Astrology, natural philosophy and the history of science, c. 1250--1700: Studies toward an interpretation of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola's 'Disputationes adversus astrologiam divinatricem'

My dissertation investigates Giovanni Pico della Mirandola's (1463–94) extensive attack on astrology, the Disputationes adversus astrologiam divinatricem (1496), its context and influence. A central unanswered question in the history of science is how astrology came to be removed from its formerly central position in the premodern scientific world view (c.1250–1600) during the scientific revolution of the seventeenth century. In order to answer this question properly, we must first have a clear idea of astrology's place in premodern Aristotelian-Ptolemaic science, a subject imperfectly understood in the literature. In my reconstruction, I have found that astrology was taught in the best premodern universities (including those where Pico studied) in three distinct scientific disciplines: mathematics, natural philosophy and medicine. On this basis, I provide an interpretive framework for analyzing both the rejection of astrology from the realm of legitimate science during the scientific revolution and Pico's complex role in that process. After clarifying the place of astrology in Pico's own thought (and its relation to Marsilio Ficino's), I analyze Pico's attack on the natural philosophical foundations of astrology. Although Pico's attack was influential, my results demonstrate that earlier claims of astrology's immediate complete destruction are grossly exaggerated; astrology continued to be taught at the best universities well into the seventeenth century. My dissertation provides a historical and conceptual foundation for further research on this central yet understudied topic.