Prognostication for the Year 1491

...in a divine manner, so to speak, imitating Ptolemy, I say that the status of the harvest will be quite competent. The past eclipse of the moon in November, found in a seasonal sign, indicates a diminution of fruits, as Ptolemy wills in book two, which he shows; yet it will not ascend in price. The status of herbs and other vegetables will be favorable because of a strong part found in an earthy sign, as Hali wills in part eight.

Grain and wheat will be good in the present year, they will stand moderately, and in certain places, because of the clamor of martial men, they will be destroyed. And in the first quarter of the year, they will rise in price.

Honey: Because of the significators of its father, it will stand well in the present year, especially in the first and second quarters of the year; it will rise in price.

Wine will rise.

The status of wine, which is found from the existence of the grapes, will be good in the present year and will grow with fertility, and around the beginning of the year it will rise in price; in many places, however, those who cultivate the wine will be prohibited from their labors.

Nuts will grow abundantly in the present year; they will be many and at a competent price.

Honey, which is had from bees, will stand quite competently and at a moderate price.

Herbs that are sharp, hot, and dry, such as pepper and pyrethrum pellitory root, will rise in price in the present year and will grow well.

Beans, lentils, onions, and acetous acidic or vinegary saturnine herbs will grow in abundance this year and will be unhealthy.

Olive oil will stand well, will be healthy, and will rise in price.

Conclusion

This is for the praise of God and the benefit of the republic. Even if things are not perfectly brought to effect, let no one find fault with this astrological judgment. Rather, let one have an eye and reason elevated toward Ptolemy's Almagest The Great Treatise, the foundational work on astronomy. For the influence of the stars receives mutability from various causes: partly because the elements and the air in which the operation takes place are mutable and behave difformly, and partly because the material itself is of a variety and contingency. Yet, to all superior reasons, this appears theological and religious: that nature, when the Creator of all things wishes, is ordered to limp. Thus, although the movement of the stars is necessary, and necessarily so in these lower things with the strongest influences, free will is stronger. It does not look up to them.