The Writing in the Wittenberg Sky: Astrology in Sixteenth-Century Germany Author(S): Claudia Brosseder Source: Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol

The Writing in the Wittenberg Sky: Astrology in Sixteenth-Century Germany Author(s): Claudia Brosseder Source: Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. 66, No. 4 (Oct., 2005), pp. 557-576 Published by: University of Pennsylvania Press Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3654348 Accessed: 13-03-2020 15:35 UTC

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This content downloaded from 94.44.229.70 on Fri, 13 Mar 2020 15:35:00 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms The Writing in the Wittenberg Sky: Astrology in Sixteenth-Century Germany

Claudia Brosseder

It probably was a delightful summer day when the celebrated humanist Willibald Pirckheimer, best known as a friend of Albrecht Diirer and Erasmus of Rotterdam, strolled, with an unknown friend, through the streets of Nurem- berg. When they saw a girl standing at the streetside, it occurred to the friend to predict the girl's future by reading her palm. So he did, foretelling a forth- coming marriage and a blissful life. After the girl had passed on, Pirckheim- er's unknown friend admitted that, unfortunately, he had not seen the girl's blithe life but her impending death. In order not to scare her, however, he had not revealed this message to the girl; only his learned friend Pirckheimer could know the truth. Some years later, the Nuremberg philologist Joachim Camerarius, who narrated this rather trivial event with great excitement in 1576, does not display any sign of bewilderment that in this instance a chiro- mantic had told untruths to somebody.' On the contrary, he praises this art and admires Italy's scholars, who practiced, besides chiromancy, other wonderful divinatory arts based on astrology. Camerarius was perceptibly impressed by Italian astrology and her divinatory stepsisters. Presumably he was thinking about De subtilitate (1554) by Girolamo Cardano who, at least in this work, counted astrology and chiromancy among the arts of natural divination.2 And so, as if inspired by Cardano's acute judgment years afterward, Camerarius

The present article provides a glimpse at the topic of my dissertation, published with the title: Im Bann der Sterne. Caspar Peucer, Philipp Melanchthon und andere Wittenberger Astrologen (Berlin, Akademie Verlag, 2004). I thank Robert Folger for the translation and the anonymous reader for his comments. 1 Joachim Camerarius, Sen., Commentarius de generibus divinationum, ac graecis latinisque earum vocabulis (Leipzig, 1576), 56f. 2 Girolamo Cardano, De subtilitate: libri XXI. Nunc demum recogniti atque perfecti (Basel, 1554), 444.

557

This content downloaded from 94.44.229.70 on Fri, 13 Mar 2020 15:35:00 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 558 Claudia Brosseder read in Cardano, in the same breath, the idea that there had been only twelve significant scholars in the history of civilization, who were capable of divination: such were, among others, Aristotle, Ptolemy, Alchindi, and Vitruvius. However, no contemporary of Cardano was among them. This anecdote provides but a glimpse of the sixteenth-century enthusiasm for the divinatory art of chiromancy and, relatedly, astrology. My contribution will show that academic Protestant Germany was actually in the grips of an astrology fever. Throughout the sixteenth century, many German scholars were under the spell of astrology. In this, Germany did not essentially differ from Italy and France, but in one specific place astrology presented itself in a peculiar shape. In the sixteenth century astrology flourished particularly in one German site of erudition: in Wittenberg, 51V52' latitude, 12o38' longitude. Particularly here at the University of Wittenberg, attracted by Philipp Melanchthon's ped- agogic enterprise, a series of scholars came together who shaped the image of astrology in sixteenth-century Germany. They were humanists, physicians, astronomers, mathematicians, municipal surgeons, and scholars of Greek. There were at least forty-six of them. In one way or another, each of them was interested in astrology. Many of them composed astrological analyses for wealthy clients. "Pene innumberabiles" mathematicians came from the University of Wittenberg, as the Ttibingen professor of rhetorics Nikodemus Frischlin grudgingly asserted. By this he meant astrologers, and he did not try to conceal his aversion to them.3 He was unequivocal: astrologers are swindlers. With this opinion, Frischlin joined the ranks of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola,4 Martin Luther,5 Erasmus of Rotterdam,6 and others. This is not a novelty, and yet Frischlin's caustic remark can still teach us something today: regarding the history of German astrology, one should resist the temptation to see Melanchthon as the one and only spiritus rector of German sixteenth- century astrology. Instead, it is reasonable to concede much more weight to the sway of Wittenberg and its numerous astronomers, mathematicians, and physicians, who did not only gravitate toward the personality of Melanchthon. The large number of scholars and the variety of ideas preempts any attempt

3 Nicodemus Frischlin, De astronomicae artis cum doctrina coelesti et naturali philo- sophia congruentia ex optimis quibusque Graecis Latinisque scriptoribus (Frankfurt, 1586), 2. 4 Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Discorsi contro l'astrologia, ed. Eugenio Garin (Flor- ence, 1952). 5 For instance Martin Luther, "Predigt am Pfingstdienstag nachmittags. 18. Mai 1529," D. Martin Luthers Werke. Kritische Gesamtausgabe, vol. 29 (Weimar, 1904), 376-79. 6 Erasmus of Rotterdam, "Luciani Samosatensis dialogi aliquot. Desiderio Erasmo Roter- damo interprete. Tomus I," Opera omnia in decem tomos distincta. Recognovit Joannes Cler- icus (reprint Hildesheim, 1961), cols. 185-340, 340.

This content downloaded from 94.44.229.70 on Fri, 13 Mar 2020 15:35:00 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms The Writing in the Wittenberg Sky 559 to reduce the number of astrologers to a so-called Melanchthon circle.7 This circle did not exist, not least because his pupils did not monistically adhere to Melanchthon's thoughts on astrology. In particular, a personality as industrious in publishing as Melanchthon's son-in-law Caspar Peucer illustrates this fact. Caspar Peucer, Erasmus Reinhold, Hieronymus Wolf, Jakob Milich, Martin Chemnitz, Paul Eber, and many others were the Wittenberg teachers and students who left manuscripts and printed works on astrology to posterity. Seen in retrospect, they all contributed indirectly to one great project: they wanted to reform astrology and elevate it to the rank of a science of universal validity. After all, they were all too familiar with Pico della Mirandola's mor- dant 1495 critique, which had denied astrology the status of a science. And even Melanchthon's friend and colleague Martin Luther felt that astrology was an illicit art and, even worse, a dangerous game with the devil.8

Philipp Melanchthon formulated the basis of the theoretical frame into which to embed astrology. And although some of his colleagues' and pupils' ideas outgrew that frame, they all agreed on one issue: only the pious scholar can decipher the celestial writing of astrology, and only he knows how to actually understand divine providence by means of astrology.9 With this strong connection between divine providence and astrology, the Wittenberg astrologers diverged from their great Italian idol Girolamo Cardano. Car- dano's reform focused rather on horoscopes than theological subtleties.'0 Mel- anchthon's interpretation of Gen. 1:14 "fiant luminaria in firmamento caeli, et dividant diem ac noctem, et sint in signa et tempora, et dies et annos" became the key passage of the theological legitimation of any form of astrology.1' Melanchthon initially related "et sint in signa," a passage debated since

7 See Lynn Thorndike, A History of Magic and Experimental Science. Volumes V and VI: The Sixteenth Century, vol. V (New York, 1941), 378; and Robert Westman, "The Melanchthon Circle, Rheticus and the Wittenberg Interpretation of the Copernican Theory," Isis, 66 (1975), 165-93. 8 See note 5. 9 Philipp Melanchthon, Initia doctrinae physicae. Dictata in Academia Vitebergensi. It- erum edita (Wittenberg, 1550), 134vf.; Caspar Peucer, Commentarius de praecipuis divinationum generibus (Frankfurt, 1593), 109f; Sachiko Kusukawa, The Transformation of Natural Philosophy. The Case of Philip Melanchthon (Cambridge/England, 1995); and Charlotte Meth- uen, "The Role of the Heavens in the Thought of Philip Melanchthon," JHI, 57 (1996), 385- 403. 1o Anthony Grafton, Cardano's Kosmos. Die Welten und Werke eines Renaissance- Astrologen, tr. Peter Knecht (Berlin, 1999); and idem, Cardano's Cosmos: the Worlds and Works of a Renaissance Astrologer (Cambridge, Mass., 1999). " Dino Belluci, "Genese 1,14 et astrologie dans l'exeghse de Philippe Melanchthon," in Thdorie et pratique de l'exegese, ed. Irena Backus (Geneva, 1990), 177-90; Brosseder, Im Bann der Sterne, 259.

This content downloaded from 94.44.229.70 on Fri, 13 Mar 2020 15:35:00 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 560 Claudia Brosseder the times of the church fathers, only to changes in nature. From 1535 on, he integrated into this discourse signs of man's disposition for present and future actions.12 The reading of these signs was, for Melanchthon, a divine command. Although this biblical foundation was the point of departure and aim of every astrological interpretation, one must not underestimate how much freedom the Wittenberg scholars enjoyed in the reception of diverse contemporary traditions; a freedom they knew how to use. They read the characters of the stellar constellations in a great variety of ways, without recurring immediately to a biblical pattern of interpretation. In this respect, Peucer was the most audacious. And, in his theory at least, he was determined to fully reveal the celestial qualitates occultae. In this article, I contend that scholars trained in sixteenth-century Wit- tenberg strove to establish astrology as a science that had the potential and the claim to supply knowledge of universal validity. For this reason, I will address the intellectual contexts in which astrology could be useful for scholars. What kind of hermeneutics did they apply to the interpretation of stars? And how did they behave in the dialogue with their clients? Thus, this article addresses the theory, practice, and importance of astrology in the social and intellectual history of sixteenth-century Germany. The fact that the Wittenb- erg astrologers took advantage of the variety and flexibility of astrological theoretical positions and that lofty theory and bitter practice were often miles apart already incited contemporary critics to sharpen their incisive art of argumentation. Many twentieth-century historians were inspired by them. Yet the time to smirk about astrology's lack of seriousness is long gone. The history of German astrology in the sixteenth century, its beginnings, flourishing, and decline is only partially known.'3 In 1920, Aby Warburg published a groundbreaking study.14 We are most familiar with the scholarly com- motions of the year 1524.15 Studies on ancient, medieval, Italian, French, and English astrology tell us about essential characteristics of theoretical astrology

12 Melanchthon, Oratio de dignitate astrologiae (1535), Corpus Reformatorum (hereafter CR), ed. C. G. Bretschneider (Halle, 1834-60), XIII, cols. 261-66. 13 See the fundamental study by Paolo Zambelli, "Astrologi consiglieri del principe a Wittenberg," Annali dell'Istituto storico-italo-germanico in Trento/Jahrbuch des italienisch- deutschen historischen Instituts in Trient, 17 (1992), 497-543; Wolf-Dieter Miiller-Jahncke, Astrologisch-magische Theorie und Praxis in der Heilkunde der friihen Neuzeit (Stuttgart, 1985). 14 Aby Warburg, "Heidnisch-antike Weissagung in Wort und Bild zu Luthers Zeiten (1920)," in Aby Warburg. Die Erneuerung der heidnischen Antike: kulturwissenschaftliche Beitriige zur Geschichte der europdiischen Renaissance, ed. Horst Bredekamp et al. (Berlin, 1998), 487-558. 15 "Astrologi hallucinati," in Stars and the End of the World in Luther's Time, ed. Paola Zambelli (Berlin, 1986).

This content downloaded from 94.44.229.70 on Fri, 13 Mar 2020 15:35:00 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms The Writing in the Wittenberg Sky 561 and its practice.'6 Its practice in Germany after 1550 is barely known."7 Ac- cordingly, it has so far not been possible to show that astrology, similar to Melanchthon's or Flacius Illyricus's hermeneutics, was a coherent, ambitious, and comprehensive art of interpretation. In what follows, I will illustrate some aspects of astrology's importance in this respect. When Melanchthon deliv- ered his famous 1535 speech about the significance of natural and judicial astrology to the University of Wittenberg, arguing that its purpose was to curb man's bad inclinations and foster his good ones, he was nearly a veteran of astrology.'8 His teacher, Johann StSffler, had familiarized him in T'ibingen with the technical basis of astrology, and using horoscopes, genethlialogies, and the like, he had foretold Melanchthon' s children a fortunate future. At the beginning of the sixteenth century, there were practicing astrologers not only in southwest Germany but also in central Germany. Nuremberg was the home to important astronomers, like Regiomontanus and Johannes Schiner.'9 Joa- chim Camerarius, whom we have already seen as an enthusiastic proponent of astrology, taught at Nuremberg's Agidiengymnasium, in the last decade of the same century. Deeply engrossed in Greek and Roman classics, he accom- plished the first Greek edition of Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos in 1535, and searched for pratical instructions in Cicero's treatise on the various arts of divination. Melanchthon exalted Nuremberg, because of its multitude of famous scholars, as the second Athens.20 And if the publisher Johannes Petreius had not been so eager to learn and so intuitive, the Protestant passion for astrology would have crumbled.21

16 See, for example, Francesca Rochberg-Halton, "Elements of the Babylonian Contribu- tion to Hellenistic Astrology," Journal of the American Oriental Society 108 (1988), 51-62. John D. North, Horoscopes and History (London, 1986); David Pingree, "Historical Horo- scopes," Journal of American Oriental Society, 82 (1962), 487-502; S. J. Tester, A History of Western Astrology (Wolfeboro, N.H., 1987); Mary E. Bowden, The Scientific Revolution in Astrology: the English Reformers, 1558-1686 (Ph.D. thesis, Yale, 1974, Reprint, Ann Arbor, Mich., 1980); Patrick Curry, Prophecy and Power: Astrology in Early Modern England (Princeton, N.J., 1989); Ottavia Niccoli, Prophecy and People in Renaissance Italy, tr. Lydia G. Cochrane (Princeton, N.J., 1990). 17 An exception is Barbara Bauer, "Die Rolle des Hofastrologen und Hofmathematicus als fUirstlicher Berater," in Hbfischer Humanismus, ed. August Buck (Weinheim, 1989), 93-117. The practice of astrology in Italy is much better studied. See Grafton, Cardano's Kosmos. Also regarding France we have more studies at our disposal, see Pierre Brind'Amour, Nostradamus astrophile. Les astres et l'astrologie dans la vie et l'oeuvre de Nostradamus (Ottawa, 1993). 18 See note 12. 19 Franz Machilek, "Astronomie und Astrologie. Sternforschung und Sternglaube im Vers- t5ndnis von Johannes Regiomontanus und Benedikt Ellwanger," in Astronomie und Astrologie in derfriihen Neuzeit: Akten des interdisziplindren Symposions 21./22. April in Niirnberg, ed. Stephan Fiissel (Nuremberg, 1989-90); Ernst Zinner, Regiomontanus: His Life and Work (New York, 1990). 20 Melanchthon, Praefation to Sch6ner, Tabulae astronomicae (NiUrnberg 1936), lb. 21 See Noel M. Swerdlow, "Annals of Scientific Publishing: Johannes Petreius' Letter to Rheticus," Isis, 83 (1992), 270-74.

This content downloaded from 94.44.229.70 on Fri, 13 Mar 2020 15:35:00 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 562 Claudia Brosseder

In the 1540s, Petreius published many astrological works, predominantly from the Arabic-Hellenistic tradition. He printed Albubathar Alcasan's (known as Albubatris) Liber genethliacus sive de nativitatibus (1540). And because Petreius apparently ran his presses day and night, he published numerous astrological manuals in quick succession: from the manuscripts Regi- omontanus had left behind, he issued Vettius Valens's Anthologae liber I. He also published Cardano's Libelli duo (1543), Libelli quinque (1547), and the Tractatus astrologicus (1540) of Cardano's arch-enemy Luca Gaurico, to mention a few examples. Departing from this basis, the Wittenberg scholars learned to deal with the numerous astrological traditions with consummate ease. In their adapta- tion, they were considerably influenced by their Italian contemporaries, by Girolamo Cardano and Luca Gaurico. In the eyes of the Prague astrologer Thadaius Hayk, Cardano was "nostra aetate astrologus."22 And so it is not surprising that Rheticus visited the admired Cardano in Bologna, although Cardano embarrassed him rather than recognizing him as an equal.23 Ridi- culed by many scholars, Melanchthon negotiated Martin Luther's birth horoscope with the industrious bishop Luca Gaurico.24 Caspar Peucer avidly read Pietro Pomponazzi. In Wittenberg Philipp Melanchthon was the first to publicly analyze the effects of stellar constellations, displeasing his friend and colleague Martin Luther. In the years 1535-47 and 1544-45, he lectured about Ptolemy's Tet- rabiblos at the University of Wittenberg, and we know that Joachim Rheticus taught astrology in his mathematics classes.25 In the faculty of medicine, the students were already familiar with the drawing up and interpreting of horoscopes. At any rate, all the physicians trained at Wittenberg, who later established themselves as personal physicians at the lucrative courts close to Wittenberg, practiced astrology.26 In comparison with the public stirs about astrology in Wittenberg, the situation in the Catholic University of Ingolstadt was rather tranquil. Compa- rable public debates about astrology did not take place here.27 We are aware

22 Thaddius Hayk, Astrologica opuscula antiqua (Prague, 1564), p3v. 23 Grafton, Cardano's Kosmos, 173f. 24 Paola Zambelli, "Many Ends for the World. Luca Gaurico, Instigator of the Debate in Italy and Germany," in "Astrologi hallucinati." Stars and the End of the World in Luther's Time, ed. Paola Zambelli (Berlin, 1986), 239-63; and idem, "Da Giulio II a Paolo III. Come l'astrologo provocatore Luca Gaurico divenne vescovo," in La cittic dei segreti, ed. F. Troncare- lli (Milan, 1985), 299-323. 25 Karl Heinz Burmeister, Georg Joachim Rhetikus, 1514-1574: Eine Bio-Bibliographie, 3 vols. (Wiesbaden, 1967-68), I, 30. 26 See for instance the archival material in the Landesarchiv Oranienbaum, Gar NS Nr. 52, I. 27 Compare Christoph Schiner, Mathematik und Astronomie an der Universitdt Ingolstadt im 15. und 16. Jahrhundert (Berlin, 1994).

This content downloaded from 94.44.229.70 on Fri, 13 Mar 2020 15:35:00 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms The Writing in the Wittenberg Sky 563 of neither any public lectures nor specifically composed or commented manuals of astrology. Nonetheless, Petrus Apian and others also practiced astrology.

Abstract Principles

The public presence of astrology at the University of Wittenberg is evi- dent at first sight. A closer look is necessary in order to analyze the intellectual contexts and the traditional as well as contemporary intellectual backgrounds in which Melanchthon and his colleagues situated astrology. It was undoubtedly Melanchthon who established the basis. Thus, besides the already mentioned speech De dignitate astrologiae (1535), he published his Initia doctrinae physicae fourteen years later. In 1553, he commented Ptole- my's Tetrabiblos We can deduce from all three works into which tradition of natural philosophy Melanchthon wanted to insert his astrology. Indeed, natural philosophy was, besides the biblical legitimation, the cornerstone of any form of astrology. Melanchthon referred to a strictly naturalist interpretation of astrology, making Aristotle's works Physica, De generatione et corruptione, and De caelo as well as Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos the point of depart of his thinking. Planets and stellar constellations were endowed with occult qualities; their changes affected the sublunary primary qualities, instituting a proper balance. Melanchthon characterizes the planets rather prosaically: Mercury is of variable constitution, Venus is cold and wet, Mars hot and dry, Jupiter temperately wet, and Saturn cold and dry.28 In the cold north on the shore of the Elbe, we do not feel any of the splendid magic of Italian art, in which the planets, transformed into pagan gods, traversed the vaults of ecclesiastical or noble buildings in opulently decorated celestial chariots. The Wittenberg print products were never adorned by emblems suggestive of pa- ganism. No, Saturn was only an ethereal cluster and not the menacing god who devoured his offspring. With this naturalist soberness, Melanchthon wanted to dispel the suspicion that he communicated with demons.29 He was also far from flirting with the notion of destiny depicted by the ancient Roman author Manilius. Instead, he propagated an astrology oriented by natural philosophy, conceived of as the only way to interpret "fatum physicum," which should be studied more painstakingly than had hitherto been done. In his Initia doctrinae physicae he called for a precise observation of the changes in the sublunary world caused by motion of the stars. In a first step, the stellar

28 Melanchthon, Initia doctrinae physicae (1549), CR, XIII, 181-411. 29 This suspicion was uttered by such contemporary scholars as Flacius Illyricus, Thomas Birck, Thomas Erastus, Augustin Lercheimer, Wolfgang Musculus, Nikodemus Frischlin, Ni- colaus Winkler, etc. following the verdict of the church fathers. Compare Melanchthon, Initia, col. 338ff. and Brosseder, Im Bann der Sterne, 257-75.

This content downloaded from 94.44.229.70 on Fri, 13 Mar 2020 15:35:00 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 564 Claudia Brosseder causes of these changes should be examined. In a second step, the investigat- ing astrologers should apply physical causality, by means of horoscopes, to the temperaments of man and the analysis of his potentials. Considering the vehement critique of Thomas of Aquinas,30 Melanchthon and his colleagues emphasized over and over again that man's will is free. Through judicious astrology, they claimed, an astrologer can only discern a man's inclination, but not predict his actual actions.31 Any scholar with a basic knowledge of the history of astrology will be familiar with these slogans, in use since the time of Ptolemy. Is it possible that they were the reason for the attraction sixteenth-century German scholars felt toward astrology? And further inquiring, is this lofty theory all? No. In order to fathom the appeal of astrology in the sixteenth century we must distance ourselves from Melanchthon and peer into the astrologer's praxis. In our case this means that we must go into the archives. Only in a second step will it be possible to describe the peculiarities of the German intellectual contexts.

Astrology among German Politicians

On May 26, 1555, while the Margrave Johann of KUistrin armed for a tournament against Prince Elector August of Saxonia, he asked his astrologer Petrus Hosmann for advice.32 Hosmann, whom we know exclusively from archival material, was already aware of his master's desire and had drawn up two horoscopes for the day one for each combatant. According to the astrologer, the comparison of the horoscopes promised a more or less favorable outcome for the Margrave Johann of Kiistrin. The node of good fortune in Johann of Kiistrin's horoscope, he asserted, formed a 120 degree angle with Mercury, which signified the Margrave's victory over the Prince Elector. Nev- ertheless, the Margrave of Ktistrin would have to struggle because his fighting power was troubled by an unfortunate position of Mars in relation to Venus. Although we do not know anything about the outcome of the tournament, we owe to Petrus Hosmann further interesting analyses of horoscopes that are capable of revealing something about the astrological praxis in Protestant territories. Hosmann was, incidentally, a pupil of Caspar Peucer. With his analyses of horoscopes, Petrus Hosmann served a prince who wanted to assure the

30 Thomas von Aquin, Summa Theologiae, Secunda secundae, quaest. 95, art. 5 and idem, Summa Theologiae, pars prima, quaest. 115, art. 3,4. 31 For instance, Peucer, Commentarius (1593), 105: Melanchthon, Ethicae doctrinae ele- menta, et enarratio libri quinti ethicorum (s.l., 1550). 32 The writings of Petrus Hosmann, also called Petrus Cnemiander, are in the Staatsbiblio- thek zu Berlin PreuBischer Kulturbesitz, signature Ms. Boruss. quart. 374-83 and in the Geh- eimes Staatsarchiv PreuBischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin/Dahlem I. HA Rep. 9 Allg. Verwaltung: K.lit. m. I fasc. 1, 2, 4; BPHA Rep. 29 V 4, 5.

This content downloaded from 94.44.229.70 on Fri, 13 Mar 2020 15:35:00 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms The Writing in the Wittenberg Sky 565 good fortune of the stars in all circumstances of life. He wanted to find out about the weaknesses and fortunes of his political enemies, and furthermore, about the condition of his health. It seems that he did not need to assure marital luck through astrology. Most importantly, as a member of the imperial army against the French King Henry II, the Margrave of Kiistrin planned the stations of the 1552 campaign with the help of astrology.33 With the gaze at his horoscope, his reliable astrologer Hosmann had interpreted the constellations of the stars and the planets day by day. He qualified the constellation of each single day as either "fortunate" or "unfortunate." In the end, the astrologer followed in this a very vague yet easily comprehensible taxonomy. Partic- ularly for this reason, the Margrave planned his campaign with the help of astrological revelations, as we can infer from his marginal notes. When the Margrave was foretold an unlucky day he simply stayed in the encampment, without walking a single mile. Once we question the theoretical knowledge that Hosmann used in the interpretation of his horoscope we come upon Hosmann's assertion that he refers to Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos, but most importantly, to the treasure trove of his personal experiences. This treasure of experiences was the astrologer's arcanum and the secret of his success or failure. This held true for an insig- nificant astrologer like Hosmann as well as an intellectually outstanding thinker like Girolamo Cardano. Cardano had defended precisely this arcanum, speaking about the astrologer's warranted mystery-mongery.34 The Margrave of Kiistrin's painstaking obedience to astrological advice is outstanding among the Protestant princes in the near environs of Wittenberg. However, we must not underestimate how avidly sixteenth-century princes sought this advice. For a good reason, many Protestant princes and prince electors, from Joachim I of Brandenburg to the Ernestines, requested counsel- ing in questions of marriage, health, and politics. Obsessively commissioned analyses of enemies were the order of the day.35 An orthodox prince as pious as Johann Friedrich the Magnanimous of Saxony was only able to overcome his general aversion to astrology in the most desperate hour of his life. Being miserably incarcerated in Innsbruck, it occurred to him, as a last resort, to obtain the advice of an astrologer regarding his much-longed-for deliverance. Instantly, an astrologer trained in Wittenberg was ready to comply with the

33 Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin: MS. Boruss. Quart. 377; Petrus Hosmann, luditium Revolu- tionis Illustrissimi Principis ac Domini, Domini loannis Marchionis Brandenburgensis, Stetini et Pomeraniae et Ducis et Burggravii Noribergensis: ad annos Christi MDLII et MDLIII, fols. 20rff. 34 So in the unpublished manuscript that Anthony Grafton kindly put at my disposal: The Diamond and the Horoscope: Reference, Interpretation and Verification in Renaissance Astrology, Lecture in Wolfenbtittel, 1998. 35 See Brosseder, Im Bann der Sterne, 27-71.

This content downloaded from 94.44.229.70 on Fri, 13 Mar 2020 15:35:00 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 566 Claudia Brosseder princely request: Achilles Pirmin Gasser.36 Although the Augsburg physician had only to correct an already set-up diagnosis, the modest commission promised a lucrative side income. Fortunately, Gasser's prediction came true. The day of release soon arrived. In spite of this success, Johann Friedrich never again wanted to deal with astrologers. This would have burdened his orthodox Lutheran conscience all too much. Of course, the astrologers' expertise was also most wanted in the Catholic territories, and in other European countries.37 We know the names of the court astrologers of Maximilian I, Ferdinand I, Charles V, and Maximilian II. Their Babylonian and Roman predecessors are no less numerous. Ultimately, the preferences of the prince and his political entourage decided whether he ob- tained the political advice of an astrologer. Medical advice, however, was much more widespread.38

Hermeneutics of the Horoscopes

It seems that Hosmann was an honest astrologer who was not spurred to theoretical flights by the Margrave's demands. The handwritten horoscope analyses of Erasmus Reinhold, another, much more illustrious astrologer as- sociated with the intellectual aura of Wittenberg, provide a more detailed insight into the astrologer's arcanum. Reinhold was very conscientious and did not limit himself solely to informing the client that he had a disposition for a melancholic temperament, or to forecast that "this day is fortunate, that day is unfortunate." In his daily business, Reinhold ventured far into the astrologer's perilous terrain. He predicted the client's future in all circumstances of life. We have a horoscope by Reinhold that can be examined with regard to the way Reinhold arrived at his interpretive patterns.39 Which author- ities guided him? How did he proceed? Erasmus Reinhold foretells an anonymous man, born on December 5, 1528, a life as a traveling artist. He tells him that he will have two children and a disobedient wife. He can acquire wealth with fish ponds. In the third period of his life an imprisonment looms. He will marry twice. Presumably he will die from an extremely fierce fever. In order

36 See Karl Heinz Burmeister, Achilles Pirmin Gasser, 3 vols. (Wiesbaden, 1970-75), 3, 102-18. 37 Emmanuel Poulle, "Horoscopes princiers des XIVe et XVe siecle," Bulletin de la Sociiti Nationale des Antiquaires de France (1969), 63-77; Anne Soprani, Les rois et leurs astro- logues (Paris, 1987). 38 Compare Sachiko Kusukawa, "Aspectio divinorum operum: Melanchthon and astrology for Lutheran medics," in Medicine and the Reformation, eds. 0. Grell and A. Cunningham (London, 1993), 33-56. 39 Landesarchiv Oranienbaum, LAO GAR NS, Nr. 52 I, fols. 124-38: Erasmus Reinhold, Nativitdit von Erasmus Reinhold mit Kommentar auf einen Geboren; 1528 am 5. Dez. deutsch und lateinisch.

This content downloaded from 94.44.229.70 on Fri, 13 Mar 2020 15:35:00 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms The Writing in the Wittenberg Sky 567 to understand the generation of Reinhold's knowledge and to reconstruct the cognitive process in horoscope analysis on the basis of these laconic prophe- cies, we must compare his readings with the interpretive models provided by the most important contemporary horoscope manuals. Here we see that he used Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos, Firmicus Maternus's Astronomicon, and Johan- nes Sch6ner' s work De iudiciis nativitatum libri tres (1545). He did not follow any of these authors completely, but juggled them selectively and ecclecti- cally. The localization of the planets in a horoscope diagram was by no means the only problem that Reinhold, as a practicing astrologer in mid-sixteenth- century Nuremburg, faced. He could do this in the twinkling of an eye. How- ever, as an astrologer, he faced the challenge of sketching a trustworthy prediction about a person's possible course of life. He could not do much with the sparse interpretive models of the ancient authors, because their predictions were limited to the expressions "fortunate" and "unfortunate." In order to describe his client's journey through life as plausibly as possible, Reinhold had to resort to the treasure of his personal experiences. After all, the astrologer's fame or failure depended on sensible and successful analyses. In the elaboration of the astrological data grid, Reinhold did not start out with a detailed analysis of the meanings of the respective planets. First, he conceived of an interior image of the course of life, a man born in Nuremberg in 1528 could expect. Departing from a scopus of sorts, he projected a biography of a traveling artist for his client. And since Melanchthon had emphasized, besides propaedeutical function of the loci communes for the deciphering of any field of knowledge, the particular usefulness of certain loci in everyday life,40 Reinhold utilized the loci communes as a guiding principle of his elucidation of the client's future. In the analysis of a horoscope, this Protestant astrologer, like other of his colleagues, traced the scopus, that is, the social circumstances of the analyzed person, and the loci, that is, the specific interpretation of important events in his life, relating them to the scopus. In this the astrologer applied two of the most important principles of Melanchthon's and Flavius Illyricus's widely accepted Protestant hermeneutics.41 Without a doubt, Erasmus Reinhold regarded astrology as a hermeneutic art. The Augsburg scholar of Greek, a former student of Wittenberg, saw how God, with a stellar pencil, had painted in the skies a script that could be read and deciphered: "pinxit enim coelum mirabili quadam scriptura."42

40 Melanchthon, De locis communibus ratio, CR, XX, 695-98. 41 Kathy Eden, Hermeneutics and the Rhetorical Tradition. Chapters in Ancient Legacy and its Humanist Reception (New Haven, Conn., 1997). 42 Hieronymus Wolf, "Admonitio de astrologiae usu," in Brevis et perspicua ratio iudicandi genituras ex physicis causis extructa, ed. Leowitz von Leonitzeno (London, 1558), B3v.

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Caspar Peucer probably exploited most radically astrology's potential to generate useful knowledge for all aspects of life. His thoughts are most apt to illustrate the panopticon of intellectual contexts in which astrology was important.43 Among his numerous colleagues, Peucer propagated most com- prehensively the theoretical and practical hermeneutic power of astrology. Regarding astrology's functions, he was much more precise and audacious than Philipp Melanchthon. He wanted to employ it innovatively in historiography, and he wanted to provide the astrological method with a new fundament, in order to forestall any attacks. Finally, he wanted to propagate an empirical access to the investigation of nature through astrology.

Historical Certainties

Therefore, let us analyze more thoroughly Caspar Peucer's ideas and his decisive contribution to sixteenth-century German astrology. On March 13, 1572, Caspar Peucer once again handed Johann Carion's Chronicon Carionis, in the meantime grown into a thick folio, to the publisher Johannes Crato.44 How many times he had revised this thin historiographical work together with Philipp Melanchthon! After Melanchthon's death, Caspar Peucer assumed the position of rector of the University of Wittenberg himself. Provided with a fresh idea, he reworked, for the last time, the last part of the Chronicon Carionis. Apparently in the months before, Peucer had passion- ately read Plutrach's Vitae. In his biography of Romulus, Plutarch had lauded the astrologer Pomponius Atticus who wanted to detect the exact date of Rome's foundation, using Romulus' horoscope. And because Peucer liked the idea of the historiographical significance of horoscopes, he inserted the horoscope of Emperor Maximilian I into the fifth part of the Chronicon. Maximilian's horoscope had long since ceased to be secret in Peucer's times. Surpassing geographical and religious borders, astrologers exchanged horos- copical information about famous men. Particularly Erasmus Reinhold,45 Gir- olamo Cardano,46 and Luca Gaurico47 possessed impressive collections of

43 The work of Peucer that provides the best insight into his thinking is Commentarius de praecipuis divinationum generibus (Wittenberg, 1553). After 1553 he revised this text repeatedly. 44 Philipp Melanchthon, Caspar Peucer, Chronicon Carionis (Wittenberg, 1572), 717f; see also the German edition from 1578. 45 Universitatsbibliothek Leipzig, MS Stadtbibliothek, 935. 46 Girolamo Cardano, Libelli duo. Unus, de Supplemento Almanach. Alter, de restitutione temporum et motuum coelestium Item Geniturae 67. insignes casibus etfortuna, cum expositione (Nuremberg, 1543); idem., Libelli quinque, quorum duo priores, iam denuo sunt emendatu, duo sequentes iam primum in lucem editi, et quintus magna parte auctus est. ... V De exemplis centum geniturarum.... (Nuremberg, 1547). 47 Luca Gaurico, Tractatus astrologicus in quo agitur de praeteritis multorum hominum accidentibus per proprias eorum genituras ad unguem examinatis. Quorum exemplis consimili-

This content downloaded from 94.44.229.70 on Fri, 13 Mar 2020 15:35:00 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms The Writing in the Wittenberg Sky 569 horoscopes. In this they resemble modern information brokers. Cardano propagated exactly these collections as the cornerstone of his reform of astrology.48 Peucer presented the insertion of this sole horoscope into his commonly long-winded descriptions of the political vicissitudes of the Holy Roman Em- pire of the German nation as a historiographical innovation of the first cate- gory. On one hand, a horoscope, he claimed, was useful in understanding the res gestae of famous men; on the other, the historical facts made it possible to correct retrospectively the parameters of interpretation of the art of horoscopes. Caspar Peucer's idea was novel in historiography and it did not become modelic because most contemporary Italian astrologers following Album- ashar granted scholarly significance solely to planetary constellations. These great cycles, for instance, the conjunction of the planets Saturn and Jupiter, had been traced by Albumashar in his work De magnis coniunctionibus, and they were used by medieval and mostly Italian Renaissance scholars for the explanation of universal history. Pierre d'Ailly ventured the unorthodox opinion that a conjunction between Mercury and Jupiter marked the historic origin of Christianity.49 This notion displeased the church but still in the sixteenth century, Italian astrologers saw in the analysis of universally valid key events a proved method to make the changes in universal history tangible. Girolamo Cardano was the most prominent astrologer in the sixteenth century who tried to explain universal historical changes with respect to great conjunctions. In his commentary on Ptolemy he showed his great interest in the effectiveness of great conjunctions on the course of universal history.50 Most northern German Protestants, who were former students of the Uni- versity of Wittenberg, were skeptical toward this concept originating in Italy. Caspar Peucer, David Chytraeus, Paulus Eber, and Christoph Pezel among others denied that conjunctions had any hermeneutical value regarding universal history and, accordingly, did not apply them.5" They were troubled by a bus unusquisque de medio genethliacus vaticinari poterit de futuris, Quippe qui per varios casus artem experientiafecut, exemplo monstrante viam (Venice, 1552). 48 Grafton, Cardano's Kosmos, particularly 133-71. 49 Laura Ackermann Smoller, History, Prophecy, and the Stars. The Christian Astrology of Pierre d'Ailly, 1350-1420 (Princeton, N.J., 1994). 50 Girolamo Cardano, In Cl. Ptolemaeii de astrorum iudiciis, aut (ut vulgo appellant) quadripartitae constructionis lib. IIII, Commentaria, ab autore postremum castigata et lo- cupletata (Basel, 1578), e.g., 308. 51 Compare for example Paulus Eber, Calendarium historicum conscriptum a Paulo Ebero (Wittenberg, 1550), 18; Christoph Pezel, Notige und niitzliche Erinnerung / von zeit und ursachen /der allgemeinen und sonderbaren verenderung / in hohen und nidrigen Regimenten. Aus heiliger Gdttlicher Schrifft / und aus den Biichern gelerter / verniinfftiger Heiden / und aus teglicher erfarung weiser verstendiger Leut / griindlich und uffs kiirtzte zusammen gezogen (Wittenberg, 1571). The only exception is Cyprian Leowitz von Leonitzeno and his De magnis coniunctionibus, Solis defectibus, et Cometis in quarta Monarchia, cum eorundem effectuum

This content downloaded from 94.44.229.70 on Fri, 13 Mar 2020 15:35:00 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 570 Claudia Brosseder stellar historical determinism that would have canceled Divine Providence in the sense of Daniel's prophecy which, in their eyes, had not lost any of its relevance.52 Therefore, Protestant astrologers agreed only to explain singular political events with the help of exceptional celestial phenomena.53 As a re- sult, they collected observations of comets and eclipses and painstakingly related them to singular historical events.54 Hence, the historiographic function of astrology demonstrates yet again that Protestant astrologers acutely respected the right balance of theology and astrology. An astrologer could never rescind biblical truths and the understanding of Divine Providence as the guide of universal history. Astrology continued to have the claim of being the handmaid of theology.

The Struggle of Protestant Astrologers

This title necessarily involved the Protestant astrologers in a furious struggle with orthodox Lutheran and Catholic critics. The accusation was enslave- ment of the free will by astrology. Although popes had, as is well known, court astrologers, influential Catholic scholars like Thomas Cajetan55, Francis- cus Toletus,56 and Benito Pereira57 transformed the objection that astrology enslaves man's free will into a topos in the public debate. Like Marsilio Fic- ino, the Wittenberg scholars maintained the exact contrary.58 Yet despite efforts to justify their position with theory, we see how the Protestant astrologers struggle for words. In contrast with the logical coherence of a Pietro historica expositione. His ad calcem acc. Prognosticon ab anno Domini 1564 usque ad annum 1584 (Wittenberg, 1586). 52 Compare Philipp Melanchthon, Caspar Peucer, Chronicon Carionis (Wittenberg, 1572), preface; David Chytraeus, Chronologia Historiae Herodoti et Thukydidis. Cui adiecta est series temporum mundi at prima conditione usque ad hunc annum MDLXXXV deducta (Helm- stedt, 1585), 9; and Adalbert Klempt, Die Siikularisierung der universalhistorischen Auffassung. Zum Wandel des Geschichtsdenkens im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert (Gittingen, 1960). 53 See Johannes Garcaeus, Jun., Meteorologia (Wittenberg, 1568), 24-25v; Johannes Sch6ner, Conjectur oder abnemliche Auszlegung Joannis Schoners uber de Cometen so im August-Monat, des MDXXXI jars erschinen ist, zu ehren einem erbarn Rath, und gemainer Burgschafft der Stat Niirnberg auf3gangen (Nuremberg, 1531), blr. 54 See for example Georg Caesius, Catalogus, nunquam antea visus, omnium cometarum secundum seriem annorum a diluvio conspectorum, usq. ad hunc praesentem post Christi nati- vitatem 1579 annum, cum portentis seu eventuum annotationibus, et de Cometarum in singulis Zodiaci signis, effectibus ... (Nuremberg, 1589). 55Thomas Cajetan, Secunda Secundae Sancti Thomae, cum commentariis Cardinalis Caietani (Lyon, 1548). 56 Franciscus Toletus, Opera omnia philosophica (Cologne 1615/1616) IV: Commentaria in octo libros Aristotelis de physica auscultatione; V: Commentaria in libros Aristotelis de generatione et corruptione, reprint (Hildesheim, 1985). 57 Benito Pereira, Adversus fallaces et superstitiosas artes (Ingolstadt, 1591). 58 Peucer, Commentarius (1576), 84v.

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Pomponazzi,59 the Protestant astrologers, due to their theological reservations, incur contradictions. The problem is particularly obvious in Peucer's De essentia et ortu animae (1590).6o In this treatise, Peucer strives to thoroughly analyze the importance of the immaterial soul (anima rationalis) in the human body and its organic soul. In Thomistic manner, he clarifies how the stars influence the brain physically. Thus, the constellations have an impact on a person's modes of perception and his cognitive powers, and it becomes possible to determine his inclinations for a certain profession, for instance, with the help of astrology. Peucer, too, conceived of the anima rationalis as the seat of reason, as well as of the will. Although he grants will a higher dignity, he stumbles into insoluble contradictions as soon as he tries to prove the freedom of will within the anima rationalis. Peucer's small treatise terminates with an aporia because he has no explanation of how the anima rationalis, the seat of the human will, can be construed as internally connected with the organic soul while will must be seen as not influenced by the organic soul. In contrast with Pomponazzi, Peucer thinks that the immortal anima rationalis and mortal organic soul are, "mirando modo," connected. He pursues a naturalist proof of the freedom of will; yet at the decisive moment it is faith that guides his argumentation. From a philosophical point of view, then, the freedom of will is rather an assertion than a proof. While the Wittenberg scholars desperately tried to firmly anchor their astrology between theology and contemporary philosophy against the on- slaught of numerous critics, they also came up with other strategies in order to present astrology, despite its many inherent inconsistencies, as a useful science. The notion of "science," which we have been applying to astrology without further questioning, is here the focus of their efforts. After all, many contemporaries agreed with Pico della Mirandola that astrology was at most an art, but by no means a science.61 In order to prove the opposite (according to the Wittenberg scholars a feasible task) they wanted to secure astrology's methodic principles based on natural philosophy, empiricism, and logic. Again, we can observe how contemporary critics forced Caspar Peucer into an intensive discussion with contemporary authors. However, the Wittenberg scholars never admitted that it was impossible to endow astrological state- ments with epistemological certainty. The discrepancy between theoretical maxims and practice is, perhaps, an indirect testimony of the failure of the theoretical maxims. Let us start at the beginning.

59 See, for instance, Eckhard Kessler, "The intellective soul," The Cambridge History of Renaissance Philosophy, ed. Charles B. Schmitt et al. (Cambridge, 1988), 485-535. 60 Peucer, De essentia, natura et ortu animi hominis. Recensente Rodolpho Goclenio, Pro- fessore in Academia Marpurgensi Philosophico (Marburg, 1590). 61 Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Discorsi contro l'astrologia, ed. Eugenio Garin (Flor- ence, 952). See also, for example, Thomas Erastus, Astrologia confutata (Schleusingen, 1557).

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Astrology as a Science of Universal Consent

With great excitement, Caspar Peucer wrote in the 1570s that he had succeeded in observing the radiation of the planet Venus and of the fixed star Sirius with the help of a small pointer on the floor of his home.62 He had been able to calculate their refraction and concluded from the results that earth is constantly exposed to the radiation of even the weakest fixed stars, which effects constant changes in the sublunary nature. Peucer was impressed by the optical laws of refraction and by John Dee's Propaideumata aphoristica (1558), although he did not adapt his program of a reform of astrology.63 The so-called natural astrology was not the main target of the critics as long as it supported its claims with the method of optics. No, they reproached the astrologers for providing randomly correct and incorrect information.64 Peucer, too, was aware of this flaw of astrological knowledge; hence, with great theoretical effort, he strove to give it a basis in natural philosophy in order to prove its universal validity. Particularly with the help of astrology he wanted to find out how to explain extraordinary natural phenomena. With this interest he closely followed the conceptions of Pietro Pomponazzi, whose work he had in hand in manuscript form.65 Like Pomponazzi, Peucer wanted to analyze occult powers.66 Peucer thought that a great wealth of experience was necessary to achieve this aim, a wealth of experience accurate science had yet to generate. Therefore, he wanted to explore the qualitates occultae empirically, too. On the other hand, for Peucer, experience alone was not a sufficient scientific tool. An astrologer, however carefully he worked, even if he filled book after book with singular astrological observations, would never write down a scientifically valid statement and prophecy. In this, Peucer agreed with Aristotle. His repeatedly revised Commentarius de praecipuis divinationum

62 Peucer, Commentarius (1576), 398v. 63 From the 1560s edition onward Peucer attributed a new role to the analysis of light within his cosmology and we can find certain similarities between Peucer's and Dee's argumentation about the role of light within natural philosophy. Compare, e.g., Peucer, Comment- arius, 1576, 399rv. Peucer probably knew John Dees work, Propaideumata aphoristica, de praestantioribus quibusdam naturae virtutibus (London, 1558) in the edition of Leowitz von Leonitzeno, Brevis et perspicua ratio iudicandi genituras (London, 1558). In one hundred aphorisms, Dee presents the priniciples of his reform of astrology, entirely based on the optical measuring of the intensity of radiation, combining these with Alkindi's ideas. 64 The list of those who refused to accept astrology as a science is long. See Juan Luis Vives, Pico della Mirandola and even Marsilio Ficino. See, e.g., Marsilio Ficino, "Disputatio contra iudicium astrologorum (1477)," in Supplementum Ficinianum, ed. O. Kristeller 2 (1937), 11-76. 65 I1 am referring to Pietro Pomponazzi, De naturalium effectuum causis sive de incantationibus (reprint of the 1567 Basel edition; Hildesheim, 1970). Compare also Giancarlo Zanier, Ricerche sulla diffusione e fortuna del "de incantationibus" di Pomponazzi (Florence, 1975), p. 86. 66 Peucer, Commentarius, 1576, 360vff. See Brosseder, Im Bann der Sterne, 165-231.

This content downloaded from 94.44.229.70 on Fri, 13 Mar 2020 15:35:00 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Slhe Writing in the Wittenberg Sky /53 generibus (1553ff) testifies that he was very interested in securing the produc- tion of scientific knowledge through Aristotelian logic.67 In contrast with unorthodox magicians like Agrippa von Nettesheim, Peucer wants to frame all results of astrology with Aristotelian logical deduction. First, Peucer under- stands the celestial signs as "indices," that is, as natural signs of something concealed. Later he ascribes to them the status of tekmiria physica, that is, of signs with a strictly referential nature.68 With this definition, Peucer wanted to indicate that the analysis of signs as tekmeria physica reliably facilitated an insight into the connection between stellar causes and terrestial effects. At odds with all contemporary discussions, particularly with the discussion in Padua about the ideal method of natural philosophy, Peucer inserted these tekmeria into Aristotelian quia and propter quid deduction, wanting to safe- guard the scientific nature of astrology in a strictly Aristotelian understanding.69 He considered both methods of proof as valid in astrology. Although this can barely be summed up, Peucer's intention becomes clear: he wants to prove that astrology can be an exact science according to Aristotelian stan- dards. However, notwithstanding the importance of the reference to Aristotle's logic, the realization of this methodic and theoretical maxim in practice is not very convincing. We do not know of a single horoscope analysis by Peucer or his pupils in which an astrologer ever formulated his findings in the form of a logical deduction, deriving new insights into occult qualities. As in the case of horoscope analysis, we see how much theoretical pretensions and astrological praxis drift apart. Ultimately, the astrologer practiced on the basis of the arcanum of his personal experiences. None of Peucer's followers gathered data on nature either. Nonetheless, with his wide-ranging naturalist and logical apol- ogy, Peucer seems to have satisfied his own intention to establish a novel natural science. He hardly convinced his critics. It is most remarkable that Peucer's naturalist justification of astrology was inspired by ideas of John Dee70 and Pomponazzi, escaping the spell of the Paedagogicus Germanicus. The way he juggled various contemporary theories is astounding.

The Reorganization of the Canon of Divinatory Arts

After Peucer had brooded over the question of which method was ade- quate for astrology, he did not run out of ideas. He even reorganized the canon

67 For a closer analysis of this complex argumentation see the detailed study in Brosseder, Im Bann der Sterne, 202-31. 68 Compare Peucer's argumentation cited according to Rudolf Goclenius, Lexicon Philo- sophicum quo tanquam clave philosophiae fores aperiuntur (Frankfurt, 1613, reprint, Hildes- heim, 1964), 1049. 69 See Brosseder, Im Bann der Stem, 213-31. 70 See Brosseder, Im Bann der Sterne, 183-202.

This content downloaded from 94.44.229.70 on Fri, 13 Mar 2020 15:35:00 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 574 Claudia Brosseder of divinatory arts in order to salvage astrology's dignity. One day, Caspar Peucer and the professor of Hebrew Paul Eber studied Johannes ab Indagine's manual on chiromancy.71 Like Joachim Camerarius had been earlier, Peucer und Eber were enthusiastic about the art of chiromancy. In Peucer's eyes, chiromancy was a legitimate art of divination because it had its principles in astrology.72 The Wittenberg astrologers assessed physiognomy and dream interpretation equally positively. In this regard, Peucer is very careful to discern the bad and the good divinatory arts, meticulously reading the first book of Cicero's De divinatione which, in the Renaissance, supplied supporters and critics alike with the decisive arguments. Peucer is, together with Quintus, a character from the first book of De divinatione, a proponent of natural divination, but it irritates Peucer that Quintus does not include astrology. Further- more, he was discontented with the fact that the Ciceronian skeptic Markus classified astrology as an artificial divinatory art. Peucer argued against both of Cicero's orators and claimed, with Cardano,73 the opposite. Astrology is, according to Peucer, a natural art, based on the principle of Aristotelian natural philosophy. The only divinatory arts that conformed with Peucer's criteria for astrology were physiognomy and chiromancy.74 In short: the other divinatory arts, like geomancy, hydromancy, or pyromancy, lacked the naturalist foundations Peucer stipulated.75

Astrology as a Universal Hermeneutics

Reviewing the efforts of the sixteenth-century Wittenberg astrologers, Philipp Melanchthon, Caspar Peucer, and Erasmus Reinhold among others, it is apparent that, in their eyes, astrology was a science with hermeneutic potential in multiple spheres of life. They strove to praise astrology as a hermeneutic art that yielded knowledge of universal range, for the study of nature as well as for the history and fate of mankind and of human individuals in the past and future. They thought that all these aspects of reality could be interpreted with the help of astrology. Its finding were considered as even universally useful. Full of expectations, the astrologer Victorin Strigel from Erfurt declared the comprehensive effectiveness of astrology. He claimed that astrology was important for all aspects of life.76 Obviously, astrology was for the

71 Johannes ab Indagine, Chiromantia (Strasbourg, 1534). See the copy of this book in the Herzog-August-Bibliothek, Wolfenbittel: 117. Quodl. 2. 72 See, for example, Peucer, Commentarius (1576), 355r-362r. 73 Girolamo Cardano, De subtilitate: libri XXI. Nunc demum recogniti atque perfecti (Basel, 1554), book 16. 74 Regarding the idea of natural divination (Peucer calls it physica divinatio), see Peucer, Commentarius (1576), 13r, 17r. 75 Brosseder, Im Bann der Sterne, 252ff. 76 Victor Strigel, Epitome doctrinae de primo motu aliquot demonstrationibus illustrata (Leipzig, [1563]), A2rv.

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Wittenberg scholars not a science like any other science. Together with theology, it was the science because it made it possible to spell out Divine Provi- dence. Of course, astrology's claim to be a universal hermeneutics touched on the domain of theology. Astrology was in their eyes the key to connect the Book of Nature with the Book of Biblical Revelations. Its hermeneutics could represent this unity. This pretension to advance a science that could be used as a universal hermeneutics distinguished Wittenberg astrology from contemporary varieties of astrology, in Germany and also in Catholic Italy. Neither the famous Car- dano nor Nostradamus77 had a similar view of astrology. The relation between astrology and theology was of no concern for Cardano. He emphasized material gained from experience. Marsilio Ficino's astrology, based on neoplaton- ism, remained alien to the Wittenberg scholars.'" Outside of Germany, nobody claimed that astrology had universal hermeneutic validity, not even outside the workshops of the Protestant astrologers who were so fascinated by astrology. Hope and confidence nurtured their publications. For this, they mastered, in their opinion, the multitude of inherent problems of the vast astrological tradition. Already Cardano had confessed: "terrebat me rei difficultas. "79 Full of energy, the Wittenberg scholars wrote in order to protect themselves from their critics. They wanted to achieve a "marriage" between Divine Providence and the most advanced science within astrology. They considered everybody who was not capable of recognizing this marriage a one-eyed cylops.80 In the late seventeenth century Protestant astrology quickly became obso- lete, and, after the death of the most important of Wittenberg's astrologers, even at the Leucorea, once a hotbed of astrology, the winds had changed. The horoscope manuals of the late seventeenth century take on a different shape. Aegidius Strauch, a humble professor of mathematics, limits himself simply to presenting technical details. The complicated theoretical legitimations of Peucer and others were tacitly dropped.81 While we can see in Wittenberg a self-imposed restraint of astrology, the critical voices of European scholars, who polemicized against astrology, become more and more audible.82 It was a slow, very complex, by no means

77 Brind'Amour, Nostradamus astrophile. 78 There are no hints in the books of the Wittenberg scholars showing that they adapted to Ficino's astrology. Compare Marsilio Ficino, Three Books on Life, ed. and tr. Carol V. Kaske and John R. Clark (Binghamton, 1989). 79Girolamo Cardano, "Encomium Astrologiae," idem, Libelli quinque (Nuremberg, 1547), Aiiir. 80 Melanchthon, Initia, 187f. 81 Aegidius Strauch, Aphorismi astrologici (Wittenberg, 1664). 82 There is no comprehensive study of this complex process. See, for instance, George MacDonald Ross, "Okkulte Strimungen," in Die Philosophie des 17. Jahrhunderts. Vol. 1,1: Allgemeine Themen. Iberische Halbinsel, Italien, ed. Jean-Pierre Schobinger (Basel, 1998),

This content downloaded from 94.44.229.70 on Fri, 13 Mar 2020 15:35:00 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 576 Claudia Brosseder one-dimensional process in which Aristotelian natural philosophy, the geo- centric vision of the cosmos and Galenic humoral pathology lost their importance as the cornerstones of an astrology that understood itself as natural philosophy. When these theoretical principles finally fell victim to the new, triumphant cosmological, medical, and scientific ideas of Galileo Galilei, Isaac Newton, and others, astrology was reduced, very gradually, to a mere art of horoscopes. Little by little, it was banned from the canon of scholarship, and its importance in society changed. As Adorno keenly observed in 1950, it continues to exert its fascination in spheres of society far from academia.83 This, however, is a different history of astrology. It has nothing in common with the Wittenberg scholars' optimistic interpretation of the stars.

University of Munich.

196-224; Simon Schaffer, "Newton's Comets and the Transformation of Astrology," in As- trology, Science and Society. Historical Essays, ed. Patrick Curry (Woodbridge, 1987), 219-43. 83 Theodor W. Adorno, "The Stars Down to Earth," in Jahrbuch fir Amerikastudien 2 (1957) = Soziologische Schriften, ed. S. Buck-Morss and R. Tiedemann, vol. II, 2 (Frankfurt, 1975), 11-120.

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