Prophecy and Politics in Spain: Celestial Novelties and the Science of the Stars, 1572-1630 in D. Tessicini and P. Boner (eds.) Celestial Novelties on the Eve of the Scientific Revolution 1540-1630, 2013. (original) (raw)
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The aim of this work is to describe different kinds of astronomical and astrological works written in the sixteenth century, with special emphasis on Portuguese and Spanish texts. This period is especially relevant in the development of astronomical culture in Portugal and Spain, since this was the age of the great overseas explorations, when astronomical navigation became of fundamental importance. The astronomical culture of that time involved ancient and new concepts, and old revisited narratives about the cosmos and its influence in many facets of the sublunary world. The present research describes the influence and transformation of the classical and medieval astronomical culture in the specific context of sixteenth century Iberian texts. There were different publics involved in the production and study of those works, such as navigators, priests, physicians, farmers, astrologers and scholars. Those different aspects of astronomical and astrological knowledge were not distinct, there was a significant overlap between them; and the educated public required some broad acquaintance with those several approaches. Some popular treatises, called Chronographia, or Reportorio dos tempos, provided astronomical and astrological information required by the general public. This overview of those sources can contribute to a better and more comprehensive understanding of the astronomical culture in that period.
Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry, 2018
The aim of this work is to describe different kinds of astronomical and astrological works written in the sixteenth century, with special emphasis on Portuguese and Spanish texts. This period is especially relevant in the development of astronomical culture in Portugal and Spain, since this was the age of the great overseas explorations, when astronomical navigation became of fundamental importance. The astronomical culture of that time involved ancient and new concepts, and old revisited narratives about the cosmos and its influence in many facets of the sublunary world. The present research describes the influence and transformation of the classical and medieval astronomical culture in the specific context of sixteenth century Iberian texts. There were different publics involved in the production and study of those works, such as navigators, priests, physicians, farmers, astrologers and scholars. Those different aspects of astronomical and astrological knowledge were not distinct, there was a significant overlap between them; and the educated public required some broad acquaintance with those several approaches. Some popular treatises, called Chronographia, or Reportorio dos tempos, provided astronomical and astrological information required by the general public. This overview of those sources can contribute to a better and more comprehensive understanding of the astronomical culture in that period.
Spain and the Scientific Revolution: Historiographical Questions and Conjectures
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T N 1792, wRrrrNG nl r¡re Eucycr,opÉorn MÉrnoorqun, the French polymath I Nicolas Masson de Morvilliers posed a question that, for better or for worse, framed the historiography of Spanish science for nearly two centuries. "What do we owe to Spain?" Masson asked in a voice brimming with sarcasm and contempt. "In two centuries, in four, or even in six, what has she done for Europe?"l Ostensibly, Masson's subject was not the history of science but the geography arrd population of Spain, themes that gave his polemic a pronounced racist character. For, according to Masson, the source ofSpain's defrciency was the character of its people, who, in spite of their admirable virtues of patience and resolve, were ignorant,lazy, and superstitious. Moreover, according to Masson, Spain's futile government, bigoted clergy, and tyralnical Inquisition conspired to condemn the country to remain hopelessly backwa¡d. Particularly with regard to science, he concluded, Spain had become "the most ignorant nation in Europe". To Masson, Spain was the country that typifred everything against which the philosophes were struggling.
Spain, Europe and The Wider World 1500–1800
European Review of History: Revue europeenne d'histoire, 2011
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This article deals with the process of decision making at the Spanish court concerning the Revolt in the Netherlands. Focusing on the ideas and deeds of one of the most influential advisors of Philip II in the years 1576-1579, Antonio Pérez, it argues for an analysis of this process which not only pays attention to the financial and geopolitical causes of Spain’s imperial policy, but which also takes into account the implications of the power struggle amongst the courtiers in Madrid, based on networks of patronage and ideological strife that had important consequences for the orders sent from Spain to the battlefield.