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*Astrologomania* (1624): George Carleton, Thomas Vicars, Jaggard, and John Chamber's publication plan

Mixed Ready evidence packet

Astrologomania (1624): Carleton, Vicars, and Chamber

Source-Fact Audit — updated 31 August 2026

Finding

The 1624 book is securely a George Carleton anti-astrology work published by Thomas Vicars through the Jaggard/Turner imprint. Chamber's verified 1604 clause supplies its close publication antecedent. The author, subject, and title-page statement that the work was written nearly twenty years earlier make it likely that Astrologomania was the work Chamber called The arraignement of Astrologie, or a later version of it. The title change prevents absolute textual identity from being claimed.

This matters historically because Chamber named Henry Neville and Henry Savile as executors responsible for his unprinted works. After Neville's death, Carleton married Neville's widow; Thomas Vicars, Carleton's son-in-law and chaplain, eventually published the old work. The resulting sequence documents a delayed publication plan across Neville's learned and family network.

Quoted Source Passages: Primary-Print Control

The title page states that the work was:

“Written neere vpon twenty yeares ago, by G.C.”

It also states:

“Published by T. V. B. of D.”

and gives the imprint:

“London, Printed by W. Iaggard, for W. Turner of Oxford. 1624.”

The dedicatory epistle is addressed by Thomas Vicars to his cousin Thomas Carleton of Carleton Hall. Vicars says that the author had been pressed by letters and conversation to permit publication. The Folger, Eton, and EEBO-TCP records identify G.C. as George Carleton and T.V. as Thomas Vicars. Eton's catalogue adds the cautious possibility that Isaac Jaggard completed the printing.

The John Chamber question

John Chamber's will, TNA PROB 11/104/339, names George Carleton of Mayfield and an Arraignement of Astrologie intended to be printed with Chamber's work on the same subject. The image-collated clause also forgives the four pounds Carleton owed Chamber. The same will appoints Henry Neville and Henry Savile as executors.

The will proves the 1604 publication plan. The 1624 title page independently supplies the same author, the same subject, and a composition date of nearly twenty years earlier. Together they support likely continuity, although only textual collation or another bibliographical witness could prove that the 1604 and 1624 forms were identical.

Neville relevance

The printed book itself does not name Henry Neville, but the verified will places Neville inside the earlier publication plan. It does not prove that Neville edited the Carleton text. The 1624 Jaggard imprint is important as immediate print-shop continuity after the First Folio, not as evidence that Neville's estate supplied Folio copy.

Safe formulation

Immediately after the 1623 First Folio, George Carleton's Astrologomania appeared in 1624, published by Thomas Vicars and bearing the imprint of the Jaggard shop. Its title page says it had been written nearly twenty years earlier. John Chamber's image-collated 1604 will names George Carleton of Mayfield, names his Arraignement of Astrologie, and orders it printed with Chamber's own book on the same subject; Chamber had appointed Henry Neville and Henry Savile to oversee his unprinted works. The agreement in author, subject, and date makes the 1624 book the likely realization or revision of Chamber's projected Carleton work, although the changed title prevents absolute identification.

Sources

Notes on Access