Astrological, medical, arithmetical and curious treatise.

Unpublished miscellaneous manuscript containing the following parts:

I-Treatise on Astrology, pages 1 to 84. Composed of thirteen chapters: Of the Sphere; of the Number of planets and signs and signs to know them; of the Virtue, properties, influences or inclinations of the seven planets; of the Temperament and Qualities of the twelve signs; of the Face, body and human disposition by the influence of the Planets and signs; of the Happiness and riches influenced by the Planets in the twelve signs or the contrary; Of the Twelve houses and their signification; of the planetary Hours and which is the lord of the house predominating at the hour of birth; of the Intelligence and knowledge of the Eclipses of the Sun and Moon and their effects; of the Four times or parts of the year of their signification and prognostics; of the prosection or progress of each year, of the climacteric years and days. … which the venerable Veda foretells and points out; of what the Thunders which are heard in the four parts of the world for all the months of the year foretell. Heavily illustrated with ink drawings of astrological tables, Greek and Jewish alphabets, wheels and spheres of zodiacal signs.

II- Next is another treatise on the properties of some Herbs, Stones, Trees and Animals for various diseases and accidents and other Curious Things, pertaining to Medicine and put by the Abecedary. pages 85 to 174. Contains remedies for hot flashes, causing miscarriages, scorpion bites, lack of appetite, piles, poisons, dandruff, sciatica, headache, gums, sterility, inflammations, bad smells, skin stains, menstruation, prognosis of life or death of sick people by urine, bleeding and purging, leeches, dissimulation of virginity, etc, etc.

III-Brief treatise on practical arithmetic. Of the number, its definition and division. Pages 175 to 206. Illustrated with numerical developments.

IV-Brief treatise on the making of clocks. Pages 207 to 227. Composed of the following chapters: Of the quadrant and horizontal clock; Of the way of making the meridian line; Of clocks, cylinders and their figures; Of ring clocks. Heavily illustrated with ink drawings relating to clocks.

V- Some singular secrets of nature. 3 folios. Contains formulas and various remedies.

VI- Warnings and advice to clergymen and preachers. 3 folios. Contains ephemeris, guidelines for the exercise of the clergy in the face of doubts of the Faith.

VII- Definitions of all Moral Theology. 31 folios. It contains sections on the law, chastity, usury, donations, justice, testament, mortgage, truth, sacraments, priestly order, marriage contract, sins and moral virtues, ambition, indulgences, censures, the propositions condemned by Alexander VII in 1665 and 66, the propositions condemned in 1679 by Innocent XI, those condemned by Alexander VIII in 1690, ecclesiastical penalties and their typology, etc.

VIII- Coplas de gusto discreto. It contains eight satirical couplets about pain, discouragement, sense of life, death, etc. We know nothing about Fray Francisco del Corral de Almaguer. Was this name, linked to the town of Toledo of the same title, true or was it a pseudonym that hid his true identity? What seems evident is that this miscellaneous treatise for the exercise of the religious presents some licenses that border the orthodoxy of the time as the use of astrology and certain practices of popular medicine (virginity, abortion, etc). On the contrary, it seems that the author tried to give in the theological part of the manuscript a sincere and hopeful Christian manual open to all the casuistry of the daily life of the priests and offered a valuable help in its pages to the co-religionists in the Faith in the moments of doubt and weakness.

Good condition.