“Despite the fragmentary nature of what survives, there is no doubt as to the authenticity of the two almanacs which he [Antoine Le Roy,Rabelaesina Elogia, Bibliothèque Nationale, MS lat., no 8704] quotesl in particular, regarding this edition, the extracts given describe the state of the sky as it was for the years to which they apply: for instance the conjunctions of the moon and the planets.

“While Rabelais did not sign the first two books of his giant story, he was legally obliged to state his responsibility for his Almanachs.

“It is not known whether Rabelais was indeed ‘professeur en astrologie,’ although his astrological knowledge was evidently highly regarded, for instance, in a poem of Salmon Macrin cited by Marcel de Grève, L’Interprétation de Rabelais au XVIe siècle, ER, 3, 1961.”

— A New Rabelais Bibliography, Stephen Rawles and M.A. Screech, Librarie Droz, 1987. p. 499