Secrets of Nature

Astrology and Alchemy in Early Modern Europe

William R. Newman, Anthony Grafton

445 pages, parution le 05/04/2006

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Résumé

In recent years scholars have begun to acknowledge that the occult sciences were not marginal enterprises but an integral part of the worldview of many of our ancestors. Astrology was one of the many intellectual tools--along with what we consider to be the superior tools of social and political analysis--that Renaissance thinkers used to attack practical and intellectual problems. It was a coherent body of practices, strongly supported by social institutions. And alchemy was not viewed primarily as a spiritual pursuit, an idea popularized by nineteenth-century occultists, but as a part of natural philosophy. It was often compared to medicine.

Many Renaissance writers suggested links between astrology and alchemy that went beyond the use of astrological charts to determine the best time to attempt alchemical operations. This book shows the many ways in which astrology (a form of divination) and alchemy (an artisanal pursuit concerned with the technologies of minerals and metals) diverge as well as intersect. Overall, it shows how an appreciation of the role of the occult opens up new ways of understanding the past. Topics include the career of Renaissance astrologer Girolamo Cardano and his work on medical astrology, the astrological thinking of Johannes Kepler and Galileo Galilei, the history of the Rosicrucians and the influence of John Dee, the work of medical alchemist Simon Forman, and an extended critique of the existing historiography of alchemy.

L'auteur - William R. Newman

William R. Newman is Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at Indiana University.

L'auteur - Anthony Grafton

Historien américain, professeur à l'université de Princeton à la chaire Henry Putman, Anthony Grafton est l'auteur de nombreux ouvrages consacrés à l'histoire de l'Europe. Il publie régulièrement dans les magazines New Republic, American Scholar, New York Review of Books et dans le New Yorker.

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Sommaire

Introduction: The Problematic Status of Astrology and Alchemy in Premodern Europe
"Veritatis amor dulcissimus": Aspects of Cardano's Astrology
Between the Election and My Hopes: Girolamo Cardano and Medical Astrology
Celestial Offerings: Astrological Motifs in the Dedicatory Letters of Kepler's Astronomia Nova and Galileo's Sidereus Nuncius
Astronomia inferior: Legacies of Johannes Trithemius and John Dee
The Rosicrucian Hoax in France (1623-24)
"The Food of Angels": Simon Forman's Alchemical Medicine
Some Problems with the Historiography of Alchemy
Contributors

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Caractéristiques techniques

	PAPIER
Éditeur(s)	The MIT Press
Auteur(s)	William R. Newman, Anthony Grafton
Parution	05/04/2006
Nb. de pages	445
Format	14,5 x 22
Couverture	Broché
Poids	670g
Intérieur	Noir et Blanc
EAN13	9780262640626
ISBN13	978-0-262-64062-6