Cardano's Cosmos

Cardano's Cosmos PDF

Author: Anthony Grafton

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 316

ISBN-13: 9780674095557

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Girolamo Cardano was an Italian doctor, natural philosopher, and mathematician who became a best-selling author in Renaissance Europe. He was also a leading astrologer of his day, whose predictions won him access to some of the most powerful people in sixteenth-century Europe. In Cardano's Cosmos, Anthony Grafton invites readers to follow this astrologer's extraordinary career and explore the art and discipline of astrology in the hands of a brilliant practitioner.Renaissance astrologers predicted everything from the course of the future of humankind to the risks of a single investment, or even the weather. They analyzed the bodies and characters of countless clients, from rulers to criminals, and enjoyed widespread respect and patronage. This book traces Cardano's contentious career from his first astrological pamphlet through his rise to high-level consulting and his remarkable autobiographical works. Delving into astrological principles and practices, Grafton shows how Cardano and his contemporaries adapted the ancient art for publication and marketing in a new era of print media and changing science. He maps the context of market and human forces that shaped Cardano's practicesâe"and the maneuvering that kept him at the top of a world rife with patronage, politics, and vengeful rivals.Cardano's astrology, argues Grafton, was a profoundly empirical and highly influential art, one that was integral to the attempts of sixteenth-century scholars to understand their universe and themselves.

The Duke and the Stars

The Duke and the Stars PDF

Author: Monica Azzolini

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2013-01-14

Total Pages: 479

ISBN-13: 0674070364

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This study is the first to examine the important political role played by astrology in Italian court culture. Reconstructing the powerful dynamics existing between astrologers and their prospective or existing patrons, The Duke and the Stars illustrates how the “predictive art” of astrology was a critical source of information for Italian Renaissance rulers, particularly in times of crisis. Astrological “intelligence” was often treated as sensitive, and astrologers and astrologer-physicians were often trusted with intimate secrets and delicate tasks that required profound knowledge not only of astrology but also of the political and personal situation of their clients. Two types of astrological predictions, medical and political, were taken into the most serious consideration. Focusing on Milan, Monica Azzolini describes the various ways in which the Sforza dukes (and Italian rulers more broadly) used astrology as a political and dynastic tool, guiding them as they contracted alliances, made political decisions, waged war, planned weddings, and navigated health crises. The Duke and the Stars explores science and medicine as studied and practiced in fifteenth-century Italy, including how astrology was taught in relation to astronomy.

Influences

Influences PDF

Author: Mary Quinlan-McGrath

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2013-02-20

Total Pages: 396

ISBN-13: 0226922855

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Today few would think of astronomy and astrology as fields related to theology. Fewer still would know that physically absorbing planetary rays was once considered to have medical and psychological effects. But this was the understanding of light radiation held by certain natural philosophers of early modern Europe, and that, argues Mary Quinlan-McGrath, was why educated people of the Renaissance commissioned artworks centered on astrological themes and practices. Influences is the first book to reveal how important Renaissance artworks were designed to be not only beautiful but also—perhaps even primarily—functional. From the fresco cycles at Caprarola, to the Vatican’s Sala dei Pontefici, to the Villa Farnesina, these great works were commissioned to selectively capture and then transmit celestial radiation, influencing the bodies and minds of their audiences. Quinlan-McGrath examines the sophisticated logic behind these theories and practices and, along the way, sheds light on early creation theory; the relationship between astrology and natural theology; and the protochemistry, physics, and mathematics of rays. An original and intellectually stimulating study, Influences adds a new dimension to the understanding of aesthetics among Renaissance patrons and a new meaning to the seductive powers of art.

A Companion to Astrology in the Renaissance

A Companion to Astrology in the Renaissance PDF

Author: Brendan Dooley

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2014-01-02

Total Pages: 469

ISBN-13: 900426230X

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It has been called “the most singular centaur that religion and science have ever produced” (Franz Boll). Astrology as a cultural form has puzzled and fascinated generations of humankind. It reached its apogee in the European Renaissance, when it flourished in literature, political expression, medicine, art, and all the other areas of endeavor catalogued in this unique collection. Brill’s Companion to Renaissance Astrology brings together a wide array of expertise from around the globe to explain the method and matter of this cultural form, including the Arab and Classical heritage, the medieval tradition, the clash with organized religion, the influence on knowledge and the competition with newly emerging ways of knowing, summarizing the current state of research and suggesting new paths. Contributors include: Giuseppe Bezza, Dieter Blume, Claudia Brosseder, Brendan Dooley, William Eamon, Ornella Faracovi, Hiro Hirai, Wolfgang Hübner, Eileen Reeves, Steven Vanden Broecke, and Graziella Federici Vescovini.

From Masha' Allah to Kepler

From Masha' Allah to Kepler PDF

Author: Professor Charles Burnett

Publisher:

Published: 2015-08-17

Total Pages: 552

ISBN-13: 9781907767067

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Astrology has recently become a subject of interest to scholars of the highest calibre. However, the tendency has been to look at the social context of astrology, the attacks on astrologers and their craft, and on astrological iconography and symbolism; i.e., largely looking on astrology from the outside. The intention of this book is to do is to look at the subject from the inside: the ideas and techniques of astrologers themselves. In both Western and Eastern cultures astrology was regarded as a pure science by most scholars, mathematicians, physicians, philosophers and theologians, and was taught in schools and universities. The greatest astronomers of the period under consideration, al-Kindi, Thabit ibn Qurra, Abraham Ibn Ezra, Galileo and Kepler, also wrote about and practised astrology. What did astrologers write about astrology and how did they teach their subject and practise their craft? What changes occurred in astrological theory and practice over time and from one culture to another? What cosmological and philosophical frameworks did astrologers use to describe their practice? What role did diagrams, tables and illustrations play in astrological text-books? What was astrology's place in universities and academies? This book contains surveys of astrologers and their craft in Islamic, Jewish and Christian culture, and includes hitherto unpublished and unstudied astrological texts.

Astrology and Magic from the Medieval Latin and Islamic World to Renaissance Europe

Astrology and Magic from the Medieval Latin and Islamic World to Renaissance Europe PDF

Author: Paola Zambelli

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781409425144

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Deals with theories: the ideas of astrology and magic held by Renaissance thinkers; astrologers' ideas on universal history and its cycles; that is catastrophes and rebirths, theories; and myths regarding the spontaneous generation of man himself. It also focuses on the role of astrologers in Renaissance society.

Christian Astrology

Christian Astrology PDF

Author: William Lilly

Publisher: Astrology Center of America

Published: 2005-03

Total Pages: 556

ISBN-13: 9781933303024

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Named "Christian" to avoid hassles (some things never change), this is the most famous, the most celebrated astrology book in the English language. It has been prized by students ever since its first publication in 1647. The Horary Astrology in these pages, in the hands of a master, is no mere parlour game. It is demanding and precise, combining science and art. Properly used, it will give answer to any well-defined question. William Lilly, famous throughout England for his almanacs & forecasts (he predicted London's Great Fire of 1666), lived during the English Civil War & was a minor historical figure in it. Into his studio came the rich and poor, nobles and commoners, with problems great and small. This new edition restores Lilly's original page layouts, with marginalia. Modern spelling throughout, this edition includes Lilly's bibliography, his original index & a new glossary. Also includes his original woodblock charts, and their modern versions. This is Lilly's great work as he himself knew it. In this volume: Book 1, An Introduction to Astrology, containing the use of an ephemeris; the erecting of a scheme of heaven; nature of the twelve signs of the Zodiac, of the planets; with a most easy introduction to the whole art of astrology. Book 2, The Resolution of All Manner of Questions, by a most methodical way, instructs the student how to judge or resolve all manner of questions contingent unto man, viz, of health, sickness, riches, marriage, preferment, journeys, etc. Some 35 questions inserted and judged.

Debating the Stars in the Italian Renaissance

Debating the Stars in the Italian Renaissance PDF

Author: Ovanes Akopyan

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2020-10-12

Total Pages: 272

ISBN-13: 9004442278

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An account of the astrological controversies that arose in Renaissance Italy in the wake of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola’s Disputationes adversus astrologiam divinatricem, published in 1496.

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