Modes of Astrological Discourse, ca. 1130-1600
Like witchcraft, the history of astrology is, of course, far more complex than one simple paper can attempt to contain, but it will be useful to track its basic course of development in the history of Western science. Astrology had many independent origins chronologically and geographically, but the Western vein had its foundation as an organized discipline in Chaldean Babylonia around 3000 B.C.E., was influenced by Persian Zoroastrianism, and was transmitted via the Egyptians to the Greeks by at least 500 B.C.E.[1] Generally speaking, astrology enjoyed unquestioned legitimacy in ancient times because, as a science, it grew out of the priestly tradition it had occupied in Babylon. The Babylonian religion held the sacredness of the stars and planets, and this infatuation with the heavens lent itself to meticulous study. As David C. Lindberg elucidates in his history of the origins of Western science, there were persuasive reasons for believing in astrology in terms of its being a study of celestial influences. “Nobody could doubt,” he writes,
that the heavens were the major source of light and heat in the terrestrial region; the seasons were plainly connected with the solar motion around the ecliptic; the tides were apparently connected with lunar motion; and it seemed clear, once the compass made its appearance (late in the twelfth century), that the poles of the celestial sphere exercised a magnetic influence on certain minerals.[2]
Jim Tester, in his seminal work on the history of Western astrology, argues that Mesopotamian (and through association Egyptian) astrology was “purely descriptive” and was not the scientific enterprise it evolved into by the first few centuries of the Christian era. This original version of astrology was concerned primarily with calendrical matters, and the mathematical techniques and observational precision necessary for constructing tables, nativities, and horoscopes did not exist until around the fourth century in Greece.[3] During this classical golden age, Pythagorean, Platonic, and Aristotelian thought all accommodated astrological discourse within their cosmic frameworks. As the Greek method of rational inquiry was adopted by the Romans, astrological writings flourished during the early empire, especially in Eastern scholarly centers such as Alexandria: Marcus Mailius’ Astronomicon, Dorotheus of Sidon’s didactic five-part poem the Pentateuch, Vettius Valen’s encyclopedic compilation the Anthology, and Julius Firmicus Maternus’ eight book compendium, the Mathesis to name but a few outstanding examples of the era. Towering above them all was the Tetrabiblos (“the four books”) by the Hellenized Egyptian Ptolemy (90-168 C.E.), “the cornerstone of medieval astrology.”[4]
Like much other scholarship in the Latin West following the fall of the Roman Empire, astrology lay dormant for several centuries awaiting rediscovery. A smattering of translations of astrological, medical and other scientific works occurred during the tenth and eleventh centuries, but the explosions of translations that led to the building of a truly medieval version of astrology occurred in the twelfth century. This flowering of learning, often referred to as the twelfth century renaissance, included a great many astrological works, many of which were Greek works preserved, commented upon, and improved by Arab scholars. From 1130 to the 1170s, dozens of astrological writings were translated into Latin by the likes of Abelard of Bath (Al-Khwarizmi’s Tables and several works of Euclid), Plato of Tivoli (several Arab astrological tracts by Al-Battani and Ptolemy’s Tetrabiblos), and above all Gerard of Cremona, of whose more than ninety translations, six are astrological in nature.[5] The foundation upon which medieval astrology stood was derived from relatively few works. Ptolemy’s Tetrabiblos was the one work to which all medieval astrologers seemed to defer, and in conjunction with Ptolemy’s other great work The Almagest, constituted a formidable edifice of authority.[6] The work of the Arab Abu Ma‘shar (often Latinized as Albumasar) titled Introduction to the Science of Astrology was also heavily referenced and was regarded as the most important Arab contribution to the science.[7] Both the Tetrabiblos and the Introduction to Astrology were translated from Arabic to Latin in the 1130s. Ptolemy’s works had survived in the West due to the ninth and tenth century efforts of Arab scholars, and without their preservation, his volumes may never have made their way into European hands. Within the Tetrabiblos, astrology is treated hierarchically and it begins with the general and works its way to the particular. Book I is procedural, describing the movement of the planets and stars, the use of calculations, and how to understand the results. Book II details the collective aspects of astrology that may be generally applied to large populations or nations, and Books III and IV together get to the more specific details of individual astrology, or those things which may be determined by the positions of the stars and planets at the conception, birth, and other important moments in the life of the person whose horoscope has been cast (genethlialogy).[8] Its thoroughly mathematical treatment of the subject removed it from the more legendary position it had held in the Western consciousness and set it on the path as an area of scientific study.
Perhaps the most important translations made during the twelfth century renaissance, and related directly to the rebirth in astrology, were those of Aristotle. From the fall of the Roman Empire until the twelfth century, the medieval cosmos was Biblical and heavily influenced by Platonic thought.[9] Aristotle burst onto the scene contemporaneously with these astrological translations and his view of the universe informed the new medieval astrology. Briefly, Aristotle’s universe was a sphere of dual nature, with the earth at the center and the sphere of fixed stars at the outermost reaches. Physical law acted differently depending on the position within the cosmos. The supralunar sphere, or the entire universe above the moon, was an incorruptible, unchangeable realm where all movement was perfectly circular and in general, predictable. Birth, generation, decay, and death, on the other hand, categorized the sublunar region. It was a world of transience. Many Christians believed that this validated the concept of original sin and that the fall and expulsion of Adam and Eve were evident in the disparity between the upper and lower spheres. [10] This was the same disparity involved in dividing witchcraft and astrology, since astrology, by definition, was occupied with the study of the perfect regions of the universe while witchcraft relied on the most flawed cosmic territory.
[1]Couliano, Eros and Magic in the Renaissance, p. 25, as well as the Encarta Encyclopedia 2000 entries on “Astrology” and “History of Astronomy.”
[2] Lindberg, David C., The Beginnings of Western Science: The European Scientific Tradition in Philosophical, Religious, and Institutional Context, 600 B.C. to A.D. 1450. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1992, p. 274.
[3] Tester, Jim. A History of Western Astrology. Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 1987, p. 12 and 13.
[4] Ibid. p. 11-56.
[5] Ibid. p. 152. For a more complete list of scientific works translated during these three-quarters of a century, see Tester’s notes as well.
[6] Wedel, Theodore Otto. The Medieval Attitude towards Astrology. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1920. p. 65 and 67.
[7] Ibid. p. 62.
[8] Tester, A History of Western Astrology, p. 68.
[9] See note 13 in Part 6 for a more thorough description of the Platonic cosmological attitude toward astrology and it adherents in the early Renaissance.
[10] Lindberg, The Beginnings of Western Science, p. 55. The Aristotelian works most responsible for this worldview were De Caelo (On the Heavens), Physica (Physics), and most especially De Generatione et Corruptione (On Generation and Corruption). See also The Basic Works of Aristotle, edited by Richard McKeon, Chicago: Random House: Chicago, 1941.
No comments:
Post a Comment