? Will I have children? Will that friend betray me? How will I do in business?