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Re: VMs: Jung and Modern/Traditional Astrology?
Hi Pamela,
FWIW, the argument running through the literature I've been relying on is
that by 1490, the leading group of Florentine intellectuals lost faith with
astrology - that was the year that Giovanni Pico della Mirandola's
announced that he intended to fire a theoretical broadside against
astrology in defence of Christianity (extracts of this finally appeared in
1495, the year after his death), and that salvo is thought by some to have
been the central impetus for Ficino (della Mirandolla's former teacher!) to
change his approach. Wikipedia has a nice (though short) article on him:-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_Pico_della_Mirandola
Also, here's a link to an online article summarising this general tradition
that I've posted to the list before, which also quote Francis Bacon's views
on astrology (essentially, that it doesn't work for individuals, but its
effects on populations or nations ~might~ be worth studying) - Paula
Wagner's (2000) "The Decline of Astrology" [with Nick Campion as advisor]:-
http://www.kepler.edu/articles/student/2q2000wagner.html
Reading it back again, it does seem that the filaments claimed to connect
Ficinian thought forward to present-day astrology are indeed somewhat
lacking in substance: this aspect does support your assertion that there
was no break in the (already declining) tradition at that time. Your claim
that some modern authors appropriated Ficino's work as a kind of
retrospective apologia for Jung is a very interesting one - is there one
particular writer who seems to be mainly responsible for this?
And yet... medieval astrology had always enjoyed protection because of its
status as a subject taught within universities (because of its centrality
to medicine) even though universities were typically administered by the
Church, but [so the argument runs] its intellectual aegis was withdrawn
circa 1500, and so astrology ended up with few active proponents. While its
decline had clearly already begun, was 1480-1520 the "tipping point" where
its boat sank? I used to think that argument was an open-and-shut case, but
now I'm not so sure...
BTW, here's a nice page on medieval universities, science, and astrology
(it discusses Cecco d'Ascoli's career clearly, for example):-
http://www.bede.org.uk/university.htm
Cheers, .....Nick Pelling.....
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