Magic and the Supernatural - Lancaster University

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Rational Astrology and Empiricism, From Pico to Galileo
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discipline. 27 In MS. Gal. 81 we find not only horoscopes that could have been
intended to garner the support of a patron but also those that Galileo did for
himself, his daughters, and twenty as yet to be identified people. 28 Rutkin has
devoted some time to analysing the natal charts for Galileo’s daughters and for his
friend Sagredo, noting the care with which these charts are constructed. These
charts are now available on the website of Skyscript and, using Galileo’s own birth
chart as a point of reference, we should not ignore the corrective notes that one
finds throughout the chart. On Galileo’s horoscope there are mathematical
corrections visible under the headings for both Saturn and Mars, as well as on the
body of the horoscope itself. 29 If Galileo had cast these horoscopes merely for the
purpose of patronage or to earn money, why would he have been so concerned
with accuracy? These horoscopes all seem to date to the late 1580s and 1590s but
there is nothing to suggest that he changed his mind about the discipline later.
Instead, it is just as likely that other concerns simply kept him too busy for such
pursuits. In the absence of evidence to the contrary we must assume that Galileo
maintained his early interest in astrology throughout his life.
This point is not merely one of antiquarianism. To repeat an earlier point,
astrologer saw the cosmos as an interlinked whole, as distant celestial bodies
interacted with one another and the earth in consistent and mathematically
describable ways. The Christian version of this system as articulated by medieval
natural philosophers placed the beginning of the system of influences with God,
but all agreed that he did not ordinarily intervene, allowing the cosmos to function
with mechanical precision, as if it were clockwork. 30 This is the astrological
system that Galileo inherited, perhaps providing an impetus for the burgeoning
mechanical philosophy of the Scientific Revolution. Whether or not that is the
case, it is anachronistic to look for a rejection of astrology during this period as a
sign of scientific rationalism. After all, for Pico just as for Galileo, belief in
astrology, based as it was on the best natural philosophy of their day, was rational.
Notes
1 The issues considered in this chapter are dealt with at considerably greater length
in S.E. Hendrix, ‘Rational Astrology and Scientific Rationalism in Premodern
Europe’, Rational Magic, S.E. Hendrix and B. Feltham (eds), Inter-Disciplinary
Press, Oxford, 2011.
2 B. Castel and S. Sismundo, The Art of Science, UTP Higher Education, Toronto,
2003, p. 9.
3 A. Sachs, ‘Babylonian Horoscopes’, Journal of Cuneiform Studies, Vol. VI,
1952, pp. 54-56.
4 S.J. Tester, A History of Western Astrology, Boydell Press, Woodbridge, 1987, p.
177.