Tags: Robert Fludd, his recourse to astrology to recover stolen belongings; in Latin and English

How to recover stolen belongings: the Fludd way (part I).


One of the last great minds of the Renaissance, the Englishman Robert Fludd (1574-1637) was a doctor, an author (who wrote the equivalent of an encyclopaedia), an astrologer, an alchemist, a musician, an inventor and also a Rosicrucian. From the pictures he drew representing a tank, a sea-diver (in full diving suit for deep waters), a self-propelled car, only to name these, that are displayed in some of Fludd’s works I guess that he had been disclosed some of the inventions which would only come to being centuries after and which had already been mentioned by the thirteenth-century mediaeval monk Roger Bacon and then put into drawings by none other than the famous Renaissance genius Leonardo da Vinci nearly three centuries later. 

On 29th September 2020, I listened to an old French radio broadcast dating back to 1984 about the life of Roger Fludd in which the following excerpt was recounted. A fortnight later I was able to locate the precise source for the passage I had heard being read aloud. However, it was not until today that I decided to transcribe the Latin text and to provide a rather literal translation into English (based in part on Pierre Piobb’s translation into French).

Please note that I have respected the original Latin text as much as possible; hence the use of ſ (the long S so characteristic of Renaissance Latin texts). I hope that my transliteration does not contain too many mistakes because I did not study Latin at university level. 

From De naturae simia seu technica macrocosmi historia (Tract. II. Part. X. Lib. VI):

Accidebat etiam non multò poſt, dum in ſtudiis meis circa tractatum de Muſica ita anxiè occupabar, ut vix per integram ſeptimanam è cubiculo meo egrederer, ut die quodam Jovis accederet ad me viſendi cauſa juvenis quidam ſatis nobilis, quiſcientiis etiam humanioribus operam dabat in collegio Magalenſe, quod à noſtro collegio S.Ioannis nomine inſignito directe verſus Orientem poſitum erat: Hic mecum pranſus eſt dic illo in cubiculo meo: Inſequente autem Solis die ad prandium invitabar a quodam amico meo, civitatis incola, ad quod convivium me præparans, vidi cingulum meum cum pendulo enſis retinaculo abeſſe, quorum quidem precium ad 10. aureos Gallicos aſcendebat: petii ab omnibus in collegio noſtro, qui per illud temporis ſpatium accedebant, nunquid illis de re iſta mea perdita conſtaret, aut aliquid innotuiſſet, non potui autem quicquam de ullo cognoſcere. Coactus ſum igitur hac ratione erigere aliquam figuram cœleſtem pro tempore illo, quo primum cinguli defectum deprehendi: Quo facto percepi Mercurium fuiſſe dominum ſeptimæ domus, nem quem in domo decima invem ſatis bene diſpoſitum: Hinc itaque collegi, juvenem aliquem & quadantenus adhuc puerum fuiſſe furem, cumque optima loquela & diſcurrendi facultate prædicum : Similiter vidiipſum Mercurium cum cæteris teſtimoniis magis Orientalem eſſe, indeque rem ereptam ſeu ſublatam verſus Meridiem deportatam eſſe intellexi.

His igitur diligenter conſideratis, furíſque perſona ſatis bene deſeripta. ſubitò mihi in mentem venit præſentia hoſpitis illius mei, qui die Jovis præcedenti mihi adfuerat, quippe cujus habitatio erat, uti ſupra dictum eſt, in collegio Magdalenſe, quod Orientale erat reſpectu habito ad locum commiſſi furti. Quare feruum meum citræ oram ad ipſum miſi, ut blandis eum ac humanis verbis hoc nomine alloqueretur. Sed ipſe juramentis additis negavit, ſe illa bona unquam tetigiſſe: Ego tamen quoniam rem amiſſam verſus Meridiem tranſlatam eſſe perceperam, ſervum meum ſecunda vice miſi, non ad ipſum ſolummodò, ſed & ſimul ad juvenem quendam ſeu puerum, qui tempore illo, quo res meæ furripiebantur, cum ipſo erat. Hunc igitur juvenem ſervus meus verbis acrioribus ac minis edam adortus eſt ſtrenuè affirmans, ipfum res amiſſas habuiſſe, & abſcondiſſe eas in loco verſus ædem Chriſti mihi ſatis cognito, ac ibi quidem, ubi Muſicam nonnunquam audiviſſet, & fœminis quibuſdam familiariter fuiſſet uſus: (hoc autem juſſi ſervum meum ipſi ſignificare, quoniam res amiſſa demonſtrabatur verſus Meridiem eſſe abſcondita, & præterea etiam, quoniam Mercurius inveniebatur in domo Veneris; collegi enim inde furem circa Muſicam & convictum mulierum ut plurimum detineri ac delectari. Quod ubi audivit reus ſubitò dejectus eſt coram ſodale ſuo, ſolum cubiculi pede percuriens, juravit, ſeipſum facinus commiſiſſe, nec aufum fuiſſe faciem meam ab eo tempore contueri, oravitque ſervum meum, ne ulteriora hac de re verba faceret, addita promiſſione, ſepoſtera die cingulum ſubtractum cum appendente enſis retinaculo per ſocium ſuum mihi remiſſurum; id ſanè, quod etiam factum eſt; nam recepi ego rem meam deperditam duabus chartis pulcherrimis involutam, quam quidem fur ocultaverat in domo cujuſdam Muſici juxta ædem Chriſti ſita; ubi morabatur receptor rerum multarum illicitè aliis etiam eadem Univerſitate degentibus Scholaribus ſubtractarum, quas omnes epulis & muliebri convictu prodigebat. Generoſus autem ille furtum reſtiruens mihi conſuluit interea, ut hanc artem relinquerem, nec enim, inquit ille, poſſibile eſt, ut hæc preſtare poſſis sine ope Dæmonis: Ego ſanè quod meum erat recepi, & pro conſilio ipfi gratias egi.

               Poſſem equidem etiam multa alia exempla in praxi mea notata recensere, ſed particulariter ea omnia commemorare longum nimis & tædioſum ſoret: Omittemus igitur illa in præſenti, ut ad ipſam praxin noſtram & quæſiones ad furtum pertinentes breviter deſendamus.

Some time later, while I was diligently studying music and barely left my home for the whole week, I received a visit one Thursday from a rather distinguished young man who was doing his humanities at Magdalene College, a college to the east of Saint-John, the one where I was going. We had dinner that day in my room. But the following Sunday, as I was getting ready to go to dinner at the home of a resident of the town to which I had been invited through a friend of mine, I noticed that my belt and the cord for attaching the sword, worth ten gold louis of France, had disappeared. I asked if anyone had noticed this disappearance or made any observations about it; I could not learn anything. In desperation, I set up the theme for the time when I had heard of the loss. I found Mercury Lord of House VII and placed in House X of good means. I concluded that the thief was a young man of easy and even eloquent speech and, Mercury being oriental like the other significators, I presumed that the stolen objects had been transported to the South.

When I had obtained this information and had a satisfactory description of the thief, I suddenly began to think of my host of the Thursday before, who lived in Magdalene College, situated to the East of the place of theft. Without delay I sent my servant to this young man’s house with a recommendation to be polite and calm. The young man claimed to be innocent and swore that he had never touched the objects in question. However, as I had recognised that they were being transported to the South, I sent my servant for the second time not only to this same student, but also to another, a teenager who was with him at the time of the theft. My servant used vehement language towards the latter, even threatening him by stating emphatically that he alone possessed the lost items and hid them in a certain place near Christ church. This place was well known to me: the student would often go there to hear music and meet certain women. I ordered my servant to make him understand that I was aware of these details because the horoscope revealed that the lost objects were hidden towards the South: Mercury was indeed in a Domicile of Venus and I concluded that the thief had a passion for music and women. When the unfortunate man heard this indictment, he immediately went forward to cover his comrade and, striking the ground with his foot, he claimed to have been the sole perpetrator of the robbery. He added that since then he had not dared to appear before me. He begged my servant to remain quiet about the robbery, promising in return to send me the next day, through a friend of his, my belt with the sword cord. I received these objects wrapped in two papers that were very precious to me: they were proof that the proceeds of the robbery had been hidden in a musician’s house near the University, where the students would go to consort with women. After this generous restitution, I had the opportunity to meet this student. He advised me to abandon my astrological practices, ‘because’, he said, ‘it is not possible for you personally to have such means: the Devil must certainly have something to do with it!’ I listened and thanked him for his advice.

Here I could give many examples and tell all my experiences on this subject: it would only be a long and tedious continuation, however; it would be better to move on without further ado to practice and to examine the questions to ask in the case of theft.

Lausanne, 7th February 2021