Astrology library progress report
– No. 29: 13th March, 2016
On Friday this past week, I picked up at the post office a small package from France containing several scarce French publications from the mid-20th century. Foremost among these are seven issues of the vanishingly scarce monthly newsletter of the Centre International d’Astrologie from 1950, in duplicated typescript format, each issue bound with two staples through the inner margins. The newsletter was in its fifth year at the time, apparently, but these are the only issues I have predating its conversion to a professionally bound small-format journal, as edited by André Barbault from around 1952 under the revised title of “L’Astrologie Moderne”. I have integrated them with the catalogue record for the latter since it is evidently a continuation of the same publication, although I was not previously aware that these earlier typescript-format newsletters even existed, and it seems unlikely that I’ll ever come across any others, all long since having perished or been incorporated into permanent institutional collections.
A single further issue of the newspaper-format periodical “L’Avenir du Monde” was also included, this one from 1938, by which time Louis Emrich was no longer the listed editor – in fact, it was anonymously edited. Somewhere before now I have seen claims that Armand Barbault, André’s elder brother, was latterly involved with this publication as editor, but if so, he is not credited at this point in time.
A further document in the package was a special mundane prediction brochure by Gustave-Lambert Brahy under his some-time pseudonym of “Stella”, for August 1947. I have filed it under “Stella” in the books section of the biliography since it is not formally an issue of “Demain” (and nor it is an almanac), although it serves much the same purpose. I presume “Demain” was on hiatus at that time, so it was a one-off publication.
Finally, Maryse Choisy’s “Almanach Consolation” for the year 1936 was included. This is the only example I have of one of her almanacs and it may be the only one she produced, since so far as I can gather, her first weekly occult magazines appeared in 1935, and the last in 1936, so they crossed only one turning of the years. Nonetheless, it is of rich interest as a piece of history for its contents.
Antonio Panaino’s “Sidera Viva” in two volumes already showed up the previous week. It includes substantial material on historical astrology, and is therefore well worthy of its place in this collection. I catalogued it under his surname in the main books section already.
On Friday, I posted a new article of mine, “Five Myths on the History of Modern Astrology”, here. It was revised with additional details on Saturday.
This coming week, one of my parents will be staying, and I might not have anything to report a week from today. If not, I shall roll over the schedule for my progress reports to a week later, but that remains to be seen. I’ve had a lot of bills to pay this month, like last, and consequently, funds will be extremely tight at least until the second week of April. Your enquiries and offers of donations are nonetheless always welcome.
With best wishes to everyone,
Philip
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