Astrological Writings Research Articles

Translations of Kepler’s Astrological Writings Part I. Kepler as Practising Astrologer Section 3. Historical Charts Subsection 1. The Nativities of Mohammed and Martin Luther, 1604

This excerpt is taken from a longer discourse on a commentary by Johann Paul Sutorius (ca. 1562-1599), a pastor, theologian and astrologer, on the nativity of Mohammed, among other things. Kepler begins with a discussion of the birthchart for Mohammed proposed by Sutorius. Helisaeus Röslin, the doctor who had first interpreted Kepler’s own chart, wrote a commentary on Sutorius’s proposed chart, in which he corrected Sutorius’s ‘astronomical errors’ and correctly recalculated the chart for the date and time given by Sutorius: 23 April 594 at 10 a.m. Kepler acknowledges that Roslin’s calculations are correct, but is skeptical of the date itself (one reason being that it would make Mohammed far too young to have done what he did by 622, when he made the flight from Mecca – the Hejira – with his followers; he also wonders where Sutorius got the date in the first place). Kepler mentions other proposed dates for Mohammed: 569 A.D. (from Mercator); 21 September 571 (from a Chronicle of the Koran, which Kepler accepts later in the excerpt); and 23 April 596 (from ‘others’, not specified).2 Though Kepler gives the positions of his own proposed chart for Mohammed in this excerpt, a drawing of it has not survived. Extant is a square form of the chart for the date Sutorius proposed. After discussing Roslin’s and Sutorius’s attempts, Kepler moves on to his own thoughts about Mohammed’s nativity.

Astrologers at War: Manuel Galhano Lourosa and the Political Restoration of Portugal, 1640–1668

This paper analyses the involvement of the astrologer Manuel Galhano Lourosa in the restoration of political independence of Portugal from Spain between 1640 and 1668. Lourosa was the most successful astrologer and almanac maker in seventeenth-century Portugal. He published astrological almanacs for several decades, wrote an astrological and astronomical treatise on comets, and addressed astrological writings to Portuguese society urging support for the new political order that issued from the revolution of 1640. Some of these writings were consistent with the feelings of the urban professional and mercantile classes. We argue that, by publishing and using his social prestige in favour of the Restoration cause, Lourosa used the sphere of public opinion to act politically along with the interests of the urban middle class.

Medizinische Theologie: Christus medicus und theologia medicinalis bei Martin Luther und im Luthertum der Barockzeit (review)

Reviewed by: Medizinische Theologie: Christus medicus und theologia medicinalis bei Martin Luther und im Luthertum der Barockzeit Kathleen Crowther-Heyck Johann Anselm Steiger . Medizinische Theologie: Christus medicus und theologia medicinalis bei Martin Luther und im Luthertum der Barockzeit. Studies in the History of Christian Traditions, vol. 121. Leiden: Brill, 2005. viii + 369 pp. $160.00, €119.00 (90-04-4156-1). Johann Anselm Steiger examines the close and hitherto unexplored connections between theology and medicine in the writings of Martin Luther and his followers in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. These connections were both literal and metaphorical. On the literal level, the presence of myriad medicinal herbs [End Page 452] and other substances was a clear sign of divine providence and benevolence. On the metaphorical level, Luther described the Word of God as medicine for the soul, described Christ as both a physician and an apothecary, and compared the pastoral functions of bishops and priests to the work of running a hospital. Steiger points out that Luther regarded both theology and medicine as "practical sciences" (p. 12): the former aimed to heal the soul, and the latter the body. This was more than an analogy, for bodily and spiritual health were intimately linked. According to Luther, in times of sickness a Christian should turn both to God and to a physician. It was wrong to refuse medical treatment, for this was a rejection of God's creation and divine plan, but it was essential to pray for forgiveness of sins and to be reconciled with God. Prayer without medicine was ineffective, but so was medicine without prayer. Whether a medicine worked or not was dependent as much on the patient's spiritual state as on his or her constitution or on the progress of the disease. While Steiger persuasively demonstrates the importance of "medical theology" to Luther and to subsequent generations of Lutheran theologians, I was left wondering both why Luther found these themes so appealing and how uniquely Lutheran they actually were. As Steiger notes, the literal and metaphorical connections between medicine and theology can be traced back to the church fathers. They can also be found in early modern writers who were not Lutheran, a point that Steiger ignores. For example, he discusses the Paradise Garden (1587) of the Lutheran theologian Conrad Rosbach, a book in which descriptions of the medicinal virtues of plants were paired with descriptions of their spiritual meanings. Steiger presents this book as epitomizing a specifically Lutheran view of the relationship between physical and spiritual "medicine," but it was almost certainly modeled on an earlier work, Similitudinum ac parabolarum quae in Bibliis ex herbis atque arboribus desumuntur dilucida explicatio (1566), by the Dutch Catholic physician Levinus Lemnius. This suggests that medical-theological ideas were more widespread and less confessionally distinct than Steiger acknowledges. It should be noted that Steiger's interest is primarily in the history of theology, not in the history of medicine. Accordingly, he does not examine the writings of any Lutheran physicians to assess the degree to which their theories, practices, or self-images were influenced by Luther's ideas. Although he suggests that the high value placed by Lutherans on the work of physicians and apothecaries had an influence on their social status, he does not pursue this topic. Overall, though, this is a very useful book for scholars interested in the complex and shifting relationship between religion and medicine in the early modern period. The volume includes several seventeenth-century images of Christ as an apothecary, and critical editions of three Lutheran texts: Wilhelm Sarcerius's Der Hellische Trawer Geist (1568), Simon Musäus's Nützlicher Bericht . . . wider den Melancholischen Teuffel (1569), and Valerius Herberger's Leichenpredigt auf Flaminius Gasto (1618). Kathleen Crowther-Heyck University of Oklahoma Footnotes 1. Charles David O'Malley, Michael Servetus. A Translation of His Geographical, Medical, and Astrological Writings with Introductions and Notes (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1953), pp. 168-88. 2. Michael Servetus, Obras completas, ed. Ángel Alcalà, vol. 3, Escritos científicos (Zaragoza: Prensas Universitarias de Zaragoza, 2005), pp. 255-77 (Spanish), 485-500 (Latin). Copyright © 2007 The Johns Hopkins University Press

Index librorum prohibitorum: 1600-1966 (review)

Index librorum prohibitorum: 1600-1966. Edited by J.M. De Bujanda with the assistance of Marcella Richter. [Index des livres interdits, Volume XI.] (Montreal: Centre d'Etudes de la Renaissance, Universite de Sherbrooke, Mediaspaul; Geneva: librairie Droz. 2002. Pp. 980.) After the publication of the ten volumes of Index of forbidden books, which record all books prohibited by secular and ecclesiastical authorities in Catholic Europe during the sixteenth century, this eleventh volume of the series Index des livres interdits directed by J. M. De Bujanda registers the books appearing only on the Roman Index, but it embraces a much wider span of time. It lists approximately 5200 titles and 3000 authors, whose prohibition was issued between 1600 and 1966, when the Roman Index was finally abolished by Pope Paul VI. To these impressive numbers, as De Bujanda stresses in his introduction, must be added anonymous writings, titles that, though never placed on the index, were not allowed to circulate for several reasons, and that incalculable amount of books falling under the prohibitions of the general rules, which concerned inter alia vernacular translations of the Bible, lascivious and obscene texts, controversial religious literature, astrological writings, etc. De Bujanda, however, points out that a few authors and titles were withdrawn from the 1900 index following the reform of Roman censorship decreed by Leo XIII. Interestingly enough, this revision was the consequence of the harsh criticisms by F. H. Reusch, whose Der Index der verbotenen Bucher was examined in 1885 by the Congregation of the Index in view of its condemnation. Far from being prohibited, Reusch's book prompted the censors to put order in the contradictory and messy contents of Roman catalogues (see Hubert Wolf, Storia dell'Indice. Il Vaticano e i libri proibiti [Rome: Donzelli, 2006], pp. 199-214). Notwithstanding the inevitably concise biographical data on the authors and bibliographical data on the writings, as compared to the previous volumes, De Bujanda provides the reader with the indispensable elements of a given author or a given work, thus offering an invaluable and hitherto lacking tool to scholars of censorship and to specialists of various disciplines. The major interest of this new volume, with respect to the sixteenth-century catalogues, lies in its chronology, for it encompasses more than 350 years of activity of the three curial institutions involved in censorship-the Inquisition, the Congregation of the Index, and the Master of the Sacred Palace. …

Medicina i astrologia en el corpus

The role of astrology in Arnau de Vilanova's medical work is revisited with special attention to the problems of authorship posed by the astrological writings of Arnau's corpus and to their hypothetical chronology.

Abraham Ibn Ezra's Astrological Works in Hebrew and Latin: New Discoveries and Exhaustive Listing

The discovery of a Liber nativitatum, Liber revolucionum, Liber eleccionum, and Liber interrogacionum are reported. It is argued that these are Latin versions of lost Hebrew originals by Ibn Ezra, made via an intermediary version in Old French. This leads to the conclusion that Ibn Ezra produced three redactions of his astrological encyclopedia, and not two as is generally believed. Appendices present a comprehensive survey of Ibn Ezra's Hebrew astrological writings preserved in Hebrew, medieval French, and Latin, with a table of incipits and explicits and an index of the Hebrew manuscripts. The findings are based on all previous surveys and on personal inspection of the manuscripts and early printed editions.

Abraham Ibn Ezra's Astrological Works in Hebrew and Latin: New Discoveries and Exhaustive Listing

The discovery of a Liber nativitatum, Liber revolucionum, Liber eleccionum, and Liber interrogacionum are reported. It is argued that these are Latin versions of lost Hebrew originals by Ibn Ezra, made via an intermediary version in Old French. This leads to the conclusion that Ibn Ezra produced three redactions of his astrological encyclopedia, and not two as is generally believed. Appendices present a comprehensive survey of Ibn Ezra's Hebrew astrological writings preserved in Hebrew, medieval French, and Latin, with a table of incipits and explicits and an index of the Hebrew manuscripts. The findings are based on all previous surveys and on personal inspection of the manuscripts and early printed editions.

Coluccio Salutati's Critique of Astrology in the Context of His Natural Philosophy

Coluccio Salutati (1331-1406) is best known as the Petrarchan humanist chancellor of Florence, defender by his rhetoric of the Florentine cause against Visconti Milan, and influential patron of the inauguration of Hellenic studies in Italy and of intensified study and imitation of classical texts. He was also by his own studies, writing, book collection, and personal contacts conversant with at least some of the medieval scholastic traditions of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Although it might be too much to call him either a natural philosopher or a theologian, his interest in these subjects was deep. The following essay examines major lines of his thinking concerning nature and divine operation through nature in this world as they are put forth in his De fato et fortuna of 1396.1 It culminates in an analysis of the important critique of astrology presented in that work. The late fourteenth century was notable not only for a profusion of apologetic and practical astrological writings but also for the anti-astrological treatises of the scholastic natural philosophers and theologians Nicole Oresme and Henry of Langenstein. Although Salutati does not seem to have been influenced by these writings, his own work is parallel to them in certain respects and should be included in this anti-astrological genre.2

An Empirical Study of the Relation between Astrological Factors and Personality

Summary This study reports a test of an astrological prediction according to which extraversion is related to being born under the odd numbered zodiacal signs, and introversion to being born under the even numbered zodiacal signs. Also tested is the hypothesis of greater emotionality for people born under the so-called water signs. Nine hundred seventeen male adult Ss and 1407 female adult Ss were administered the Eysenck Personality Inventory, and their birthdates ascertained. Results for males and females separately and jointly support the predictions made on the basis of astrological writings at a high level of significance. Possible causes for this finding are discussed, but it is concluded that artifacts are unlikely to have produced the results obtained.

Michael Servetus, 1511–53

Michael Servetus Humanist and Martyr. By John F. Fulton. (With a bibliography of his works and census of known copies, by Madeline E. Stanton.) Pp. 98 + 9 plates. (New York: Herbert Reichner, 1953.) 8.50 dollars. Michael Servetus A Translation of his Geographical, Medical and Astrological Writings, with Introductions and Notes. By Charles Donald O'Malley. (Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 34.) Pp. 208 + 5 plates. (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1953.) 3 dollars.

MICHAEL SERVETUS. A TRANLATION OF HIS GEOGRAPHICAL, MEDICAL AND ASTROLOGICAL WRITINGS WITH INTRODUCTIONS AND NOTES

MICHAEL SERVETUS. A TRANLATION OF HIS GEOGRAPHICAL, MEDICAL AND ASTROLOGICAL WRITINGS WITH INTRODUCTIONS AND NOTES

Book Reviews

Journal Article Book Reviews Get access MICHAEL SERVETUS. A Translation of his Geographical, Medical and Astrological Writings with Introductions and Notes by Charles D. O'Malley. Philadelphia, American Philosophical Society. 1953. 208 pp. $3.00. ROLAND H. O'BAINTON ROLAND H. O'BAINTON Titus Street Professor of Ecclesiastical History Yale University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, Volume IX, Issue 3, July 1954, Pages 378–379, https://doi.org/10.1093/jhmas/IX.3.378 Published: 01 July 1954

A Roman Astrologer as a Historical Source: Julius Firmicus Maternus

During the Italian Renaissance astrological treatises were thought as important as other classical writings, and were -frequently printed. As astrology came to be considered a worthless delusion, they were forgotten or were stigmatized as spurious writings when encountered among the works of well-known authors like Ptolemy and Lucian. Today the importance of the magical and astrological writings of the ancient world, if only because of their bulk, has been again recognized. Greek papyri filled with magic texts are being brought to light and published; many dissertations on ancient superstition have appeared. The revived interest in classical astrology is seen, not only in such a work as Bouch6-Leclercq's L'astrologie grecque,l but also in the Catalogus Codicum Graecorum Astrologorum,2 a series of volumes now appearing in which a group of European scholars are co-operating under the leadership of Professor Franz Cumont in providing a guide to the many astrological manuscripts in European libraries. Besides this, in recent years several astrological treatises have been edited and published separately. In fact, the movement has advanced so far that already German scholars are busy in detecting in those astrological writings which are extant their indebtedness to, and dependence on, earlier works which we no longer possess.3 The value of astrological books to the student of ancient religions,4 or indeed of the whole mental life of the times, is being appreciated; and the influence of astrology