A Companion to Astrology in the Renaissance

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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.

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Brendan Dooley (PhD Chicago 1986) is Professor of Renaissance Studies at University College Cork. Previous books include Morandi’s Last Prophecy and the End of Renaissance Politics (Princeton 2002) and Science and the Marketplace in Early Modern Italy (Lexington Books, 2001).
“An excellent starting point for a graduate student beginning work on a topic that involves astrology or for an established scholar adding to a field of research.”
Sheila J. Rabin, Saint Peter’s University. In: Renaissance Quarterly, Vol. 68, No. 2 (Summer 2015), pp. 659-661.

“Physicians based their cures and remedies on the movements of the stars and planets; scholars debated the significance of the movement of the heavens on political, moral, and psychological activities; writers and poets tried to provide ordinary people with some guidance for their daily activities; and theologians and preachers cautioned and condemned against following stellar conjunctions rather than divine providence. In the end, astrology during the Renaissance period was fully integrated into everyone’s life, and a better understanding of its influence and integration in the fabric of Renaissance culture is provided by this book.”
Bradford Lee Eden, Valparaiso University. In: Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 46, No. 2 (2015), pp. 435-436.

“Das Buch bietet ein umfassendes Panorama der Erscheinungsformen der Astrologie in der Renaissanceperiode, enthält eine Fülle wertvoller Informationen und zeigt eine Vielzahl möglicher Forschungswege auf. Es kann jedem an der Astrologiegeschichte Interessierten empfohlen werden.”
Günther Oestmann, Bremen. In: Beiträge zur Astronomiegeschichte, Bd. 12 (2014), S. 242-244.

“Agile, ben informato, ricco di illustrazioni: nel complesso, questo volume si rivela una delle opere collettive più stimolanti tra quelle pubblicate negli ultimi anni.”
Michele Rinaldi, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II. In: Bruniana & Campanelliana, Vol. 20, No. 2 (2014), pp. 666-669.
Table of Contents

List of Figures
Note on Contributors
Preface

Introduction
Brendan Dooley

1. The Culture of Astrology from Ancient to Renaissance
Wolfgang Hübner

2. Representation of the Skies and the Astrological Chart
Giuseppe Bezza

3. The Return to Ptolemy
Ornella Faracovi

4. The Theological Debate
Graziella Federici Vescovini

5. Astrology and Society
William Eamon

6. Astrology and Politics
Steven Vanden Broecke

7. Astrology and Science
Brendan Dooley

8. The New Astral Medicine
Hiro Hirai

9. Astrology and Literature
Eileen Reeves

10. Picturing the Stars: Astrological Imagery in the Latin West, 1100–1550
Dieter Blume

11. Reading the Peruvian Skies
Claudia Brosseder
Conclusion
Index



List of Figures

1.1 The four humours and elements adapted to the four triplicities of the zodiac
1.2 Zodiacal man from the Flores Albumasaris, Erhard Radolt 1488
1.3 The symmetry of the seven planets
1.4 Francesco di Giorgio: Atlas, Braunschweig, Kupferkabinett
1.5 Joseph Justus Scaliger’s horoscope
1.6 Capital of the doge’s palace in Venice: Mercury with Virgin (Virgo) and Twins (Gemini)
1.7 Planisphere of the Aldina from 1499
1.8 The Tychonic system
2.1 Making a Geniture
2.2 Graphic representation of a geniture
2.3 Geniture of Girolamo Cardano
5.1 The great conjunction in Pisces, portending a second deluge. Leonhard Reynmann, Practica vber die grossen und manigfeltigen Coniunction der Planeten (Nuremberg, 1524)
5.2 Frontispiece to John Melton, Astrologaster (1620)
5.3 Girolamo Cardano’s Horoscope of Andreas Vesalius (Courtesy of the Clendening History of Medicine Library, University of Kansas Medical Center)
Figure 5.4. Pages from A Perfyte Pronostycacion Perpetuall by “J.A.” (c. 1555) illustrating events that would occur in years “When Newe yeres daye falleth on the Tuesday,” including windy winters, rainy summers, sickness of women, and “Syppes and Galleys shall perysshe.”
7.1 Kepler’s Polyhedric Model
7.2 Robert Fludd’s Monochord
7.3 Robert Fludd: Microcosm and Macrocosm
10.1 Raphael, Dome of the Chigi Chapel in Rome, S. Maria del Popolo
10.2 Ferrara Palazzo Schifanoia, Sala dei Mesi, March with Aries
10.3 Ferrara Palazzo Schifanoia, Sala dei Mesi, April with Taurus
10.4 Ferrara Palazzo Schifanoia, Sala dei Mesi, Detail, First Decan of Aries
10.5 Ferrara Palazzo Schifanoia, Sala dei Mesi, Detail ot the upper Register with Vulcan
10.6 Paris, bibl. Nat. Ms. lat. 7330, Fol. 42v, Saturn in his houses
10.7 Paris, bibl. Nat. Ms. lat. 7330, Fol. 43r, Saturn in his Anti-Houses
10.8 Paris, bibl. Nat. Ms. lat. 7330, Fol. 43v, Saturn in his exaltation
10.9 Paris, bibl. Nat. Ms. lat. 7330, Fol. 44r. Saturn in his deiectio
10.10 Paris, bibl. Nat. Ms. lat. 7330, Fol. 54v, Venus in his exaltatio
10.11 Paris, bibl. Nat. Ms. lat. 7330, Fol. 56r, Mercury in his houses
10.12 Madrid, Bibl. Nac. Cod. 19, fol.55r, Jupiter on the eagle
10.13 Madrid, Bibl. Nac. Cod. 19, fol. 68r, The five planets
10.14 München, Bayr. Staatsbibl., Clm 10268, Michael Scotus, Liber introductorius, fol. 85r, The five planets
10.15 Padua, Palazzo della Ragione, The Great Hall
10.16 Padua, Palazzo della Ragione, Mercury in the sign of Virgo
10.17 Chantilly, Musée condé, Ms. 754, Fol. 1v, Saturn
10.18 Chantilly, Musée condé, Ms. 754, Fol. 2r, Jupiter
10.19 Chantilly, Musée condé, Ms. 754, Fol. 2v, Mars
10.20 Padua, Chiesa degli Eremitani, main chapel, Venus
10.21 Padua, Chiesa degli Eremitani, main chapel, Rising Christ
10.22 Foligno, Palazzo Trinci, Sala dei pianeti, Luna
10.23 Foligno, Palazzo Trinci, Sala dei pianeti, Mars
10.24 Foligno, Palazzo Trinci, Sala dei pianeti, Mercury
10.25 Foligno, Palazzo Trinci, Sala dei pianeti, Jupiter
10.26 Rimini, Tempio Malatestiano, Mercury
10.27 Rimini, Tempio Malatestiano, Venus
10.28 Rimini, Tempio Malatestiano, Saturn
10.29 Rome, Villa Farnesina, Loggia del Galatea, ceiling
10.30 Rome, Villa Farnesina, Loggia del Galatea, ceiling, detail, twins (Leda and the swan)
10.31 Schweinfurt, Bibl. Otto Schäfer, Woodcuts from Basel, Venus
10.32 Schweinfurt, Bibl. Otto Schäfer, Woodcuts from Basel, children of Venus
10.33 Schweinfurt, Bibl. Otto Schäfer, Woodcuts from Basel, Mercury
10.34 Schweinfurt, Bibl. Otto Schäfer, Woodcuts from Basel, children of Mercury
10.35 Berlin, Staatsbibl. Ms. Germ. Fol. 244, Fol. 186v-187r, Mercury and his children
10.36 Kassel, Landesbibl. Ms. Astronom 1 (2°), Fol. 64r, Luna and her children
10.37 Tübingen, Univ.Bibl., Ms. M. d. 2, fol. 272r, Luna and her children
10.38 London, British Museum, Engraving by Baccio Baldini (?), Venus and her children
10.39 London, British Museum, Engraving by Baccio Baldini (?), Mercury and his children
10.40 London, British Museum, Engraving by Baccio Baldini (?),Luna and her children




The book is aimed at students, teaching and research staff, involved in courses and projects on Renaissance and early modern culture, as well as experts and non-experts interested in astrology.
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