About the project

The William Lilly Project has been established explicitly to record, catalogue, and analyse the private client work of William Lilly. This work consists largely of charts for horary questions asked by clients, although there are also numerous examples of birth charts. These nativities are set up ad hoc and usually connected to the horary chart from which they sprang.

Contained within Lilly’s practice books, these ledger-like, leather-bound tomes are stamped with chart squares. The number of these per leaf varies over time: at first there is one chart on each side of the folio and the books are more square in form. This number increased, presumably as his practice became busier, to eight charts per side; the book itself being rectangular to accommodate that number.

The number of charts contained within each, therefore, varies considerably. The first contains in the region of three hundred charts; the last approaching five thousand. These are:

MS Ashmole 184 – 30 March 1644 to 3 October 1645
MS Ashmole 178 – 22 September to 17 August 1646
MS Ashmole 185 – 17 August 1646 to 4 May 1647
MS Ashmole 420 – 4 May 1647 to 17 September 1648
MS Ashmole 210 – 30 July 1649 to 30 October 1649
MS Ashmole 427 – 26 June 1654 to 17 September 1656

Clearly, some practice books are missing; that between September 1648 and July 1649 is very noticeable because MS Ashmole 210 has been bound in with other manuscripts so it is obvious that the beginning folios have become separated. This may be for political reasons, but this will be discussed elsewhere. Lilly remained in London until 1665 and so would have been working throughout the period from September 1656. It is possible that these volumes were lost in the fire of 1666 as he reports that the manuscript copy of his Merlin for that year was destroyed. The overall number of charts in these volumes is around 9414.

The Project has begun the cataloguing of these charts whose purpose is to provide resources in order to encourage research into the work of this very interesting astrologer and the wider practice of astrology in this period. Subjects that have been largely overlooked or ignored to date. To assist this study a database is being built to accommodate the data being gathered.

Periodically, updates will be provided regarding the advancement of the project and on papers published.