Debating the Stars in the Italian Renaissance

Giovanni Pico della Mirandola’s Disputationes adversus astrologiam divinatricem and Its Reception

Series: 

Author:
Ovanes Akopyan
In Debating the Stars, Ovanes Akopyan sheds new light on the astrological controversies that arose in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries after the publication of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola’s Disputationes adversus astrologiam divinatricem (1496). This treatise has often been held responsible for a contemporary reassessment of the status of astrology, a discipline that attracted widespread fascination in the Renaissance. Akopyan’s reconstruction of the development of Pico’s views demonstrates that the Disputationes was a continuation of rather than a drastic rupture with the rest of his legacy. By investigating the philosophical and humanist foundations for Pico’s attack on astrological predictions, Akopyan challenges the popular assumption that the treatise was written under Girolamo Savonarola’s spell. He shows instead how it was appropriated ideologically by pro-Savonarolan circles after Pico’s death.
This book also offers a comprehensive study of the immediate reception of the Disputationes across Italy and Europe and reveals that the debates initiated by Pico’s intervention pervaded all of the European intellectual oikumene.
Copyright Year:
2021
E-Book (PDF)
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Published
ISBN:
978-90-04-44227-6
Publication:
12 Oct 2020
Hardback
Availability:
Published
ISBN:
978-90-04-36360-1
Publication:
08 Oct 2020
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Front Matter
Copyright page
Dedication
Preface
Part 1 Before the Disputationes
Chapter 1 Scientia naturalis, Kabbalah and Celestial Spheres: Giovanni Pico della Mirandola on Astrology (1486–1493)
Part 2 The Disputationes adversus astrologiam divinatricem
Chapter 2 Introductory Remarks
Chapter 3 Reading Texts: Giovanni Pico della Mirandola and His Sources
Chapter 4 Me quoque adolescentem olim fallebat: Giovanni Pico della Mirandola versus Prisca theologia
Chapter 5 ‘Princeps aliorum’ and His Followers: Giovanni Pico della Mirandola on the ‘Astrological Tradition’ in the Disputationes adversus astrologiam divinatricem
Chapter 6 Back to Aristotle? Natural Philosophy in the Disputationes adversus astrologiam divinatricem
Part 3 The Disputationes: Pro et contra
Chapter 7 Ideological Appropriation of Giovanni Pico’s Disputationes: Girolamo Savonarola and His Contro gli astrologi
Chapter 8 Praenotio, Prisca haeresis and Astrology: Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola between Savonarola and Giovanni Pico
Chapter 9 With ‘Latins’ Against ‘Latin Vice’: Maximus the Greek on Astrology
Chapter 10 Lucio Bellanti and the Return to ‘Christian Astrology’
Chapter 11 Poet, Astrologer, Courtier: Giovanni Gioviano Pontano versus Giovanni Pico della Mirandola
Chapter 12 Astrology in Francesco Zorzi’s De harmonia mundi: A Response to Giovanni Pico della Mirandola’s Disputationes adversus astrologiam?
Conclusion
Back Matter
Bibliography
Index
Ovanes Akopyan, Ph.D., is a research fellow at the University of Innsbruck.
“Debating the Stars undoubtedly opens a new horizon to understanding Pico’s Disputationes as a part of his greater intellectual enterprise. It opens further questions on how his ideas evolved and his philosophical relation to Savonarola and Gianfrancesco. As Akopyan suggests, Pico was a leading philosopher, not a mere follower of Savonarola’s ideas.”
Ernesto Priani Saisó, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. In: Renaissance Quarterly, Vol. 77, No. 2 (Summer 2023), pp. 745–746.

Preface

Part 1: Before the Disputationes


1 Scientia naturalis, Kabbalah and Celestial Spheres: Giovanni Pico della Mirandola on Astrology (1486–1493)
 1 Introduction
 2 The Commento alla Canzone d’amore
 3 The Trilogy
 4 The Heptaplus and the Expositiones in Psalmos

Part 2: The Disputationes adversus astrologiam divinatricem


2 Introductory Remarks
 1 Text and Its Structure
 2 Edition and Authorship

3 Reading Texts: Giovanni Pico della Mirandola and His Sources

4 Me quoque adolescentem olim fallebat: Giovanni Pico della Mirandola versus Prisca theologia
 1 Introduction
 2 Prisca theologia in Giovanni Pico’s Writings before the Disputationes adversus astrologiam divinatricem
 3 On the Origin of Astrology: Giovanni Pico della Mirandola Versus Prisca theologia
 4 Conclusion

5 ‘Princeps aliorum’ and His Followers: Giovanni Pico della Mirandola on the ‘Astrological Tradition’ in the Disputationes adversus astrologiam divinatricem
 1 Introduction
 2 The Use of Astrological Techniques and Its Controversies
 3 Pseudo-Ptolemy’s Centiloquium in the Disputationes adversus astrologiam divinatricem
 4 The Great Conjunctions, Abu Ma‘shar and ‘Other’ Astrologers
 5 Medieval Christian Astrologers and the Problem of Religion in the Disputationes adversus astrologiam divinatricem
 6 Conclusion

6 Back to Aristotle? Natural Philosophy in the Disputationes adversus astrologiam divinatricem

Part 3: The Disputationes: Pro et contra


7 Ideological Appropriation of Giovanni Pico’s Disputationes: Girolamo Savonarola and his Contro gli astrologi

8 Praenotio, Prisca haeresis and Astrology: Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola Between Savonarola and Giovanni Pico
 1 Introduction
 2 The De rerum praenotione and the Quaestio de falsitate astrologiae: Praenotio Versus Prophetia
 3 The Controversial Use of (Anti-)Astrological Authorities in the De rerum praenotione
 4 Prisca theologia as prisca haeresis
 5 Aristotle and Natural Philosophical Arguments Against Astrology
 6 Conclusion

9 With ‘Latins’ Against ‘Latin Vice’: Maximus the Greek on Astrology

10 Lucio Bellanti and the Return to ‘Christian Astrology’

11 Poet, Astrologer, Courtier: Giovanni Gioviano Pontano versus Giovanni Pico della Mirandola

12 Astrology in Francesco Zorzi’s De harmonia mundi: A Response to Giovanni Pico della Mirandola’s Disputationes adversus astrologiam?

13 Conclusion

Bibliography
 Primary Sources
 Secondary Literature
Index
All interested in the history of Renaissance astrology/astronomy, science and humanism, as well as in Giovanni Pico della Mirandola’s thought and its reception across Europe. Keywords: Renaissance astrology and magic, early modern cosmology, Renaissance humanism, Renaissance astronomy, Ptolemy in the Renaissance, Aristotle in the Renaissance, Renaissance Platonism, Marsilio Ficino, Girolamo Savonarola, Maximus the Greek.
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