German-authored works on the history of astrology

German-authored works on the history of astrology
– 2 December 2008

This is a brief shortlist of the works on the history of astrology I have already acquired or (in a few cases) am expecting to have been able to acquire by the end of this year that are written in German or, in one case, in Latin but by a German historian, or, in one other case, originally in German but in French translation in the edition I have:

1. Boll, Franz ‘Kleine Schriften zur Sternkunde des Altertums. Herausgegeben und eingeleitet von Viktor Stegmann’ 1950

2. Boll, Franz ‘Sphaera’ 1903

3. Gundel, H.-G. and Wilhelm ‘Astrologumena: Die astrologische Literatur in der Antike und ihre Geschichte’ 1966

4. Gundel, Hans-Georg ‘Weltbild und Astrologie in den Griechischen Zauberpaypri’

5. Gundel, H.-G. ‘Zodiakos – Tierkreisbilder im Altertum.: Kosmische Bezüge und Jenseitsvorstellungen im antiken Alltagsleben’ 1992

6. Gundel, [Wilhelm] ‘De stellarum appellatione et religione Romana’ 1907 (this one was written in Latin by the German author himself in the early twentieth century!)

7. Gundel, Wilhelm, ed. Gundel, H. G. ‘Dekan und Dekansternbilder. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Sternbilder der Kulturvölker’ 1969 edition

8. Gundel, Wilhelm, ed. Gundel, H.-G. ‘Neue astrologische Texte des Hermes Trismegistos’ 1978 edition

9. Gundel, Wilhelm ‘Sterne und Sternbilder im Glauben des Altertums und der Neuzeit’ 1981/2? reprint

10. Hubner, Wolfgang ‘Die Begriffe Astrologie und Astronomie’

11. Hubner, Wolfgang ‘Die Dodekatropos des Manilius’

12. Hubner, Wolfgang ‘Die Eigenschaften der Tierkreiszeichen in der Antike’ 1998

13. Hubner, Wolfgang ‘Grad und Gradbezirke des Tierkreiszeichen: Der anonyme Traktat “De stellis fixis, in quibus gradibus oriuntur signorum”‘ (2 vols.) 1995

14. Hubner, Wolfgang ‘Raum, Zeit und soziales Rollenspiel der vier Kardinalpunkte in der antiken Katarchenhoroskopie’ 2003

15. Knappich, Wilhelm, tr. Latou, Henri ‘Histoire de l’Astrologie’ (originally in German) 1986

16. Koch ‘Neue Untersuchungen zur Topographie des babylonischen Fixsternhimmels’

17. Stegemann, Victor: ‘Dorotheos von Sidon und das sogenannte Introductorium des Sahl Ibn Bisr’ 1942

18. von Stuckrad, Kocku ‘Geschichte der Astrologie’ 2003

19. von Stuckrad, Kocku ‘Das Ringen um die Astrologie’ 2000

20. Weidner, Ernst ‘Gestirn – Darstellungen auf Babylonischen Tontafel’

While far from being a complete representation of the German literature on the history of astrology, this shortlist I believe includes most of the widely-acknowledged classics. I say most, because Boll’s ‘Sternglaube and Sterndeutung’ is notable by its absence, for the simple reason that copies of the best editions are fairly commonplace secondhand and I believe it therefore will be no trouble to come back for later, while a number of others that are out of print are also completely unavailable, most notably other works by Stegemann and the recent five-volume compilation edited at a German university called ‘Texts and Studies on Astrology’, which was limited to 100 copies, such a tiny print-run that it seems most unlikely that a set will surface second-hand for decades.