This volume of English mediaeval manuscripts entered the Inn’s collection 350 years ago, when Matthew Hale bequeathed it as part of his library of manuscripts.

It is a collection of English mediaeval romances, mainly concerned with the mythical origins of Britain – the Brut legend and tales of King Arthur and Merlin.  The texts are written on parchment and, although restored, the manuscript is still in its original binding.

Rather unexpectedly, at the start of the volume, there are a few pages of tables and circular charts which seem out of place with the rest of the volumes.  They are part of a set of so-called Prognostication Tables –  a system of divining the future was based on names and numbers, where the letters of a certain word (such as the name of the petitioner) would have a numeric value.

Using the tables was a complex process involving five separate stages.   This complexity would have enhanced the drama of using these tables was doubtless designed to convince sceptics that this was a serious method of calculation far beyond their understanding.   The authority of the tables was further enhanced by ascribing them to celebrated figures from the past – Pythagoras, for instance, or – as here – Socrates.

Our manuscript is missing the pages which show how to calculate the numbers and begins with the second stage in the divination process.  This page shows a table with questions linked to letters.  The relevant letters were then combined with the significant number in the next table.  This produced a reference to one of the charts – e.g. by combing the question “will it be good to take a wife?” with the numeral 2, the reader is referred to “Leo – Bestia” (the Lion in the Animals chart).

On consulting the relevant chart and locating the word concerned, the reader receives the final reference in this complex chain.  “… Go to the king of Spain”