The Most Important Document in the World 1 by Tom On December 18 Sotheby's in New York, will auction off a copy of the Magna Carta. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071207/ap_ ... agna_carta This has been called the most important document in the world as it is considered the basis of all the world's democracies. It is expected to fetch $20 - 30 million US and since the US dollar is falling like a rock, I fully expect Skyscript's own collector extraordinaire, Phillp Graves, to be in the running England's King John signed the document, unwillingly, and like politicians everywhere and at every time, promptly ignored it, but it's influence is immeasurable. Like US Independence a precise date and time is not easily discernible. The Barons came to London to confront the King in June. They argued for some time and the document itself was drawn up on July 15, 1215. Contrary to some romantic paintings of the King being forced to sign by peasants with pitchforks, the document originally affected, if it were implemented, only the King and nobility. The chart, however has an interesting Jupiter (nobility) and Moon (the people) conjunction in Jupiter's sign, Pisces if we use a noon chart. Also the Sun (the king) is peregrine in Cancer and Mercury (documents) is in the royal sign of Leo. I'm going to check my bank account and perhaps place a bid, myself. Tom Quote Fri Dec 07, 2007 2:07 pm
2 by James Frazier Tom, I just knew that James Randi was correct. Astrologers must be bilking the public out of millions and millions of dollars. I know I have made a fortune as one. So, now maybe I'll bid against you if my money market fund has enough balance. Quote Fri Dec 07, 2007 3:30 pm
3 by Philip Graves Hi Tom! As I'm sure you know, it sold towards the low end of the estimate, but it was still a very strong price. I know you were again joking about my bidding, but just for the record, if I had $20,000,000 to spend, I could think of much better personal and charitable uses for it than a copy of the Magna Carta! Currently I am in a position to envy those who enjoy an annual personal pre-tax earned income of $20,000, or ?10,000.... Best wishes, Philip Quote Wed Jan 16, 2008 8:39 pm
4 by Tom Hi Phillip, Yeah I was just, as we say, "busting chops." The reason for it is that I am envious of your book collection, but I am glad it is in such appreciative hands. I am also envious of your considerable knowledge about such things, but if I wanted to, I could make the effort to learn. $20 million. Must be nice. Thanks for all your contributions. Tom Quote Fri Jan 18, 2008 8:12 pm
5 by Philip Graves Dear Tom, A lot of knowledge of a moderate number of important texts is probably more useful to you as an astrologer than a little knowledge of many of greater and lesser importance; and you're certainly a man who really studies his texts in depth. Besides, I'm sure you're going to keep studying for the rest of your days, since it's so very apparently in your nature to be intellectually curious about subjects that interest you, which is only healthy in my opinion. I came across a link dated 2006 stating that Kepler College had already received more than 10,000 astrological books and journals as donations, which certainly makes my little collection pale by comparison, although it sounds as though Kepler has received a lot of duplicates in that number, and I'd be interested to know the true figure of distinct items once cataloguing is completed (perhaps someone with up-to-date connections to Kepler could enlighten the forum on the progress with this?). Every week there are numerous interesting items I don't have that come up on ebay and that I have to pass on simply because I can't afford them. It makes me sad to think that every generation that these things change hands there is some risk that it will end up being thrown away by an ill-appreciative second-hand inheritor, and that for precisely that reason many publications which were relatively (though not abundantly) common back in the 19th century are now almost extinct outside a few long-term academic library collections worldwide. My main motivation for building a moderately complete collection within the realms of affordability when the chance struck (ie when I came into a little inherited money, since my income has never been anywhere even close to the national average for the UK, so otherwise it would have been virtually impossible no matter how much I scrimped and saved) was the fact that as I was an ?migr? to Sweden there was no longer any way in which I could access any of these books in a decently astrologically equipped library without flying. Being a very risk-averse kind of person by nature at least when it comes to life and limb, I'd rather not do that too often, besides the fact that overseas journeys are tiresome and cost money in lost earnings from work while they last. Therefore I decided that the most practical solution for furthering my studies (when I could) was to use the opportunity that fleetingly presented itself to build up my own collection for convenient keeping at home. If I had stayed in the UK, which is to say if my Swedish wife could tolerate living in the UK without feeling intolerable pangs of homesickness, then I might not have bothered, since the gargantuan British Library has practically everything ever published in the English language on astrology, with the exception of a small number of minor popular-level American publications of arguably little importance. What I didn't fully anticipate in all this was that my wife might not be too happy about so many books filling up the hall of our little apartment, but it was kind of her stepfather to offer to store most of them a couple of hundred miles away instead, so I still don't have to fly if I actually need to do the research. Don't you have rather a fine collection of astrological materials in the New York public library, especially journals? Enjoy your contributions equally, and always have done, Philip Quote Sun Jan 20, 2008 6:34 pm
6 by Tom Hi Phillip, The New York City Public Library is one of the finest in the world and they do have a wonderful astrology collection. It is on my "to do" list to get over there one day. It isn't very far, but I'm trying to coordinate it with a friend who knows her way around the building. She said she thought I'd just get absorbed in there for the rest of my life, so I did in fact need a guide. Since you enjoy old books I wonder if you ever read A Gentle Madness by Nicholas Bisbanes? It's sub title is "Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes and the Eternal Passion for Books." It's a fun read and a good portion of the book concerns itself with the Blumberg Collection. You and I both know that in order to be a serious collector of rare books, one needs, knowledge, serious money, and a place to store the books. Stepehn Blumberg obtained the knowledge as a youth and with research and effort became a recognized authority on, of all things, stained glass and brass doorknobs and hinges. He overcame the storage problem by renting a house in a non-descript neighborhood in Iowa and lining all the rooms with shelves. Finally he overcame the financial problem the most direct way. He stole his entire collection. Estimates were tha he stole over 23,000 books plus rare manuscripts and maps from 268 libraries in 45 of the 50 US States and two provinces in Canada. At least that's what the FBI said. The books alone filled a forty foot long tractor trailer and another of equal size was needed to ship all the antiques. His collection was worth a few million although $20 million estimates in the press were way high. Blumberg never harmed anyone, and he never carried a weapon with him when he went on his collecting sprees. He did end up in jail. He was and is a harmless man with a mental problem, and probaly did deserve jail time, but the sytem went a bit overboard on him. It's a good book and this is the best part. The publisher is Owl Books. There is a sequel called Among the Gently Mad and it too is worth reading. Enjoy. Tom Quote Sun Jan 20, 2008 7:11 pm