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Abano starts a discussion on the meaning of the various figures in each of the houses, beginning with Acquisitio and Amissio.

I have already discussed how every figure has two properties, one by virtue of its essence, and one by virtue of its accidental placement in the chart. What follows is the meaning of each figure in each of the fifteen houses.¹

Acquisitio

Acquisitio in the first house means gain through partnerships,² obtaining what one wishes, acquisition, gain, honor, good life, health, property.
In the second house it means gain, merchandise, money, good outcome, usefulness.
In the third house it means good luck for one’s siblings and relatives or neighbors, and in science, and the dream is true,³ good outcome through journey.

In the fourth house it means inheritance, goods from the deceased, increase of wealth and of stable things, abundance.
In the fifth house it means good luck with children, or through them, recognition, happiness, what one wishes to gain, following one’s lords.
In the sixth house it means sickness, falling ill, relapsing,⁴ gain through animals and servants and subjects.

In the seventh it means good change of place, good friendship, good partnership, usefulness, properties.
In the eighth it means gaining back the money you loaned, gain through dead people, mediocre outcome in all things, except for sickness, where it lengthens the process.
In the ninth it means gain through travel, honorable travel, especially if of elevated people and people who have fear of God.

In the tenth it means exaltation, lordship, lords, honor, dignity, gaining through one’s masters, kings, emperors.
In the eleventh it means good luck in every question, gain, good friends, happiness and friendship and offspring.
In the twelfth it means prison, loss, toil, problems, fear, gain through serfs, subjects, animals.

In the thirteenth it means honorable journey or journeying with great people or in their stead, or with one’s mother. Gain.⁵
In the fourteenth it means obtaining what one wishes but with trouble, problems, difficulties.⁶
In the fifteenth it means good outcome in everything, good brother, good things from brothers and relatives.⁷

Amissio

Amissio means damage, loss, especially in movable things, coins, in wealth, theft, gossip, evil in everything, except for sickness or prison or travel.⁸
In the second it means loss of wealth, damage through merchandise, and in everything where gain is hoped for.
In the third it means enmity with siblings and relatives or through them, wrath, discord, malice, good outcome for journeys.

In the fourth it means damage, loss, misfortune in secret things, loss of inheritance, destruction of the city, of the home, of the land, of the fortress.
In the fifth it means problems and misfortune with children, loss of wealth, famine.⁹
In the sixth it means healing of sickness, liberation of the fled servant, loss due to animals, and when one is sick, depending on the other houses, there might still be doubts [about his health].¹⁰

In the seventh it means fraud, treachery from women and enemies, loss through marriage and partnership and friendship.
In the eighth it means loss of inheritance, loss of money and wealth, death of the sick person.
In the ninth it means long but good journey. Late journey in a distant land, problems on the road, with changes, harlots.¹¹

In the tenth it means loss and problems in all you wish to gain, and if Rubeus is born from it it means being harmed, if Tristitia it means prison.¹²
In the eleventh it means misfortune in everything you wish to get, discord, enmity with friends, bad for prisoners.
In the twelfth it means bad journey, loss through animals and loss of wealth, toil, loss of merchanidse, and you’ll collect a debt at a loss, freedom from prison and sickness.

In the thirteenth it means loss of wealth, damage through one’s lords, change of country, misfortune.
In the fourteenth it means loss of friends, toil, great problems.
In the fifteenth it means bad outcome, flight, not retreiveing what you wish to retrieve, misfortune in all.

MQS

Footnotes

1. This way of proceeding is rather typical of medieval handbooks of geomancy and even of astrology. It generally aims at allowing the reader to form an idea of the abstract properties of each figure by showing its concrete manifestation. ↩︎
2. It is unclear why Acquisitio in the First House should indicate gain through partnerships. In most medieval handbooks of astrology, for instance, a planet showing gain in the First House usually indicates the querent’s industriousness. ↩︎
3. Dreams and science are usually Ninth House matters, although the distinction is not as rigid as some modern traditional astrologers make it out to be. ↩︎
4. This is a typical example of a broadly positive figure having a negative meaning: people usually don’t want to ‘gain’ an illness. ↩︎
5. Why Abano characterizes the Thirteenth Figure, i.e., the Right Witness, as meaning all these things is obscure, until we remember that, for Abano, the Right Witness is in connection with the Ninth and Tenth houses, from which it is formed. ↩︎
6. Probably from the mixing of Eleventh and Twelfth House meanings. ↩︎
7. The connection to relatives and brothers escapes me. ↩︎
8. Abano does not say “Amissio in the first house means…” but “Amissio means…” I suspect though that it is just a mistake. ↩︎
9. Because it shows loss of the products (second from) of the earth (Fourth House) ↩︎
10. Amissio is generally favorable in case of illness, but what Abano is saying is that we should always look at the picture as a whole, without focusing on a single testimony. ↩︎
11. This escapes me. ↩︎
12. That is, if Rubeus or Tristitia are the Right Witness, which is the one born from the Tenth House. ↩︎