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Printing and Astrology in Early Modem France: Vernacular Almanac-Prognostications, 1497-1555

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Printing and Astrology in Early Modem France: Vernacular Almanac-Prognostications, 1497-1555 Printing and astrology in early modem France: Vernacular almanac-prognostications, 1497-1555 by Justin Rivest B.Hum. Hons., Carleton University, 2004 A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Department of History Carleton University Ottawa, Ontario May 31, 2010 ©2010, Justin Rivest Library and Archives Bibliotheque et Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du 1*1 Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-93618-4 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-93618-4 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettanta la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par I'lnternet, preter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distrbute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non­ support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la these ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation. without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne sur la Privacy Act some supporting forms protection de la vie privee, quelques may have been removed from this formulaires secondaires ont ete enleves de thesis. cette these. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. Canada Abstract This thesis examines the French trajectories of an early ephemeral printed genre, annual almanac-prognostications, charting the genre’s development from its origins at the end of the fifteenth century to its transformation by Michel Nostradamus in 1555. In so doing, it investigates how astrology was transformed by vemacularization and the introduction of print technologies. Based on a study of thirty-five surviving examples of the genre and a microhistory of the life and times of a single prognosticator, Jean Thibault, it argues that printing opened both astrological predictions (annual almanac-prognostications) and a key resource for producing them (celestial ephemerides) to an increasingly broad audience. Astrology was transformed from an esoteric art practiced by university physicians for a select clientele to a popular print phenomenon that provided predictions on weather, public health, commodities, warfare, and propitious times for everything from planting crops to letting blood to the general public. Acknowledgements In the past two years, I have accumulated several debts of gratitude which I will never oe able to fully repay. First, I would like to thank Professor Paul Nelles for helping me bring this project to fruition, for the example of his scholarship, and more generally for kindling my passion for book history. This MA Thesis is a product of many fruitful questions and debates he has brought to my attention over the past few years. I remain grateful for both his teaching and his friendship. I would also like to acknowledge the generous support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Without it I would not have been able to travel abroad and collect so many sources from far-flung European research libraries. I would also like to thank Professor Jean-Louis Quantin of the Ecole pratique des hautes etudes, who graciously agreed to supervise me during my time abroad. Thanks also go the staff of the libraries I visited who carefully ensured that I would have access to sources despite a sometimes tight schedule, including those of the Reserve at the Bibliotheque nationale de France, the Bibliotheque royale de Belgique, and the British Library. Particular thanks go to Aude Lefevre at the Bibliotheque du Chateau de Chantilly and Jean-Luc Rouiller at the Bibliotheque de Geneve, both of whom went beyond the call o f duty to help me access the sources I came so far to see. I would also like to thank everyone in the Department of History at Carleton University. Among the faculty, particular thanks go to Professor W. Roy Laird for first interesting me in medieval understandings of the cosmos and in the history of science more generally; to Professor Dominique Marshall, for the instrumental formation in historical theory and method she provided me and for engaging so thoughtfully with my work; and to Professor David Dean, for smuggling “history from below” into a great books program at a crucial juncture in my undergraduate studies. Special thanks also go to Joan White, who has kept me on-track with important deadlines and whose careful eye is to thank for making every one o f my grant applications the best it could possibly be. I remain in her debt. Outside of the Department of History, thanks also go to my external examiner, Johannes Wolfart, who provided me with thoughtful and important criticism during my defence that will be instrumental to my subsequent work on these questions. My colleagues in the graduate program also have my gratitude, notably Amanda Sauermann, Abraham Plunkett-Latimer, and Chris Schultz, who made innumerable constructive comments on drafts of this thesis during our monthly MA Thesis meetings. I would also like to thank Abraham for helping me with so much thorny renaissance Latin and for correcting my translations. My fellow “early modernist” Jonathan Greenwood also deserves special mention for so many enjoyable and enlightening evenings of conversation after a long day of work. My gratitude also goes out to the professors of Carleton’s College of the Humanities for delivering a well-crafted undergraduate curriculum with an emphasis on discussion with peers and the close reading o f primary sources. Without their guidance, I would never have been able to explore so many of my interests or develop the intellectual toolkit that has helped me complete this thesis. In a similar vein, I would also like to thank my parents, Marcel and Melanie Rivest, and my great aunt and former librarian Maxine Gardiner, for feeding my early interest in history with as many old books as they could find. Equally important, I would like to thank them and my sister, Lynette Rivest, for having so much faith in me over the past six years. More recently, much support has been provided throughout the writing and editing process by Dawn and Kelvin Desplanque. I am indebted to their kindness and hospitality. Finally, I must make special mention of Kathryn Desplanque. Her support, emotional as well as intellectual, binds this thesis together. Justin Rivest Carleton University August 12, 2010 Table of contents Abstract..................................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements................................................................................... iii Table of contents .................................. v List of tables ..........................................................................................................................................viii List of Figures......................................................................................................................................... ix Introduction and historiography ...............................................................................................................1 1. “Considerant infiniz abus estreperpetrez a cause d ’ung tas de Prognostications”.............1 2. Research goal and sources ..........................................................................................................8 3. Situating astrology in early modern European societies: Theoretical problems .................10 4. Astrology in early modern intellectual history ................ 15 a. Origins: Neugebauer, Thorndike, and Yates ........................................................................15 b. Astrology in the history of ideas: Saving Athens from Alexandria ....................................17 c. Recent trends in intellectual history: Education, institutions, and practices ................... 21 5. Conclusion: Situating the career o f Jean Thibault in the history of astrology ....................25 Chapter One, Printing and the transformation of the astrologer’s craflt ........................................... 27 1. Sacrobosco among the shepherds: The cosmology o f the Calendrier des bergers............ 29 2. The astrologer’s craft: The science o f judgments ................................................................... 37 a. Classifications of astrology ................................................................................................... 38 b. The main variables of judicial astrology
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