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Traces Forman’s death in a narrative shared by his wife Jean Forman and later retold by William Lilly, then situates the episode within broader debates over astrology’s determinism, medicine, and compatibility with free will. Also explains core practices such as horoscopes and major judgment types.",{"@graph":63,"@context":118},[64,80,101],{"@type":65,"itemListElement":66},"BreadcrumbList",[67,71,74,77],{"item":68,"name":69,"@type":70,"position":9},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":72,"name":10,"@type":70,"position":73},"https://docshare.wps.com/template/",2,{"item":75,"name":51,"@type":70,"position":76},"https://docshare.wps.com/template/general/",3,{"item":78,"name":59,"@type":70,"position":79},"https://docshare.wps.com/template/simon-forman-the-astrologers-tables-history-today-article/564594/",4,{"url":78,"name":59,"@type":81,"image":82,"author":87,"headline":59,"publisher":90,"fileFormat":93,"inLanguage":57,"description":61,"dateModified":94,"datePublished":95,"encodingFormat":93,"isAccessibleForFree":96,"interactionStatistic":97},"DigitalDocument",{"url":83,"@type":84,"width":85,"height":86},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/simon-forman-the-astrologers-tables-history-today-article/564594.png","ImageObject",442,249,{"name":88,"@type":89},"Maya Linwood","Person",{"url":68,"name":91,"@type":92},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-21","2026-10-12",true,{"@type":98,"interactionType":99,"userInteractionCount":76},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":100},"ViewAction",{"@type":102,"mainEntity":103},"FAQPage",[104,110,114],{"name":105,"@type":106,"acceptedAnswer":107},"What sources does the article highlight when discussing Simon Forman?","Question",{"text":108,"@type":109},"It emphasizes Simon Forman’s casebooks, diaries, and diagrams, which provide a unique perspective on the period’s approach to studying the stars.","Answer",{"name":111,"@type":106,"acceptedAnswer":112},"How does the article describe the account of Forman’s death?",{"text":113,"@type":109},"Jean Forman tells the story to William Lilly, who had pursued Forman’s papers, and Lilly includes the death account in his writings.",{"name":115,"@type":106,"acceptedAnswer":116},"What are the four main types of astrological judgments mentioned?",{"text":117,"@type":109},"The article outlines revolutions, nativities, elections (favorable hours), and interrogations (horary questions), including a related refinement called decumbiture.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":78,"og:type":120,"og:title":59,"og:site_name":91,"og:description":61},"article",{"robots":122,"canonical":78},"index,follow",{"doc_id":124,"site_id":56},564594,1792268560,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":127},{"doc_id":124,"user_id":128,"nickname":88,"user_avatar":129,"doc_module":9,"category_id":50,"category_name":51,"doc_title":59,"doc_description":61,"doc_content":130,"file_id":131,"file_url":132,"file_type":133,"file_size":134,"view_count":76,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":9,"is_downloadable":9,"audit_status":9,"page_count":135,"language":136,"language_code":57,"site_id":56,"html_lang":57,"table_of_contents":137,"faqs":138,"seo_title":139,"seo_description":61,"update_tm":140,"read_time":76},962084928432,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_155a257f0dc6eb9ab79c44ca47cae57d","Simon Forman: The Astrologer's Tables [http://www.historytoday.com/print/77351](http://www.historytoday.com/print/77351)  \nPublished on History Today ([http://www.historytoday.com](http://www.historytoday.com))  \nSimon Forman: The Astrologer's Tables  \nBy Lauren Kassell | Published in History Today Volume: 61 Issue: 9 2011  \nLauren Kassell reveals how the casebooks, diaries and diagrams of the late-16thcentury astrologer Simon Forman provide a unique perspective on a period when the study of the stars began to embrace modern science.  \nOn a September evening 400 years ago, Jean Forman, the wife of the astrologer, Simon, teased him over supper. Could he tell which of them would die first, she asked, mocking his art and his age. He was 58, she 30 years his junior. His reply was simple. She would bury him within a week. This was a Thursday. On Friday nothing happened. On Saturday nothing happened. By Wednesday the astrologer ʼsskill was happily in question. But on Thursday, as Forman set off by boat from Lambeth to the City – presumably to visit clients, attend to business or see friends – he fell down, shouted ʻAn impost, animpost ʼ and died.  \nSome years later Jean told this story to William Lilly (1602-81), then England ʼs most famous astrologer. Lilly had tracked down Forman ʼs widow in pursuit of the deceased astrologer ʼs papers and he included the story of Forman ʼs death in the account of his own life that he wrote in 1668 for his friend Elias Ashmole, the great antiquary and founder of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. Lilly ʼs autobiography set out a genealogy of English astrologers  \nAn engraving of Simon Forman, from an original c. 1590. Image: Getty / Hulton  \nculminating with himself. Lilly praised Forman as ʻjudicious and fortunate ʼ in horary questions and stressed that [diagnosing] sickness was his ʻ masterpiece ʼ [meaning his specialism] . But he also insinuated that the Elizabethan practitioner was an  \nold-fashioned magician, in contrast to himself, whose numerous prognostications during the Civil Wars and Protectorate combined politics and prophecy, improved the astrological literacy of the nation and advanced the art. Forman ʼs death, then, marks not the end of an era when astrologers thrived, but the beginning of a period of a more systematic and public pursuit of the science of the stars.  \n1 of 7 12/09/2011 17:37  \nSimon Forman: The Astrologer's Tables [http://www.historytoday.com/print/77351](http://www.historytoday.com/print/77351)  \nAstrology was a serious business. The roots of learned astrology lay in ancient texts. In second century Egypt Ptolemy set out the sophisticated mathematical model of the  \ngeocentric cosmos that prevailed until Copernican cosmology was adopted in the 16th  \nand 17th centuries. Ptolemy also outlined the principles of astrology, the study of the  \ninfluences of the stars and planets on the natural world, the fate of nations and the  \nlives of men and women. In the 12th century Latin translations of Arabic astrological  \nbooks began to circulate in Europe. Astrology was typically taught as part of the  \nmedical curriculum at universities. With the Protestant Reformation theologians  \nincreasingly complained that astrology was overly deterministic. This, combined with  \nthe rise of Copernicanism, prompted efforts to reform astrology in line with empirical  \nobservations of the motions of the stars and their effects on life on earth.  \nThroughout Renaissance Europe astrologers taught at universities and practised in  \nroyal courts and for private clients. They published almanacs and prognostications,  \nbolstering their incomes and advertising their expertise to potential patrons.  \nTheologians questioned whether astrology was compatible with concepts of free will  \nand divine providence. Poets and playwrights used astrological language to convey  \ncorrespondences between the human body and the terrestrial and celestial realms,  \noften expressed in terms of an analogy between the mi","cbCaic05XxCl90Bx","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaic05XxCl90Bx","pdf",405783,7,"English","# Simon Forman: The Astrologer's Tables\n## Forman’s death story and later transmission\n## Astrology as learned practice and historical change\n## Methods: ephemeris, horoscope, and planetary houses\n## Four types of astrological judgments","[{\"question\":\"What sources does the article highlight when discussing Simon Forman?\",\"answer\":\"It emphasizes Simon Forman’s casebooks, diaries, and diagrams, which provide a unique perspective on the period’s approach to studying the stars.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the article describe the account of Forman’s death?\",\"answer\":\"Jean Forman tells the story to William Lilly, who had pursued Forman’s papers, and Lilly includes the death account in his writings.\"},{\"question\":\"What are the four main types of astrological judgments mentioned?\",\"answer\":\"The article outlines revolutions, nativities, elections (favorable hours), and interrogations (horary questions), including a related refinement called decumbiture.\"}]","Simon Forman: The Astrologer's Tables - History Today Article | PDF",1791843073]