Alan Leo Complete Dictionary of Astrology 1905

Leo, Alan (front board attrib.) / The Editor of “Modern Astrology” (inner title attrib.) ‘Complete Dictionary of Astrology’[1] No publisher or place stated, undated[2].

Original cloth (heavy wear to lower outer corners of boards; moderate to upper outer corners). (Light separation to upper part of front inner paper hinge; slight separation between pp. 32-3; binding heavily cracked between pp. 60-1 with only upper part of webbing and upper cords intact.) 136 pp

[1] In spite of its title, this work is incomplete as published, ending with the keyword ‘Horoscope’. For the revised posthumous edition of 1929 see under Leo, Alan, ed. Robson, Vivian, below

[2] British Library records give 1905

About this Book Scan

Carefully scanned in full colour from our original printing of the undated first edition, recorded in library records as having been published in 1905.

Alan Leo’s Complete Dictionary of Astrology was first partly serialised in the pages of Modern Astrology magazine as a succession of entries in alphabetical order, starting with ‘A’. For editorial reasons unknown, the serialisation stopped abruptly relatively early in the alphabet, and the definitions published to date were then compiled into a book produced in a small print run in 1905. In spite of the word Complete in its title, it was incomplete as a reference work, stopping after the entry for Horoscope. It was clearly intended to be a provisional edition to be followed by entries for keywords spanning the remainder of the alphabet at a later date, but Leo did not get round to completing it in his lifetime, having seemingly felt other books to be greater priorities. Instead, the task fell to Vivian Robson, who was asked by Bessie Leo to complete the work and did so in the late 1920s.

The fully expanded 1929 edition is also available as a download from Astrolearn. We are offering the original 1905 edition primarily for its historical interest value as it was the only one to be published in Alan Leo’s lifetime, and thus the only one providing proof of Leo’s definitions as he wrote them, free from any possible later editorial emendations by Robson.