Samuel Jeake (1652-1699) was a merchant and nonconformist of Rye in Sussex with a passionate interest in astrology. His diary is here published for the first time; in it he not only recorded the events of his life in detail but subjected them to astrological scrutiny, interspersing his text with horoscopes. The resulting work is one of the most interesting seventeenth-century diaries to be published this century, throwing new light on the history both of astrology and on the topics with which this is juxtaposed in the course of the book - commercial, medical, religious, and intellectual.

The text is prefaced by a lengthy and illuminating introduction which sets the diary in context. Apart from giving a full account of this little-known personality, it makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the preoccupations and priorities of Jeake's age, and not least the rationale and affiliations of astrology in the age of the Financial Revolution.