Reading the Heavens: Revelation and Reification in the Astronomical Anthology for Wenceslas IV

Abstract

AbstractA recent efflorescence of scholarly work in art history has interrogated the significance and ontological or scientific status of medieval diagrams. The Astronomical Anthology for Wenceslas IV (Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Clm 826, after 1400) offers a salient case study of late medieval erudition and astrological tradition, presented as a comprehensive anthology detailing the semiotic and natural philosophical import of astrology for courtly contexts. Made in Prague for a hapless Bohemian king, the manuscript anthology provides an opportunity to investigate two historic medieval individuals: King Wenceslas IV (d. 1419) and the court astrologer, Terzysko (act. fifteenth century). In addition, in its construction and system of cross-references between text and diagram, the Astronomical Anthology supplies an important record of a text that sought its own self-serving justification, appealing for the ontological and epistemic legitimacy of the astrological system put on display in the book. R...