Prognostication for the Year 1500

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¶ The second image of Taurus.

The image of Taurus, located in the house of death with the presence of Saturn and Mars—in which they were conjoined on the 7th of February—and to which many perfections have come, and especially the sign of the ascendant under which the illustrious City of Venice was founded, and the ascendant under which the kingdom of the Sforzas began—brings many things to us in the present year, and especially in the places and cities over which it holds dominion, such as a part of Asia Minor, Bologna, Siena, and Verona. For it announces certain infirmities in general, and most especially in women and the elderly, and many will fall by sudden death.

Likewise, Saturn existing in the figure of conjunction in the ascendant announces intemperance of the air, weakness in women, and famine. A great lord who has such an image in his horoscope should fear this year, for he will feel many contrarieties in it and perhaps will undergo the danger of death. The aforementioned places, because of Venus joined to Mars in the summer—the lord of the image of Taurus—will fare poorly. They will feel death and loss from friends in their substances, faculties, and revenues, and will have contrarieties among themselves. But because in such an image, in its sixteenth degree, there will be a conjunction of Saturn and Mars in the house of religion and faith—to which the ascendant of the conjunction will be the fifteenth degree of the image of Virgo of the same triplicity—the effect of which conjunction is to signify great cold and horrible accidents in the world, war and discord, and especially among Arabs and citizens of the dead likely referring to the deceased or a specific region, deceit in men, terrible rumors, oppression of the inferiors, and in the aforementioned places where such an image holds dominion, the citizens will rise against kings and lords and their magnates, whence follows the shedding of blood and slaughter. And because such a conjunction will be in the house of religion, it is to be feared that something new will emerge and rise, not without danger and detriment. Perhaps such a conjunction will even cause an earthquake and ruin; it also designs drought with cold because of its ascendant and the location of the conjunction of the same quality. Many animals will perish, quadrupeds, and especially oxen and sheep; many travelers and pilgrims also will taste death.