SOURCE: "Some That Have Writ Almanacks," in Familiar to All: William Lilly and Astrology in the Seventeenth Century, Jonathan Cape Ltd., 1975, pp. 69-116.

Below, Parker assesses Lilly's works, from his first almanacs to his later books.

The first of Lilly's own almanacs, the Merlinus Anglicus of June 1644, was a relatively slender affair of only twenty-two pages and something like 10,000 words; later that year, his second publication was much more ambitious: England's Prophetical Merline, which came out in October, had 126 pages and over 60,000 words. The title-page advertised Anglicus as 'The English Merlin revived: or, His prediction upon the affaires of the ENGLISH Commonwealth, and of all or most Kingdomes of Christondome this present Yeare, 1644'.

In a Note to the Reader (written from 'The Three Flower de Luces neere Somerset House', practically on his own doorstep) Lilly contends that the almanac had been printed because it had interested so...