Literature and Science :  

Major Thinkers and

Practitioners of

the Renaissance:

A huge number of individuals wrote about and practiced astrology, alchemy, and magic in the Renaissance, and it would be impossible to list them all. This section is a small number chosen because they were either very well known in their own time or illustrate recent historiographical trends.  For books and articles on each one see the relevant section of the Bibliography page.

Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim

Originally from Cologne, Agrippa (b. 1486–d. 1535) was a practicing physician who claimed to have an academic degree in the liberal arts, doctorates in law and medicine, and an extensive background in theology. He was a committed student of astrology, alchemy, magic, and Kabbalah. His most influential work was De occulta philosophia (The occult philosophy), the first complete version of which was published in 1533 and which incorporated Neoplatonism, Hermetism, and Kabbalah and became virtually a textbook of magic and the occult. Lehrich 2003 provides a close reading of De occulta philosophia. At the same time the first book was published, in 1531, Agrippa published De incertitudine et vanitate scientarium et atrium (On the uncertainty and vanity of the sciences and arts), which seemed to repudiate many of the ideas in De occulta philosophia, but Nauert 1965 analyzes both works and suggests that there was continuity. Van der Poel 1997 studies the controversies surrounding Agrippa’s occult writings in the context of his intellectual background.

Francis Bacon

Bacon (b. 1561–d. 1626) has traditionally been considered one of the pillars of the scientific revolution. He believed that natural philosophy could improve the human condition. His unfinished Great Instauration included the New Organon (1620), which railed against “idols” that hindered the progress of knowledge and recommended what has come to be known as inductive reasoning to combat those idols. His New Atlantis (1624) envisioned an enlightened society, Bensalem, with a scientific research center, Salomon’s House, which has been considered the prototype of the research university and the impetus for scientific societies. Rossi 1968 shows that Bacon was not free of occult influences, while Harkness 2007 suggests that Bacon was not as original as is generally assumed.

Robert Boyle

Another pillar of the traditional view of the scientific revolution who has been considered a founder of empirical science, Boyle (b. 1627–d. 1691) also believed that natural philosophy was the key to improving the human condition. He experimented with the air pump and created a vacuum. Chemists still cite Boyle’s Law about the inverse relationship between the pressure and volume of a gas. His Sceptical Chymist (1661) has traditionally been seen as the work that separated chemistry from alchemy, but as Hunter 1994 and Principe 1998 show, Boyle did not reject alchemy. Sargent 1995 highlights the influence of religion and legal theory on his scientific thought.

Tycho Brahe

Tycho (b. 1546–d. 1601) was a Danish nobleman who convinced King Frederick II to patronize the establishment of astronomical observatories and alchemical laboratories on the island of Hven. Tycho’s observations, the most consistent and accurate before the use of the telescope, challenged Aristotelian ideas about the immutability of the heavens, but Tycho rejected the Copernican system in favor of a geoheliocentric system in which the sun and the moon orbit the earth and the other planets orbit the sun. Tycho hoped his improved planetary calculations would improve astrology as well. There are no monographs specifically devoted to Tycho’s pursuit of astrology and astronomy, but Thoren 1990, Christianson 2003, and Mosley 2007 all incorporate those pursuits into their discussions of Tycho’s endeavors.

Giordano Bruno

Bruno (b. 1548–d. 1600) was a Dominican friar from Nola who began to question many orthodox ideas of the Catholic Church, most notably the Trinity. He was executed by the Catholic Church for heresy. He was a promoter of Copernican cosmology, and a popular assumption has been that his heresy was his Copernicanism; thus, he has been considered a martyr to science. Yates 1991 makes him not a scientist but an occultist, while Gatti 1999 and Rowland 2008 see many of his ideas about natural philosophy as tending toward the scientific. De León-Jones 1997 looks at the influence of Kabbalah, and Saiber 2005 focuses on his language.

Girolamo Cardano

Cardano (b. 1501–d. 1576) was an Italian physician who wrote on medicine, mathematics and probability, astrology, and cosmology. He used astrology in medicine, as was typical at the time, but he also produced horoscopes of famous people, which he included as examples in his writings, though his prediction that England’s Edward VI would have a long life fed anti-astrological theorists. Grafton 1999 concentrates on Cardano as an astrologer, while Siraisi 1997 concentrates on his medical career and theories of medicine.

John Dee

The Englishman Dee (b. 1527–d. 1608) was a noted book collector and polymath who wrote on mathematics, navigation, calendar reform, and politics as well as on astrology, alchemy, and magic. He may have been Queen Elizabeth’s astrologer. French 1972 stresses Dee as an occultist and Hermetist, while Clulee 1988 shows him searching for an understanding of nature using all means possible. In that light, Harkness 1999 focuses on Dee’s angelic conversations, and Hakonsson 2001 looks at his use of language. Szőnyi 2004 concentrates on Dee’s mysticism. Sherman 1995 stresses Dee as a Renaissance thinker and book collector.

Giambattista della Porta

Della Porta (b. c. 1535–d. 1615) founded the Academia Secretorum Naturae (Academy for the Secrets of Nature) for the purpose of explaining occult secrets of nature through experiments. His Magia naturalis (Natural magic) of 1558, a widely acclaimed work at the time, reported the results of the academy’s work and attempted to give a rational basis for magic. He was also well known for his work on optics, especially his work on the camera obscura and the telescope. Muraro 1978 writes about his work as a magician and experimentalist. He was also an acclaimed playwright, and Clubb 1965 shows the influence of his writings on magic in his plays.

Marsilio Ficino

Ficino (b. 1433–d. 1499), a physician and priest, was the leading Platonic philosopher of his day who incorporated Neoplatonism in his philosophy. His translations into Latin of Plato’s works and the Corpus Hermeticum made them accessible, although Allen 1990 maintains that the influence of Hermetism on his work was limited. On the other hand, Gentile 1999 suggests the influence of Ficino’s translations of the Hermetica. Ficino wrote commentaries on the works of Plato, and Allen 1994 deals with the astrological implications in one of them. Bullard 1990 shows Ficino’s changing attitude toward astrology, while Ficino 1989 illustrates his use of astrology and magic in medicine.

Robert Fludd

Fludd (b. 1574–d. 1637) was an English physician and occult thinker who combined Platonic philosophy, Neoplatonism, Christian theology, and Kabbalah to form a hierarchy of being descending from the Trinity into increasing materiality. His writing aroused the opposition of Johannes Kepler and others. Kings James I and Charles I were his patrons. Huffman 1988 focuses on Fludd’s writings; Godwin 1979 presents illustrations from his work.

Simon Forman

A practicing physician without a university medical education, Forman (b. 1552–d. 1611) was very controversial in his day. He survived the plague in 1592 and used his success in conquering the disease to fashion himself into a successful physician using chemical remedies and astrology. Rowse 1974 agrees with Forman’s contemporaries who called him a quack, but Traister 2001 and Kassell 2005 give a more nuanced reading of his practice.

Galileo Galilei

The Tuscan physicist and astronomer Galileo (b. 1564–d. 1642) is known as one of the great founders of modern science because of his development of the science of mechanics. He was also a supporter of Copernican astronomy who was punished by the Catholic Church for his views. There are few, scattered documents about his attitude toward astrology, but as Campion and Kollerstrom 2003 and Albini 2008 show, it was a part of his worldview.

Johannes Kepler

Kepler (b. 1571–d. 1630) is best known as an astronomer who formulated three laws of planetary motion. He was also an astrologer and openly defended the practice of astrology. Kepler tried to reform astrology so that it focused on observable phenomena that resulted from the planetary orbits. He also tried to fit the universe into a harmonious whole using mathematics, music, astronomy, and astrology. Simon 1979 shows Kepler’s astrology in relationship to his astronomy. Field 1984 offers general introductions to his astrology, and Field 1988 tries to see how the search for harmonies fit in with his overall thought. Stephenson 1994 focuses on the astronomical context of Kepler’s ideas about celestial harmonies.

William Lilly

Lilly (b. 1602–d. 1681) was a popular astrologer who gained fame because he predicted the defeat of England’s King Charles I in the battle of Naseby in 1643. He was also investigated for his prediction of the Great Fire of London of 1666. He wrote his principles of prediction in Christian Astrology, which was published in 1647 and has continued to be in print ever since. Parker 1975 presents a biography in the popular mode, while Geneva 1995 focuses on the relationship of astrology to politics.

Isaac Newton

Since the 18th century, Newton (b. 1642–d. 1727) has been regarded as the pinnacle of the early modern revolution in science. But when Newton’s papers were donated by John Maynard Keynes to King’s College, Cambridge, after his death in 1946, they showed that Newton was an alchemical adept. Westfall 1983 was one of the earliest works to utilize these papers, and Richard S. Westfall’s biography of Newton incorporates his alchemical research. Dobbs 1975 and Dobbs 1991 focus on Newton’s alchemy and how it may have influenced his physics.

Giovanni Pico della Mirandola

In his short life, Pico (b. 1463–d. 1494) made a big impact on Renaissance thought. Today he is best known for his “Oration on the Dignity of Man,” which is generally interpreted as expressing a belief in the unlimited human capabilities. Pico studied widely and presented nine hundred theses on different aspects of knowledge from the ancient, medieval, and Renaissance periods, including forms of magic. Farmer 1998 presents the theses and discusses them. Wirszubski 1989 shows Pico’s command of Kabbalistic methods in the theses, while Copenhaver 1999 builds on Chaim Wirszubski’s work. Black 2006 examines Pico’s Heptaplus. At the end of his life, Pico repudiated astrology in his Disputations against Judicial Astrology. Vanden Broecke 2003 suggests the repudiation was not complete and shows its effects on writers in Louvain. Valcke 2005 and Dougherty 2008 present more general depictions of Pico’s thought.

Johannes Trithemius

Trithemius (b. 1462–d. 1516) was a Benedictine abbot who early on engaged in humanist studies, sought monastic reform, and pursued mystical theology. Toward the end of the 15th century, he turned to magic; his earliest work of magic, the Steganographia, was written about 1499. In addition to cryptography, it was grounded in astrology, numerology, alchemy, and Kabbalah. Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim (see Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim) was his student. Trithemius was accused of being engaged in black magic. Brann 1998 explores the context of Trithemius’s studies.

From : Sheila Rabin at Oxford Bibliographies.