Editorial principles

Latin and Anglo-Norman texts are given an English translation. Expansions are indicated with italics, unknown expansions with an apostrophe. Line breaks are denoted with double slash marks, split words with a hyphen. A new folio mid-text is indicated in square brackets. Obvious errors are indicated with [sic]. Unreadable or erased text is shown with ellipses. Spelling is unaltered from the original. The modern ‘I’ and ‘J’, ‘V’ and ‘U’ have been used. Punctuation and capitalisation have been modernised where deemed necessary. Singular ‘they/them/theirs’ is used instead of gendered pronouns.

In the working edition (26: London, Society of Antiquaries Library, MS 306 fol. 29v (N), London, British Library, MS Sloane 1620, fol. 71r (L) and Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Ashmole 340, fol. 107r (O) ), each sentence has a footnote in which textual variations between the three versions are indicated.

1: London, British Library, MS Royal 7 D XXV, fol. 76r (s. xiiex)

Ratio spere Phitagorice quam Apuleius descripsit de quacumque re volueris scire vel probare utpote // de egris qua die ebdomada evenerit quota luna fuerit scire debes addas nomen ipsius per litteras // circum scriptas et sic in unum collige et partire per 30 et quod remanserit in spera respicies // et sic invenies. [The instructions for the Sphere of Pythagoras which Apuleius described, for whatever thing you want to know or prove, for example, for a sick person you must know the day of the week on which they first fell sick and the number of the moon, add up their name by the letters written around the circle, make into a total and divide by 30. Look for the remainder in the sphere, and thus find your answer.]

2: London, Wellcome Library, MS 21, fol. 7v (s. xii)

Disce diem lune in qua quisque discubuit. Item nomen discumbentis natale. Numero super positum et collige // numerum utriusque quantus fuerit. Tum super addas regulares XX et hanc summa // divide per XXX et que remanet require in figura tetragona. Si inveneris // illud ipergeia in catheo medio eger cito peribit.