DOCSLIB.ORG

Francesco MGG Final

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Francesco MGG Final Victor Coelho, "Francesco da Milano," in Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart. Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1999-), English translation Francesco Canova da Milano (Francesco training other than Gaurico’s unverified claim Milanese; Francesco da Parigi; Monzino) that he studied with Giovanni Angelo Born Monza, 18 August 1497, died 2 January Testagrossa, the lute teacher to Isabella 1543. “Il Divino,” as he was known during his d’Este. lifetime—a title otherwise bestowed only The bulk of Francesco’s professional upon Michelangelo—Francesco da Milano life was spent in Rome, where he served, with was the most important and influential various interruptions, from 1514 to 1539 in lutenist of the Italian Renaissance. He the successive papal households of Leo X flourished during a period when most Italian Medici, Adrian VI Dedal , Clement VII courts were dominated by oltremontani, and can Medici, and Paul III Farnese. Francesco began thus be considered as the first Italian-born his papal service early on in Leo’s pontificate, musician of the Renaissance to achieve and remained as one of the pope’s private international fame. His compositions musicians (sometimes listed along with his circulated widely and with regularity in father) until the end of the papacy in 1521. Europe, through single-author prints, large Continuing his employment into the ill-fated retrospective anthologies, and manuscripts; pontificate of Clement VII, Francesco they continue to appear in English and performed before such figures as Castiglione Continental sources until the middle of the and Giovio in 1524, and Isabella d’Este in seventeenth century, his works achieving a 1526. He returned to Milan shortly before the “classic” status at a time when dramatic Sack of Rome, becoming a canon in S. changes in musical style and modifications to Nazaro Maggiore in 1528. A period of the instrument itself rendered most of the residence in Piacenza is intimated in a verse sixteenth-century lute repertory obsolete. by the Florentine poet Francesco Berni from 1528, in which the poet calls on Francesco to Life and Patronage: The earliest information leave Piacenza and join his forlorn admirers in about Francesco’s life comes from the Venice. Neither this trip nor Fétis’s claim that horoscopes prepared by Girolamo Cardano Francesco served as organist at the Duomo of (1543) and Luca Gaurico (1552), which laid Milan around 1530 has been confirmed (see the groundwork for the pioneering studies by Slim, 1964). A sojourn in Paris is also a Slim (1964, 1965) and the more recent possibility given the attribution of some of his archival work by Pavan (1991, 1995, 1997). works in the Siena Lute Book (NL - DHgm 28 Francesco was born into a musical family in B 39) to a “Francesco da Parigi,” and the fact Monza, one of three sons fathered by that Francesco’s first published work (a Benedetto Canova (the name of Francesco’s corrupt reading of his Fantasia 24) appeared mother is not known), a clever entrepreneur in a Parisian source licensed by the royal who invested in property, founded a company court, Attaingnant’s Tres breve et familiere that produced gold and silver thread, and introduction of 1529. capitalized on his son’s distinguished musical Upon his return to Rome around career to further his family’s economic and 1531, Francesco entered the service first of social status (Pavan, 1994). No details have Cardinal Ippolito de’Medici, and after 1534, yet emerged about Francesco’s musical that of Pope Paul III, where his duties 2 Victor Coelho, "Francesco da Milano," in Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart. Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1999-), English translation included teaching lute to the pope’s grandson Maria della Scala in Milan, a church long since Ottavio Farnese. Francesco’s most famous replaced by the famous opera house of the student, however, was Perino Fiorentino degli same name. Many attempts have been made Organi (1523-52), a Florentine lute virtuoso in to identify Francesco in sixteenth-century his own right who became a member of Paul paintings of lutenists. But it is a seventeenth- III’s household at the age of thirteen and century portrait copy in the Biblioteca whose works were later published alongside Ambrosiana in Milan, portraying a bearded his teacher’s. In 1536, three books devoted “Francesco del liuto” with a music book in exclusively to Francesco’s compositions were front of him open to a page from Arcadelt’s published in Naples and Venice, by Sultzbach madrigal Quand’io penso al martire (a work that and Marcolini, respectively, as well as an was, in fact, intabulated by Francesco), that is important Milanese lute anthology by recognized as the only true likeness of the Casteliono that contained five of Francesco’s lutenist. pieces along with selections by Albert de Rippe, Marco dall’Aquila, and Pietro Paolo Sources, Style, and Reputation: Of the Borrono. A fifth book from that year (Brown, approximately 125 compositions that are 154?/4) that is devoid of both a publisher’s assumed to be by Francesco, less than half of name and date, is identical to the Marcolini them were published during his lifetime, and volume and predates it; Pavan’s elaborate many new and unique works attributed to him hypothesis about its political background is continued to appear almost fifty years after his inconclusive; see Pavan, 2000.) Some of death. Not surprisingly, the Francesco Francesco’s travels as a member of the papal catalogue as it stands now reveals a stylistic musica during this second Roman sojourn have and technical inconsistency that cries out for been documented: in 1533 he accompanied serious analytical scrutiny, a topic that Clement VII to Bologna for his meeting with Francesco scholars have shown a puzzling Charles V; and in 1538 Francesco was the reluctance to broach. It is fairly clear that only musician brought to Nice by Paul III for many attributions to Francesco cannot be his meeting with Charles V and Francis I. accepted uncritically, and in seeking to Thus, Francesco’s music was requested at ascertain what exactly Francesco did and did functions in which diplomatic honor was at not write, recent studies have confronted this stake, suggesting a connection among papal issue from a range of musicological taste, ceremony, and compositional style (see perspectives, including 1) how the economics Coelho, 2002). In 1538 Francesco appears as and occasional unscrupulousness of print one of the “gentilhomini e camerieri” of culture might influence attribution; 2) how the Cardinal Alessandro Farnese (Dorez, 1932), veracity of manuscript attributions can be and he is also documented back in Milan judged on stylistic grounds; and 3) through an following his marriage to the noble Milanese examination of the broad patterns of Chiara Tizzoni in the same year. We know reception and revival that shaped Francesco’s little either of Francesco’s activities after this posthumous reputation (see Coelho, 1996). time, or of the cause and place of his death. A Francesco’s publications of 1536 show tombstone was erected by his father at Santa a dramatic evolution from the more rhapsodic 3 Victor Coelho, "Francesco da Milano," in Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart. Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1999-), English translation and formulaic styles contained in the Petrucci generation prior to Francesco, but it reflects a lute books of 1507-1508, revealing instead a composer who was probably in Rome around new contrapuntal artistry that is derived from 1495—just before Francesco’s birth—and his adaptation of polyphonic vocal techniques whose music remained in the chapel to the lute. It is logical to assume that the repertory, reflecting the antiquarian taste of music in these prints (and possibly later ones, the papal chapel that persists through the first too) had their compositional origins during half of the sixteenth century. As for the more the composer’s service to the Medici popes in numerous secular settings, Francesco’s prefer- the 1510s, ‘20s and ‘30s, and, by extension, ence for the French chanson as a model for fundamentally conceived within, and intabulation provides the clearest example of informed by, the literary and humanistic the noble Florentine taste that was adopted in culture around Leo X and Clement VII (see Rome during Medici papacies (see Coelho, Coelho, 2005). His fantasias and ricercars 2002). Many of these chansons were copied draw on traditional lute idioms, to be sure, but into Florentine manuscripts during this his main influences are the formal, motivic, period, or they represent composers whose and contrapuntal features of the frottola (as works were known by the Medici, such as seen in Ricercar 2—numberings refer to Ness, Févin and, of course, Richafort, whose music 1970), motet (Fantasia 21), French chanson was sung in the papal court and who received (Ricercar 3, 16), and the new Italian madrigal a benefice from Pope Leo X in 1516. (Ricercar 6), which Francesco amalgamated Due to the exclusive ten-year privilege into a broad-based instrumental style. Some granted to Marcolini to print lute tablatures in works even contain programmatic elements 1536, which he did not exercise again prior to similar to the Parisian chanson—the climax of its expiration, the publication of Francesco’s trumpet calls at the end of Fantasia 1, for lute music did not resume until 1546, three example. Many if not most of his fantasias are years after the composer’s death. The based on subjects borrowed from vocal music Venetian prints of that year introduce mostly (see Mengozzi, 1990), similar to the way a new intabulations, all of them chansons, based Bembo text was indebted to Petrarch. One on models by Garnier, Sermisy, Certon, can say that Francesco helped develop the Layolle, Gombert and Janequin, including a fantasia from a purely preludial genre of brilliant arrangement of the latter’s famous music to an artistic creation that is informed by Chant des oyseaux.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Microfilms International 300 N
    INFORMATION TO USERS This reproduction was made from a copy of a document sent to us for microfilming. While the most advanced technology has been used to photograph and reproduce this document, the quality of the reproduction is heavily dependent upon the quality of the material submitted. The following explanation of techniques is provided to help clarify markings or notations which may appear on this reproduction. 1.The sign or “target” for pages apparently lacking from the document photographed is “Missing Page(s)” . If it was possible to obtain the missing page(s) or section, they are spliced into the film along with adjacent pages. This may have necessitated cutting through an image and duplicating adjacent pages to assure complete continuity. 2. When an image on the film is obliterated with a round black mark, it is an indication of either blurred copy because of movement during exposure, duplicate copy, or copyrighted materials that should not have been filmed. For blurred pages, a good image of the page can be found in the adjacent frame. If copyrighted materials were deleted, a target note will appear listing the pages in the adjacent frame. 3. When a map, drawing or chart, etc., is part of the material being photographed, a definite method of “sectioning” the material has been followed. It is customary to begin filming at the upper left hand corner of a large sheet and to continue from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. If necessary, sectioning is continued again—beginning below the first row and continuing on until complete.
    [Show full text]
  • Galileo's Misstatements About Copernicus Author(S): Edward Rosen Source: Isis, Vol
    The History of Science Society Galileo's Misstatements about Copernicus Author(s): Edward Rosen Source: Isis, Vol. 49, No. 3 (Sep., 1958), pp. 319-330 Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of The History of Science Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/226939 Accessed: 13/04/2010 16:29 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ucpress. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. The University of Chicago Press and The History of Science Society are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Isis. http://www.jstor.org Galileo's Misstatementsabout Copernicus By Edward Rosen * A RECENT English translation 1 of selections from the writings of Galileo ( (564-I642) will doubtless bring to the attention of many readers the statements about Copernicus (I473-I543) in the great Italian scientist's Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina.
    [Show full text]
  • Visual Culture: Prints, Pamphlets and the Conjunction of 1524
    University of Alberta Visual Culture: Prints, Pamphlets and the Conjunction of 1524 A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial Mfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts Histoxy of Art and Design Department of Art and Design Edmonton, Alberta Fall1997 National Library Bibliothèque nationale 1*1 of Canada du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographie Services services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395. nie Wellington ümwa ON K1A ON4 OaawaON KlAON4 canada Canada The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence ailowing the exclusive permettant à la National Library of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distn'bute or seli reproduire, prêter' disûibuer ou copies of this thesis in microform, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la foxme de microfiche/film, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts fiom it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. Canada A bstract In 1496, two Geman astrologers, Johannes Stoeffler and Jacob Pflaum, published their prediction of a grand conjunction, expected for 1524. Early in the sixteenth century, this prediction became the source of a controversy that gripped the popular imagination. Rumors surrounding the conjunction brought speculation of a second universal deluge, and a fear that the Apocalypse was at hand Astrologers and theologians politicized the issue in small, illustrated pamphlets, reflecting religious tensions between Protestant and Catholic factions.
    [Show full text]
  • Giambattista Della Porta and the Roman Inquisition : Censorship and the Definition of Nature's Limits in Sixteenth-Century Italy
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by White Rose Research Online This is an author produced version of Giambattista Della Porta and the Roman Inquisition : Censorship and the Definition of Nature's Limits in Sixteenth-Century Italy. White Rose Research Online URL for this paper: http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/123800/ Article: Tarrant, Neil James (2013) Giambattista Della Porta and the Roman Inquisition : Censorship and the Definition of Nature's Limits in Sixteenth-Century Italy. British Journal for the History of Science. p. 601. ISSN 0007-0874 promoting access to White Rose research papers [email protected] http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/ BJHS 46(4): 601–625, December 2013. © British Society for the History of Science 2012 doi:10.1017/S0007087412000684 First published online 31 August 2012 Giambattista Della Porta and the Roman Inquisition: censorship and the definition of Nature’s limits in sixteenth-century Italy NEIL TARRANT* Abstract. It has long been noted that towards the end of the sixteenth century the Catholic Church began to use its instruments of censorship – the Inquisition and the Index of Forbidden Books – to prosecute magic with increased vigour. These developments are often deemed to have had important consequences for the development of modern science in Italy, for they delimited areas of legitimate investigation of the natural world. Previous accounts of the censorship of magic have tended to suggest that the Church as an institution was opposed to, and sought to eradicate, the practice of magic. I do not seek to contest the fact that ecclesiastical censors prosecuted various magical and divinatory practices with greater enthusiasm at this time, but I suggest that in order to understand this development more fully it is necessary to offer a more complex picture of the Church.
    [Show full text]
  • History of Science
    ALOYSIUS LILIUS AUTHOR OF THE GREGORIAN REFORM OF THE CALENDAR Francesco Vizza* Abstract During the 16th century the disagreement between the dates of the Julian calendar, that had been in use since 46 BC and the vernal equinox, necessitated a correction to the computational rules used to regulate the flow of time. This was a very difficult task as it was necessary to resynchronize the civil time with celestial indicators, maintaining a lien adamant: the date of the vernal equinox, conventionally fixed perennially on March 21. In fact, during the Nicaea Council (325) the celebration of Easter was fixed on the first Sunday following the XIV Moon (Full Moon) belonging to the first month after the vernal equinox. Aloysius Lilius, a physician, astronomer and mathematician, using imprecise astronomical data contained in tables from three centuries before, was able to elaborate a calendar that has stood the test of time. By the use of two equations he was able to synchronize the solar and lunar cycles and to develop a useful tool, named the epact cycle, to determine without uncertainty the Easter date. Furthermore, the Lilian method offers the possibility to correct the calendar according to the variation of the tropic year during time. Unfortunately, only a few details of his personal life are known. Indeed, he has left only a few faint traces in public or private archives, so that today his name is almost unknown. In this paper are reported the few details known of his life and a reconstruction of his plan for the calendar reform. * Institute of Chemistry of Organometallic Componds (ICCOM-CNR) Via Madonna del Piano 10, 50019 Sesto Fiorentino (Italy), E-mail: [email protected] 1 1.
    [Show full text]
  • Archimedes: Reception in the Renaissance
    A Archimedes: Reception in the watershed. Valla drew knowledge of the person Renaissance as well as his works from Proclus and Pappus, thus integrating the two. Over the century, a Jens Høyrup number of editions also appeared, the Editio Section for Philosophy and Science Studies, princeps in 1544, and a mathematical work Roskilde University, Roskilde, Denmark following the footsteps of Archimedes was made by Maurolico, Commandino, and others. Abstract The Northern Renaissance only discovered With only Apuleius and Augustine as partial Archimedes in the 1530s and for long only exceptions, Latin Antiquity did not know superficially. The first to express a (purely Archimedes as a mathematician but only as ideological) high appreciation is Ramus in an ingenious engineer and astronomer, serving 1569, and the first to make creative use of his his city and killed by fatal distraction when in mathematics was Viète in the 1590s. the end it was taken by ruse. The Latin Middle Ages forgot even much of that, and when Archimedean mathematics was translated in Ancient Latin and Medieval Background the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, almost no integration with the traditional image of the Archimedean mathematics had a certain impact in person took place. late Renaissance thinking, and it was important With the exception of Petrarca, who knew for changes in late Renaissance mathematics; the civically useful engineer and the astrologer, however, much more pervasive, and of much lon- fourteenth-century Humanists show no interest ger duration, was the impact of “Archimedes” as in Archimedes. In the fifteenth century, “higher an almost Protean figure, changing with the con- artisans” with Humanist connections or educa- ditions of the time.
    [Show full text]
  • THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY of AMERICA the Use of Military
    THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA The Use of Military Astrology in Late Medieval Italy: The Textual Evidence A DISSERTATION Submitted to the Faculty of the Department of History School of Arts & Sciences Of The Catholic University of America In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree Doctor of Philosophy © Copyright All Rights Reserved By Robert S. Hand Washington, D.C. 2014 The Use of Military Astrology in Late Medieval Italy: The Textual Evidence. Robert S. Hand Director: Katherine L. Jansen, Ph. D. This study examines the thirteenth-century astrologer Guido Bonatti’s Liber Astronomicus as a case study to investigate one aspect of the many practical applications of astrology in the later Middle Ages. Specifically, it looks at the application of military astrology to analyze Bonatti’s use of his source material in relation to his own practice. The dissertation develops a methodology to discern the astrologer’s practice from his textual inheritance. Bonatti was possibly the most important astrologer of the high middle ages. His work was an encyclopedic, yet detailed survey of the entire field of astrological study in the Europe of his day. He acknowledged his Arab sources but was not merely a compiler of their material. Like many of his European contemporaries in other fields such as Thomas Aquinas, Albertus Magnus and Roger Bacon, Bonatti put his own stamp on the field of astrology. Staying within the basic traditions as he inherited them, he systematized and expanded often terse material, and frequently innovated in certain applications of astrology. By close and detailed examinations of Bonatti’s text and comparison with his sources, we can see the changes that reflect his personal experience which in turn caused him to alter and emend the tradition.
    [Show full text]
  • Pamphilus Gengenbach 1480-1525: Writer, Printer and Publicist in Pre
    PAMPHILUS GENGENBACH 1480-1525: WRITER, PRINTER, AND PUBLICIST IN PRE-REFORMATION BASEL PHILIP NAYLOR Thesis submitted to the University of London for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2002 Department of German University College London, University of London. ProQuest Number: U644324 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest. ProQuest U644324 Published by ProQuest LLC(2016). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 ABSTRACT This study of the printer-writer Pamphilus Gengenbach is the first in English. It argues that his writings and his printed output of other authors can be treated as one body of work and develops a meaningful narrative of Gengenbach’s beliefs and intentions. It examines the content, language and form of his own writings, exploring common themes and ideas; and it examines the different audiences at whom Gengenbach was aiming and the messages he wanted to give them. The material he produced is seen as a measure of the ‘mood’ of the times, distinguished by its popular appeal: mostly short, written in the vernacular, and making extensive use of woodcut illustrations and verse.
    [Show full text]
  • Refining the Astrologer's Art: Astrological Diagrams in Bodleian
    Edinburgh Research Explorer Refining the Astrologer's Art: Astrological Diagrams in Bodleian MS Canon. Misc. 24 and Cardano's Libelli Quinque (1547) Citation for published version: Azzolini, M 2011, 'Refining the Astrologer's Art: Astrological Diagrams in Bodleian MS Canon. Misc. 24 and Cardano's Libelli Quinque (1547)', Journal for the History of Astronomy, vol. 42, no. 1, pp. 1-25. <http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/shp/jhast/2011/00000042/00000001/art00001> Link: Link to publication record in Edinburgh Research Explorer Document Version: Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Published In: Journal for the History of Astronomy Publisher Rights Statement: Azzolini, M. (2011). Refining the Astrologer's Art: Astrological Diagrams in Bodleian MS Canon. Misc. 24 and Cardano's Libelli Quinque (1547). Journal for the History of Astronomy, 42(1), 1-25 General rights Copyright for the publications made accessible via the Edinburgh Research Explorer is retained by the author(s) and / or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing these publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. Take down policy The University of Edinburgh has made every reasonable effort to ensure that Edinburgh Research Explorer content complies with UK legislation. If you believe that the public display of this file breaches copyright please contact [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 24. Sep. 2021 JHA, xlii (2011) REFINING THE ASTROLOGER’S ART: ASTROLOGICAL DIAGRAMS IN BODLEIAN MS CANON. MISC. 24 AND CARDANO’S LIBELLI QUINQUE (1547) MONICA AZZOLINI, University of Edinburgh Sometime in 1518, the Italian astrologer Luca Gaurico cast a chart for his prospective Imperial patron Maximilian I for the day of his sixtieth birthday (Figure 1).1 Gaurico’s political leanings up to that time had been quite different.
    [Show full text]
  • Max Planck Institute for the History of Science Archimedes
    MAX-PLANCK-INSTITUT FÜR WISSENSCHAFTSGESCHICHTE Max Planck Institute for the History of Science 2017 PREPRINT 487 Jens Hµyrup Archimedes: Knowledge and Lore from Latin Antiquity to the Outgoing European Renaissance Abstract With only Apuleius and Augustine as partial exceptions, Latin Antiquity did not know Archimedes as a mathematician but only as an ingenious engineer and astronomer, serving his city and killed by fatal distraction when in the end it was taken by ruse. The Latin Middle Ages forgot even much of that, and when Archimedean mathematics was translated in the 12th and 13th centuries, almost no integration with the traditional image of the person took place. With the exception of Petrarca, who knew the civically useful engineer and the astrologer (!), fourteenth-century Humanists show no interest in Archimedes. In the 15th century, however, “higher artisans” with Humanist connections or education took interest in Archimedes the technician and started identifying with him. In mid-century, a new translation of most works from the Greek was made by Jacopo Cremonensis, and Regiomontanus and a few other mathematicians began resurrecting the image of the geometer, yet without emulating him in their own work. Giorgio Valla’s posthumous De expetendis et fugiendis rebus from 1501 marks a watershed. Valla drew knowledge of the person as well as his works from Proclus and Pappus, thus integrating the two. Over the century, a number of editions also appeared, the editio princeps in 1544, and mathematical work following in the footsteps of Archimedes was made by Maurolico, Commandino and others. The Northern Renaissance only discovered Archimedes in the 1530s, and for long only superficially.
    [Show full text]
  • Recent Work in the History of Western Astrology1
    Starry Messengers Starry Messengers: Recent Work in the History of Western Astrology1 Anthony Grafton Princeton University In early February 1995 the Economist reported, with characteristic bravura and disdain, on a Brazilian debenture deal. A Sao Paolo bank needed to decide on the timing of a large issue for the Euromarket. The ofªcers de- termined the answer not by scrutinizing capital markets or predicting ex- change rates, but by consulting an astrologer. He showed them that since Jupiter was in his exaltation, the time was right. The vice president in charge followed this adviceadmittedly without notifying his superi- orsand the deal succeeded. These methods, the Economist admitted, hardly violated normal prac- tices in Brazil. Astrology-based ªnancial consulting ªrms like Planum, which advised the bank in this case, and Astro-Call have long ºourished there. At that point, however, the reporter abruptly ceased trying to put the use of astrological techniques into context. Instead, the anonymous author took them as evidence for the irrationality of the inhabitants of Brazil, home to all manner of mysticism, from the Kabbala to Macumba. The slaves, gypsies and Middle Europeans who settled the country, it seems, brought these burdens of irrationalism with them. No wonder, then, that even Brazilian bankers prefer the superstitious consul- tation of the stars to the rational contemplation of invisible hands. Astrol- ogy, at least in the Economist, is an intellectual mark of Cain: a sign of in- tellectual mayhem. It ºourishes in societies that have not yet joined modern Western Europe on the high, austere plains of reason. Astrologers 1.
    [Show full text]
  • The Lichtenberger Prophecy and Melanchthon's Horoscope for Luther
    The Lichtenberger Prophecy and Melanchthon’s Horoscope for Luther Jürgen G.H. Hoppmann The Reformation coincided with a boom in the publication of astrological almanacs and astrology became a potent means of propagandising for differing political positions. One of the most notable Reformation astrologers was Philipp Melanchthon (1497-1560), professor of Greek at Wittenberg from 1518, where he became one of Martin Luther’s closest friends and collaborators. 1 In 1521 he briefly found himself leader of the Reformation when Luther was confined in the Wartburg. His interest in astrology and his position at the centre of the Reformation raises important questions concerning the possible use of astrological forecasts of the Reformation’s future course. Martin Luther’s birth chart was to become a focus of debate amongst astrologers who wished to establish whether he was a new messiah or the Anti- Christ. The Lichtenberger Prophecy The astrological debates concerning Luther’s destiny took place in the context of an earlier prophecy which dated back to 1415, when Jan Hus, the Bohemian religious reformer, was burned at the stake. According to this prophecy a new reformer, perhaps even the Messiah, would be born a hundred years later, and when it was included in Johannes Lichtenberger’s predictions, published in Heidelberg in 1488, it became part of the currency of late fifteenth century prognostication. 2 Luther himself took this prophecy personally when he wrote that ‘St. Johann Hus has prophesied about me, when in prison in Bohemia he wrote: they are roasting a goose [Hus = goose in Bohemian] now; but in a hundred years they are going to hear a swan sing for which they shall suffer.
    [Show full text]