Jesuits and Astrology: Print versus Manuscript (original) (raw)

Jesuit Astrology: Prognostication and Science in Early Modern Culture

Brill, 2023

Connections between the Society of Jesus and astrology used to appear as unexpected at best. Astrology was never viewed favourably by the Church, especially in early modern times, and since Jesuits were strong defenders of Catholic orthodoxy, most historians assumed that their religious fervour would be matched by an equally strong rejection of astrology. This groundbreaking and compelling study brings to light new Jesuit scientific texts revealing a much more positive, practical, and nuanced attitude. What emerges forcefully is a totally new perspective into early modern Jesuit culture, science, and education, highlighting the element that has been long overlooked: astrology.

Astrological literature in Seventeenth Century Spain 2009

When he wrote his Religion and the Decline of Magic, Keith Thomas stressed that the topics he considered, including astrology, were not peculiarly English, and said that an exercise in comparative history would be desirable, but impossible until the data for each country have been properly assembled (x). Nearly forty years later, this exercise in comparative history is still not possible and the numerous astrological works printed in the different kingdoms of the Spanish Monarchy during the early modern period have not systematically studied. The desirable exercise of comparative history proposed by Thomas must begin with a knowledge sources, which is still lacking for the case of many European countries. 1 The objective of this paper is to make a first step towards that knowledge with a simple description and classification of early modern Spanish astrological printed works. The works described and commented upon in this article are specifically those related to astrology that were printed in Spain or written by Spanish authors and published abroad during the seventeenth century. 2

“Science and Astrology: A Renaissance Problem,” in Liah Greenfeld and Marcel Herbst, eds., The Institution of Science and the Science of Institutions: The Legacy of Joseph Ben David, Transaction Books, 2012, pp. 29-43

From the standpoint of many thinkers in the Renaissance, astrology was science. 1 It comprised a body of knowledge that fit the criteria of verification commonly accepted for confirming information and establishing certitude about the natural world. It derived from authoritative traditions rooted in admired ages and places, illuminated by ancient wisdom. The most respected intellects had set great store by it from time immemorial. It made sense according to prevailing ideas about how the world and human nature worked. Its language was embedded in the very discourse whereby the results of scientific investigations were expressed. It seemed to conform to observations and experiences accumulated over time. Its methods were the methods of all knowledge-gathering. It used an experiential, not an experimental approach; and as such it belonged to Renaissance science and only partly to ours. And to the extent that Renaissance thinkers began to invent modes of knowledge-testing to which it could not conform, it gradually lost its grip on Renaissance minds and was superseded by other approaches. 2 Thus the story of astrology and science in the Renaissance is largely the story of science in general. No wonder Giovanni Battista Riccioli included both astrologers and astronomers together in the list he compiled at the end of the seventeenth century of experts on celestial matters from ancient to modern. And no wonder that, well into the seventeenth century and beyond, it kept its position among the studies associated with "mixed mathematics" as taught in the medical schools. And the works and days of its practitioners deserve all the attention that, for instance, the Cambridge History of Early Modern Science, or indeed the Cambridge History of Renaissance Philosophy have devoted to them. To these anthologies we also refer for a fuller discussion of the problematic term "science" in this context, adding only that for the sake of convenience "science" and "natural knowledge" will be used interchangeably in deference to historical usage when referring to our period, and clear indications will be given when anything specifically relating to the notion of "modern science" is in play.

"Jean-Baptiste Morin (1583-1656): Astrology and the New Science in the 17th Century"

International Workshop, Bruxelles Jean-Baptiste Morin (1583-1656): Astrology and the New Science in the 17th Century, 2023

This international workshop brings together almost everyone currently working on one of the most overlooked intellectuals of 17th-century France: the mathematician-astrologer Jean-Baptiste Morin (1583-1656). In spite of his extraordinary astrological productions, such as the posthumously published Astrologia Gallica (1661), and in spite of his social proximity and intellectual conversancy with the more well-known representatives of a new philosophy and science (e.g. Descartes, Gassendi), historians have found it exceedingly difficult to write Morin into the story of 17th-century scientific culture. Whenever historians have mentioned him at all, they seem to have done so in either of two ways. Either Morin is mentioned despite his astrology, or he comes forth as a tragic character, fast marginalized due to his astrological interests and (supposed) psychological idiosyncracies. This workshop seeks to change this perception by breaking new ground in the study of Morin's relation to French philosophical and scientific culture of the second quarter of the 17th century.

Astrological prognostications in seventeenth century in Spain 2007

B OTH HISTORY AND THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE include as objects of study intellectual disciplines that were once considered scientific and that are not now held to be so. An important tendency of the historiography of the last few decades is to re-evaluate the utility of "erstwhile science," systems of knowledge that were once considered valid but have subsequently fallen from favor. Whether or not these rejected systems retain any ability to describe natural reality, they do give us a great deal of information about intellectual developments and beliefs that played an important role in early modern scientific activity. Astrology in seventeenth-century Spain is a paradigmatic example. The once traditional association of astrology with superstition and witchcraft -now outdated but still to be found in publications by a few Spanish historians of science-distorts the reality of seventeenth-century scientific practices, practices which included astrology, or at least parts of it.

The Jesuit Paradox: Intellectual Authority, Political Power, and the Marginalization of Astrology in Early Modern Portugal

Early Science and Medicine, 22: 5-6 (2017), pp. 438-463., 2017

This paper focuses on an apparent paradox. In the early decades of the eighteenth cen- tury, Jesuit professors of mathematics at the College of Santo Antão in Lisbon delivered entire courses of astrology while astrological almanacs testified to the fact that astrol- ogy had ceased to appeal to large sectors of Portuguese society. This case thus chal- lenges the traditional perception that early modern scholars increasingly dissociated themselves from astrology whereas it still continued to play a major role in common people’s lives and beliefs. Furthermore, this also contradicts the view according to which the Counter-Reformation played a crucial role in the marginalization of astrol- ogy. This paper argues that Portuguese Jesuits followed a flexible interpretation of Thomas Aquinas regarding the extent of celestial influence and perceived astrology as compatible with Aristotelianism. It understands the downfall of astrology within the context of political centralization that characterized the reign of Pedro II.

Astrology (Cambridge History of Science)

As is well known, astrology finally disappeared from the domain of legitimate natural knowledge during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, although the precise contours of this story remain obscure. It is less well known, albeit clearly documented, that astrology was taught from the beginning of the fourteenth century as an important part of the arts and science curriculum at the great medieval and Renaissance universities, including Padua, Bologna, and Paris. There, astrology was studied within three distinct scientific disciplines -mathematics, natural philosophy, and medicine -and served to integrate several highly developed mathematical sciences of antiquity -astronomy, geography, and geometrical optics -with Aristotelian natural philosophy. This astrologizing Aristotelianism provided fundamental patterns of interpretation and analysis in pre-Newtonian natural knowledge. Thus, the history of astrology -and, in particular, the story of its protracted criticism and ultimate rejection as a source of what the learned considered legitimate natural knowledge -is central for understanding the transition from medieval and Renaissance natural philosophy to Enlightenment science. The role of astrology in this transition was neither obvious nor unproblematic. Indeed, astrology's integration of astronomy and natural philosophy under the aegis of mathematics had much in common with the aims of the "new science"of the seventeenth century. Thus it becomes necessary to explain why this promising astrological synthesis was rejected in favor of a rather different mathematical natural philosophy.

Stars, spirits, signs: towards a history of astrology 1100–1800

Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, 2010

When citing this paper, please use the full journal title Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences