Astronomy, Astrology, and Poetics in Seventeenth-Century Italy

Abstract

Chapter 1 is comprised of six sections, each dealing with a specific aspect of literary and scientific culture in seventeenth-century Italy as it relates to the correspondence of Margherita Sarrocchi and Galileo. The sections in Chapter 1 demonstrate how Sarrocchi and Galileo established a mutually profitable relationship of support, collaboration, and obligation, with Sarrocchi defending Galileo’s celestial discoveries in exchange for his literary advice and protection with respect to her epic poem, the Scanderbeide. Section one describes the cultural climate of seventeenth-century Rome, where the Accademia dei Lincei was founded in 1603, and reviews the events surrounding the publication of Galileo’s Sidereus nuncius. Section two discusses the place of natural philosophy in Sarrocchi’s Scanderbeide. Section three examines early modern debates over epic poetry and Sarrocchi’s efforts to revise the Scanderbeide according to a Tuscan literary standard. Section four considers Sarrocchi’s defense of Galileo’s telescopic discoveries, including his observations of the Moon, the satellites of Jupiter, and the phases of Venus, and describes the controversy that surrounded these discoveries. Section five investigates Sarrocchi and Galileo’s shared interest in judicial astrology. Section six offers an epilogue to the Sarrocchi-Galileo correspondence, concisely summarizing the fate of Sarrocchi’s revised manuscript and the events of Galileo’s later life, including his Inquisition trial.