Clemson University TigerPrints All Theses Theses 1-2011 'In So Many Ways Do the Planets Bear Witness': The mpI act of Copernicanism on Judicial Astrology at the English Court, 1543-1660 Justin Dohoney Clemson University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_theses Part of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine Commons Recommended Citation Dohoney, Justin, "'In So Many Ways Do the Planets Bear Witness': The mpI act of Copernicanism on Judicial Astrology at the English Court, 1543-1660" (2011). All Theses. 1143. https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_theses/1143 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses at TigerPrints. It has been accepted for inclusion in All Theses by an authorized administrator of TigerPrints. For more information, please contact [email protected]. "IN SO MANY WAYS DO THE PLANETS BEAR WITNESS": THE IMPACT OF COPERNICANISM ON JUDICIAL ASTROLOGY AT THE ENGLISH COURT, 1543-1660 _____________________________________________________ A Thesis Presented to the Graduate School of Clemson University _______________________________________________________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts History _______________________________________________________ by Justin Robert Dohoney August 2011 _______________________________________________________ Accepted by: Pamela Mack, Committee Chair Alan Grubb Megan Taylor-Shockley Caroline Dunn ABSTRACT The traditional historiography of science from the late-nineteenth through the mid-twentieth centuries has broadly claimed that the Copernican revolution in astronomy irrevocably damaged the practice of judicial astrology. However, evidence to the contrary suggests that judicial astrology not only continued but actually expanded during the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. During this time period, judicial astrologers accomplished this by appropriating contemporary science and mathematics. Copernicus’s De revolutionibus , in particular, provided better mathematics for determining the positions of the planets than the prevailing Ptolemaic system and reformist astrologers interested in making astrology a precise, mathematical science embraced this new astronomy. This study evaluates the impact that Copernicus’s heliocentric theory of the cosmos had on the practice of judicial astrology, particularly within the English court patronage system between the publication of Copernicus’s De revolutionibus in 1543 and the Restoration of the monarchy and founding of the Royal Society in 1660. In England, while noble patrons defined the value of science in terms of its practical utility, many English judicial astrologers successfully argued for scientific legitimacy based on their ability to precisely predict planetary locations. Contrary to their European counterparts on the Continent, English patrons typically required tangible, practical results to justify their support of client-scientists. The heliocentric theory received a largely positive reaction in England, and many astrologers readily employed its mathematics to make more precise ii predictions of planetary locations, which would presumably lead to better prognostications of human events. As long as scientists and patrons defined science in these exclusively mathematical terms, astrology could comfortably exist within these scientific boundaries. However, throughout the mid-sixteenth century, multiple processes occurred that changed astrology from a science into a popular belief in England. Patrons began to lose interest in astrology and thus financed fewer astrologers, and with the instability of the Civil War, fewer patrons were in positions of power to provide this sort of support. Furthermore, as astrology enjoyed increased popularity among the lower and merchant classes of England through almanac and pamphlet publications, scientists saw it in their best professional interest to consciously distance themselves from astrology and redefine and re-categorize it beyond the reasonable margins of proper scientific practice. In short, while astrology declined as a scientific activity during the latter half of the seventeenth century, it found success as a popular activity beyond the confines of conventional science. iii DEDICATION To my mother, for teaching me the love of reading; to my father, for teaching me the love of the past; and to Kirsten, for teaching me to love. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, I would like to thank my committee, without whom this thesis would not be possible. Dr. Pamela Mack spent almost as much time as I did editing the manuscript, and more importantly, challenged my conceptions of both history and science, which led to a much richer and more interesting and multifaceted work than I would have written without her tutelage. My coursework with Dr. Alan Grubb formed the backbone of my graduate education, and his advice, particularly regarding historiography, has been indispensable. Dr. Megan Taylor-Shockley held many discussions with me about all manner of popular beliefs during the early modern era, and this contributed a great deal to my historical approach to astrology. Finally, Dr. Caroline Dunn supplemented my own meager knowledge of Latin to ensure that my translations were correct. Many others facilitated the completion of this study. Dr. Jeremiah Hackett of the University of South Carolina read an early prospectus version of my thesis and provided some conceptual suggestions as well as encouragement that the idea was worth pursuing, and Dr. Rienk Vermij of the University of Oklahoma also read an early draft and offered a great deal of insight into the patron-scientist relationship in northern Europe for some very useful comparisons in my own research. I would also like to thank my colleague, friend, and fellow graduate student here at Clemson University Matt Henderson for suggesting a provocative title and for our many, many discussions and debates about the history and philosophy of science in general and Copernicus in particular. Cathy Felten v generously granted me access to the Early English Books online database through the University of Louisville library system, without which I would not have been able to conduct the majority of my primary source research. Finally, I would like to thank all of those who read drafts of my thesis at various stages, especially Kirsten Mull, Carly Niermeier, Jeremy Weston, and Adam Zucconi, all of whom provided valuable suggestions. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page TITLE PAGE .................................................................................................................... i ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................... ii DEDICATION ................................................................................................................ iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................. v INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER 1. FROM PTOLEMY TO COPERNICUS: A BRIEF HISTORY OF ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL ASTROLOGY ............................................ 16 2. COPERNICANS, SEMI-COPERNICANS, AND MATHEMATICAL COPERNICANS: THE ENGLISH REACTION TO HELIOCENTRISM ................................................................................ 40 3. COPERNICANISM AND ASTROLOGY IN SIXTEENTH-CENTURY ENGLAND: PATRONAGE AND PRACTICALITY ................................. 63 4. REDEFINING ASTROLOGY IN THE SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY: UNIVERSITIES, ALMANACS, AND JACOBEAN PATRONAGE .............................................................................................. 96 CONCLUSIONS.......................................................................................................... 118 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................ 122 vii INTRODUCTION When Copernicus wrote in his seminal astronomical treatise De revolutionibus orbium coelestium that “in so many…ways do the planets bear witness,” he was referring to how their observed motions provided evidence for the earth’s mobility.1 But for most of the scientifically-educated elite in sixteenth-century Europe, the planets bore witness in quite another way and provided evidence of a very different kind—that of their astrological influence over human events.2 Copernicus’s epoch-making work, of course, displaced the earth from the center of the cosmos and replaced it with the sun, but it also provided more precise calculations for the prediction of planetary positions than the Ptolemaic system. Among astrologers interested in applying this new astronomical data to the prognostication of human events, a great reform movement flourished throughout much of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Eventually, however, the reform movement foundered, scientists and their patrons lost interest, and astrology relocated to other more receptive venues. The narrative of astrology’s scientific decline in the latter half of the seventeenth century is less a story about the elimination of a superstition and more a story about how science was defined, who defined it, and what values determined its definition. Most scientists accepted astrology in the early sixteenth century and most 1 Nicolaus Copernicus, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium [1543] ,trans. Edward Rosen (Baltimore: