bibliographic oracle is a poetic or divinatory practice wherein a sacred or authoritative text—such as the Bible, Virgil’s Aeneid, or the Qur’an—is opened at random to seek guidance, with the first passage encountered interpreted as a prophetic message; this method, known historically as sortes (e.g., sortes Virgilianae or sortes Sanctorum), reflects a belief in textual immanence and divine presence within canonical literature, influencing both devotional reading and poetic allusion.

The practice of using books, often sacred texts like the Bible or the works of Virgil, to gain insight or predict the future by selecting a random passage; While not a poetic form itself, it relates to the belief in the divinatory power of text; Connected to Book divination.