ed as having an influence. (On the basis of the particular aspect and planets involved,
astrologers allow aspects a larger or smaller orb of influence, within which they are
regarded as having an effect.) Exact aspects are referred to as partile aspects and are
considered to have a stronger influence than platic (nonexact) aspects.PARTRIDGE, JOHN
John Partridge, born January 18, 1643, in East Sheen, London, England, was an influ-
ential astrologer and producer of almanacs. Apprenticed to a shoemaker, he acquired
enough books to teach himself Greek, Latin, and Hebrew. He may have studied with
the astrologer John Gadbury and seems to have given up making shoes when his first
publication was issued about 1678. Partridge’s first major work, Mikropanastron,was
published the next year. In 1680, he started issuing an almanac entitled Merlinus Lib-
eratus.He left England for political reasons in 1685 and studied medicine in Leyden,
Holland, for the next four years. Partridge returned to his native country after receiv-
ing his medical degree and married a well-to-do widow. He also resumed his astrologi-
cal publishing activities.
Partridge came to prefer the Placidian house system, a choice evident in his
final major works, including the Opus Reformatum(1693) and the Defectio Genitu-
rarum(1697), both highly technical analyses of primary directions in sample horo-
scopes. By 1700, he was the most prominent astrologer in Britain. His almanac was so
popular that other people began to publish almanacs in his name.
Partridge is best remembered for his role in promoting the Placidian system
and for an incident involving the famous author and social critic Jonathan Swift
(1667–1745). Under the pseudonym Isaac Bickerstaff, Swift published a bogus
almanac containing a prediction of Partridge’s death on March 29, 1708. Swift issued
another small tract on March 30, 1708, in which he, as Bickerstaff, claimed that his
prediction was correct and gave the particulars of Partridge’s supposed death. The
trick was believed, and Partridge had difficulty convincing others that he was still
alive. He curtailed his almanac for the next four years. When it was reissued, he
included some pointed reflections on Swift’s character. Partridge died on June 24,
1715, in Mortlake, London.Sources:
Holden, James H., and Robert A. Hughes. Astrological Pioneers of America. Tempe, AZ:
American Federation of Astrologers, 1988.
Partridge, John. Defectio genitvrarvm.London: B. Tooke, 1697.
———. Mikropanastron, or an Astrological Vade Mecum....London, 1679.
———. Nebulo Anglicanus, or the First Part of the Black Life of John Gadbury....London, 1693.
———. Opus Reformatum, or a Treatise of Astrology in which the Common Errors of That Art are
Modestly Exposed and Rejected....London, 1693.PATIENTIA
Patientia, asteroid 451 (the 451st asteroid to be discovered, on December 4, 1899), is
approximately 280 kilometers in diameter and has an orbital period of 5.4 years. ItsPartridge, John
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