Astrology in Mongol Iran: foreign fascination or popular pastime?
In this discussion, I want to explore the popularity of astrology in the eastern Islamic world at the time of the Mongol invasion to ask the question of whether the Mongols were bringing anything new to the region or simply drawing on a deep and rich indigenous belief in the power of stars over mundane life.
Images of Medieval Astrology: The Liber astrologiae
An excerpt from Kristen Lippincott’s introduction to Liber astrologiae (Abū Maʿshar Treatise), a 14th-century manuscript and its beautiful medieval imagery.
In medieval times, there were ‘Perilous Days’
There are 45 perilous days each year. Read on to find which days they are.
Getting Mars on Your Side: Using Medieval Astral Magic to Win Wars
For many in the Middle Ages, the planets of the solar system held special powers, and could even bring victory in warfare. The key to this power was told in the Picatrix.
A Medieval Astrology Guide
When is it a good time for fighting and arguing? When should you avoid medicines? Perhaps this astrological guide from the 15th century can give you some answers.
Encounters with Alcabitius: Reading Arabic Astrology in Premodern Europe
Encounters with Alcabitius: Reading Arabic Astrology in Premodern Europe By Margaret Gaida PhD Dissertation, University of Oklahoma, 2017 The most popular text on…
Cosmos and Community in Early Medieval Art
Using thrones, tables, mantles, frescoes, and manuscripts, Benjamin Anderson shows how cosmological motifs informed relationships between individuals, especially the ruling elite, and communities.
Medieval Manuscripts: The Book of Felicity
The Book of Felicity features descriptions of the twelve signs of the zodiac accompanied by splendid miniatures; a series of paintings showing how human circumstances are influenced by the planets; astrological and astronomical tables; and an enigmatic treatise on fortune telling.
The Medieval Magazine: Medieval Astrology (Volume 2 Issue 14)
This week’s issue explores a 15th century astrological text and the practical advice it gives. Read also about cats, Seljuqs, King Arthur, Dante and Viking runestones.
Medical Prognosis in the Middle Ages: William the Englishman’s De urina non visa and its fortune
He aimed to give to his colleagues and fellows the means to judge the state of the patient based not on the urine flask, but on the configuration of the sky at the time of consultation.
From Sin to Science: Astrological Explanations for the Black Death, 1347-1350
Few survivors of the plague’s horrors could have remained indifferent to debates over its ultimate cause. The frequent evocation of astrology in these debates helped to increase the circulation of astrological ideas in the later fourteenth century, and contributed to the wider vogue they enjoyed during the early modern period
Apocalyptic Calculators of the Later Middle Ages
The purpose of my talk today is to explore why and how astrology became an accepted tool for apocalyptic calculation in the later Middle Ages.
Chaucer’s Solar Pageant: an Astrological Reading of the Canterbury Tales
This thesis proposes a correlation between the twenty-four Canterbury Tales and an external ordered system, namely the twelve signs of the zodiac, from which one might infer Chaucer’s intended ordering of the Tales.
Medieval Astrology and The Buke of the Sevyne Sagis
It is useful to begin by comparing the way the sages are initially described to the Emperor in the Latin, Middle English, and Middle Scots texts. Although the Middle Scots text is not connected to the English ones, they serve as a useful backdrop to illustrate the singular nature of the Scottish version of the story.
“Vir sapiens dominabitur astris”. Astrological knowledge and practices in the Portuguese medieval court (King João I to King Afonso V)
Offers a brief explanation on the foundations of medieval astrology. Astrology reveals itself as a complex body of knowledge, with specific rules and methods. Its principles were based on the natural movement of the celestial bodies: the rising and setting of the Sun, the sequence of the seasons, the phases of the Moon.
The teaching of astronomy in medieval universities, principally at Paris in the fourteenth century
Obviously, however, learned men of antiquity and the Middle Ages showed the greatest interest in such genuinely astronomical activities as the observation of the skies, of the heavenly bodies and of their movements, positions, orbits, and anomalies.
The Eternity of the World and Renaissance Historical Thought
Medieval and Renaissance controversies over the Aristotelian doctrine of “the eternity of the world” have hitherto been treated as disputes restricted to natural philosophers and theologians.
Reading Health in the Stars: Politics and Medical Astrology in Renaissance Milan
Horary astrology was skillfully exploited in political circles and suggests that, far from being irrelevant to our understanding of Renaissance Italy, astrology played an important role in shaping its history.
Hebrew Astrology in Byzantine Southern Italy
It is a commonplace that our modern, tidy distinction between astronomy and astrology does not apply to the Middle Ages.
‘The Flood’ of 1524: The First Mass-media Event in European History
The next very important ‘Grand Conjunction’ after 1484 took place in 1524 in the sign of Pisces. All seven planets joined together in February of that year to a kind of super conjunction – and that did not augur well!
“The King’s Library: Construction, Representation and Reception of the Ideal Kingship in the Late French Middle Ages”
This paper on Charles V of France and his contribution to education was given on October 5th, 2012 as part of a workshop between Freiburg and the University of Toronto.
Martin Bylica at the Court of Matthias Corvinus: Astrology and Politics in Renaissance Hungary
Late in the spring 1468, Matthias Corvinus convened the Hungarian diet in the city of Pozsony. Holding the diet in Pozsony enabled him to impress the Hungarian nobles with the local intellectual community that had begun to form at his fledgling Academia Istropolitana, which he had founded the previous year.
Instruments and demonstrations in the astrological curriculum: evidence from the University of Vienna, 1500–1530
The University of Vienna presents something of a puzzle for his- torians of astronomy and astrology. During the fifteenth century the university was alma mater to Johannes de Gmunden, Georg von Peuerbach, and Johannes Regiomontanus, who were central to developments in astronomy and astrology throughout Europe. Yet there is little evidence of advanced instruction in astronomy or astrology by any of these masters.
The Magic of Image: Astrological, Alchemical and Magical Symbolism at the Court of Wenceslas IV
The Czech Renaissance man of letters Vaclav Hajek of Libocany explained the representations of kingfishers and half naked bathmaidens that he saw painted on some Prague buildings, as records of saucy affairs from the life of the King Bohemia Wenceslas IV.