Anonymous; tr. Dickson, Gladys ‘A Jerusalem Christian Treatise on Astrology. Translated by Gladys Dickson From the original Arabic’ Printed for the Palestine Exploration Fund, 38, Conduit Street, London, 1909.
Original paper covers. [1 leaf] + 36pp
About this Book Scan
A Jerusalem Christian Treatise on Astrology has a curious history. According to its translator, the self-styled Miss Gladys Dickson, it is a translation of the main part of an Arabic manuscript that was found in a house bought by an Arab living in Jerusalem, who reluctantly agreed to lend the manuscript to her for translation purposes.
According to Dickson, the main part, which she has translated, deals with astrology, but the full original manuscript also contains a section with medical recipes and one with notes by different subsequent owners upon historical events. It is to be supposed that she did not have time to translate those parts or to copy the original manuscript before the return of her loan was required by its owner.
We do not know what became of the original manuscript or whether any scholarship has since been undertaken to date it.
Our full-colour scan is taken from the original 1909 printing of Gladys Dickson’s translation in our library.