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Astrology in Early Modern Scotland ca. 1560-1726 Jane Ridder-Patrick PhD University of Edinburgh 2012 DECLARATION I declare that this thesis has been composed by me and that the work is my own. It has not been submitted for any other degree or professional qualification, nor has it been published in any form. NB: Some of the material in chapters three, four and six expands work done towards the degree of MSc in History (University of Edinburgh, 2007). All of the work, however, is substantially different from any submitted towards that degree. The relevant parts of dictate manuscripts EUL, MS.3101.6, EUL, Dc.5.115 and EUL La.III.724 used in this thesis were transcribed by Kirsty Stewart. All other transcriptions are my own, as are all of the Latin translations, unless otherwise specified. i ABSTRACT Over the last generation scholars have demonstrated the fundamental importance of astrology in the early modern European worldview. While detailed studies have been undertaken of England and many areas of continental Europe, the Scottish experience has been almost completely overlooked. This thesis seeks to address that gap in the literature and recover a lost dimension of early modern Scottish intellectual life, one that was central and influential for a considerable period of time. The thesis examines the place of, and perceptions about, astrology in Scotland ca. 1560-1726. It demonstrates that despite well-worn arguments against it on theological, theoretical, moral-psychological and effectiveness grounds, astrology was largely accepted throughout all sectors of Scottish society until at least the final quarter of the seventeenth century. Opportunities to learn about it were widespread after the Reformation. As evidenced by student notebooks, it was taught in all of the universities, whose library contents reflect the subject's importance, and it was readily available to a large proportion of the populace through almanacs and other popular literature. Its uses, too, were widespread and various. Medical practitioners, both qualified and non-qualified, drew on it as a diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic guide and natural philosophers used it to ponder the phenomena and cycles of nature and human chronology. For those involved in negotiating the environment it was an aid to the timing of activities, while individuals interested in predicting future events and conditions could attempt to do so using the rather more suspect judicial astrology. By the last two decades of the seventeenth century, however, astrology was losing credibility among the educated, and the thesis examines and evaluates the factors that contributed to this, which include the ousting of scholasticism from academia by new approaches to understanding the natural world, the increasingly tainted image of the astrologer and the difficulty, if not impossibility, of subjecting astrology to the new experimental methods of the virtuosi. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements iv List of Figures and Tables v Abbreviations vi Introduction 1 Part One: Sources of Learning 1. Astrology in the Scottish Universities 24 2. Astrology Books in the University Libraries 72 3. Scottish Almanacs 99 Part Two: Astrology Criticised and Defended 4. The Debate about Astrology 137 Part Three: The Practice of Astrology 5. Astrology in Medicine 171 6. Judicial Astrology 217 7. Astrology and Natural Knowledge 248 Conclusion 283 Bibliography 293 Appendix: List of extant Scottish Almanacs to 1726 324 iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am grateful to Professor Margaret Donaldson for her encouragement and support which helped me embark on this PhD in the first place. I have been fortunate in the highest degree in my supervisors, Dr Thomas Ahnert and Dr Adam Fox, to whom I owe an incalculable debt of thanks. By any measure they have been exemplary. Both of them are fine scholars and, quite simply, fine human beings and it has been a privilege to work with and learn from them. Without their guidance, patience and encouragement this thesis could never have evolved to the extent that it has. I gratefully acknowledge a generous grant from the Urania Trust which enabled the copying of a great deal of essential archival material, and my especial thanks go to one of its trustees, Christeen Skinner, for suggesting this as a source of funding. I should like to thank Kirsty Stewart for her magnificent transcription work on some challenging transcriptions, the librarians at Edinburgh University Special Collections for their endless patience and help, and Caroline Gerard for her generous assistance with genealogical questions. Through our shared interest in the history of astrology, Dr Monica Azzolini has been a much-appreciated source of inspiration and friendship over the last few years. I am grateful too to Dr Adam Budd both for his many kindnesses and his classes on methodology, and to Richard Kane and Karen Howie for their help so cheerfully given on so many occasions. The opportunity to share the triumphs and sorrows of fellow students and the companionship, support and help received have been greatly appreciated. Special thanks go to Harriet Connolly, Alison Duncan, Matthew Dziennik, Eisa Esfajari, Katherine Nicolai, Tawny Paul, Brian Wallace and, above all, to Hisashi Kuboyama. This thesis is dedicated to my family, Alleyne, Max, Susan, Rebecca, Michael and Ethan. The patience and encouragement of the adults with what must have seemed to them like an endless labour was crucial to its completion. iv LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Table 1. List of student notebooks with astrological content 37 Table 2. Location of astrology found in the natural philosophy syllabus 38 Table 3. Astrological significators taught 42 Table 4. Signs, qualities and temperaments 42 Figure 1. Table of planetary dignities and detriments, Edinburgh, 1672 45 Figure 2. Astrological aspects, St Salvator's College, St Andrews, 1661 47 Figure 3. Figure of the twelve houses, St Salvator's College, St Andrews 1661 48 Table 5. Astrological houses, King's College, Aberdeen, 1662-1663 49 Table 6. Astrological houses, King's College, Aberdeen, 1671-1672 49-50 Figure 4. The twelve houses, King's College, Aberdeen 1672 50 Table 7. Student notebooks, 1682-1701 59 Table 8. Book with astrological content bought by EUL, 1653-1702 84-85 v ABBREVIATIONS AUL Aberdeen University Library CCO Christ Church College, Oxford DNB Dictionary of National Biography EUL Edinburgh University Library GUA Glasgow University Archives GUL Glasgow University Library NLS National Library of Scotland NRS National Records of Scotland Oxford DNB Oxford Dictionary of National Biography RCPE Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh RCPSG Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow RCSE Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh SAUL St Andrews University Library vi INTRODUCTION In the dark skies of the early modern period, free from present-day light pollution, the majesty of the celestial bodies and the stark contrast between day and night would have provoked an almost visceral response to the heavens, especially in the relatively smoke-free country areas. The rhythms of daily, and seasonal, life were bound up with a relationship with the sky, which was looked to as a source of causation, meaning and guidance. Astrology was an important means of attempting to understand the sky's significance 1 and 'probably the most ambitious attempt ever made to reduce the baffling diversity of human affairs to some sort of intelligible order'. 2 While by no means everyone used it, or was necessarily interested, there was scarcely an aspect of contemporary life that astrology did not touch, and all sectors of society had access or recourse to it, in some form or another, from the elite and highly educated to the humblest of farm labourers. Its imagery permeated literature 3 and practical activities, and speculative matters were conducted according to its directives. 4 Those engaged in farming, gardening, arboriculture and animal husbandry looked to it to find the best times for sowing and for reaping, for pruning, for gelding, for breeding and for shearing. As William Ramesay wrote 1 The literature on astrology is extensive and references will be made to specialised areas of this in the chapters that follow. Two accounts of astrology in early modern England remain unsurpassed: Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic (Harmondsworth, 1973), pp. 336–458; Bernard Capp, Astrology and the Popular Press: English Almanacs 1500-1800 (London, 1979). 2 Thomas, Religion , p. 340. 3 J. Eade, The Forgotten Sky: A Guide to Astrology in English Literature (Oxford, 1984). 4 For the history of astrology, see Nicholas Campion, A History of Western Astrology , 2 vols. (London, 2009), II ; J. D. North, Horoscopes and History (London, 1986); Horoscopes and Public Spheres: Essays on the History of Astrology , ed. by Gü nther Oestmann, Darrel K. Rutkin and K. von Stuckrad (Berlin, 2005); Jim Tester, A History of Western Astrology (Woodbridge, 1987); M. Williams, Fiery Shapes Celestial Portents and Astrology in Ireland and Wales, 700-1700 (Oxford, 2010); Theodore Wedel, The Medieval Attitude Toward Astrology, Particularly in England (New Haven, 1920).