University of Groningen History, Prophecy, and the Stars: The Christian Astrology of Pierre d'Ailly, 1350-1420. Laura Ackerman Smoller North, J. D. Published in: Isis DOI: 10.1086/357261 IMPORTANT NOTE: You are advised to consult the publisher's version (publisher's PDF) if you wish to cite from it. Please check the document version below. Document Version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Publication date: 1995 Link to publication in University of Groningen/UMCG research database Citation for published version (APA): North, J. D. (1995). History, Prophecy, and the Stars: The Christian Astrology of Pierre d'Ailly, 1350-1420. Laura Ackerman Smoller. Isis, 86(3), 480-481. https://doi.org/10.1086/357261 Copyright Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). 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North Source: Isis, Vol. 86, No. 3 (Sep., 1995), pp. 480-481 Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of The History of Science Society Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/235044 Accessed: 10-12-2018 15:07 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at https://about.jstor.org/terms The History of Science Society, The University of Chicago Press are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Isis This content downloaded from 129.125.148.19 on Mon, 10 Dec 2018 15:07:01 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms BOOK REVIEWS-ISIS, 86: 3 (1995) BOOK REVIEWS-ISIS, 86: 3 (1995) cation for Galileo's use of mathematics in phys- ical science, and this is the main reason that these theories have recently come under scrutiny. Steven J. Livesey has contributed more to this field perhaps than any other scholar, with a series of studies and editions mostly of fourteenth-cen- tury Oxford theologians, including William of Ockham, John of Reading, and most recently Robert Graystanes. In the present book Livesey presents a critical edition, with introduction and facing-page English translation, of four ques- tions on subalternation by the fifteenth-century Dominican friar Antonius de Carlensis of Na- ples, two from his Questions on the Sentences and two from his Questions on the Posterior An- alytics. While I have not read it against the manu- scripts, I have found a few places where the edi- tion might be emended, especially in the ques- tions on the Posterior Analytics, which are edited from the single known manuscript. In sev- eral passages, for instance, Livesey prints aris- metica (= arithmetica) instead of emending it to armonica (= harmonica), which the argu- ment requires (pp. 44, 47; cf. p. 51); and in an- other he prints methaphysicus ( = metaphysicus) instead of emending to mathematicus (p. 41). Other misreadings, misprints, or needed emen- dations I noticed in the Latin (excluding obvious variants in spelling) were conventienter instead of convenienter; subalternare instead of subal- ternari (both on p. 44); sine instead of siue (p. 45); plus instead ofprius (p. 47); and abstrologia instead of astrologia (p. 52). In general the translation is both accurate and readable, a balance difficult to attain with such technical and jargon-ridden texts. Only in a few passages does the sense of the Latin seem less than clear in the English. By providing a facing- page translation, Livesey has offered his under- standing of the text while at the same time al- lowing us to come to our own conclusions. Livesey has done a superb job in identifying the many sources and quotations used by Anto- nius (some of which are available only in manu- script), thereby locating him in relation to Herve Natalis, Paul of Venice, Aegidius Romanus, Thomas Aquinas, and other scholastic writers on subalternation. Further, in the introduction Live- sey briefly sketches Antonius's treatment of sub- alteration (which was not especially novel) and compares it to that of another fifteenth-century Dominican, Dominicus of Flanders. For Livesey, the significance of these ques- tions lies more in their eclecticism than in any specific opinions or novel doctrines about sub- alteration that they might contain. But I think it also lies in their being part of the transmission cation for Galileo's use of mathematics in phys- ical science, and this is the main reason that these theories have recently come under scrutiny. Steven J. Livesey has contributed more to this field perhaps than any other scholar, with a series of studies and editions mostly of fourteenth-cen- tury Oxford theologians, including William of Ockham, John of Reading, and most recently Robert Graystanes. In the present book Livesey presents a critical edition, with introduction and facing-page English translation, of four ques- tions on subalternation by the fifteenth-century Dominican friar Antonius de Carlensis of Na- ples, two from his Questions on the Sentences and two from his Questions on the Posterior An- alytics. While I have not read it against the manu- scripts, I have found a few places where the edi- tion might be emended, especially in the ques- tions on the Posterior Analytics, which are edited from the single known manuscript. In sev- eral passages, for instance, Livesey prints aris- metica (= arithmetica) instead of emending it to armonica (= harmonica), which the argu- ment requires (pp. 44, 47; cf. p. 51); and in an- other he prints methaphysicus ( = metaphysicus) instead of emending to mathematicus (p. 41). Other misreadings, misprints, or needed emen- dations I noticed in the Latin (excluding obvious variants in spelling) were conventienter instead of convenienter; subalternare instead of subal- ternari (both on p. 44); sine instead of siue (p. 45); plus instead ofprius (p. 47); and abstrologia instead of astrologia (p. 52). In general the translation is both accurate and readable, a balance difficult to attain with such technical and jargon-ridden texts. Only in a few passages does the sense of the Latin seem less than clear in the English. By providing a facing- page translation, Livesey has offered his under- standing of the text while at the same time al- lowing us to come to our own conclusions. Livesey has done a superb job in identifying the many sources and quotations used by Anto- nius (some of which are available only in manu- script), thereby locating him in relation to Herve Natalis, Paul of Venice, Aegidius Romanus, Thomas Aquinas, and other scholastic writers on subalternation. Further, in the introduction Live- sey briefly sketches Antonius's treatment of sub- alteration (which was not especially novel) and compares it to that of another fifteenth-century Dominican, Dominicus of Flanders. For Livesey, the significance of these ques- tions lies more in their eclecticism than in any specific opinions or novel doctrines about sub- alteration that they might contain. But I think it also lies in their being part of the transmission (or mistransmission) and elaboration of medi- eval-and especially Thomistic-notions about subalternation, the mathematical sciences, and theology as a science, which would culminate in the modified Thomism of sixteenth-century Do- minicans and of Jesuit teachers at the Collegio Romano. If these ideas about subalteration were not the direct inspiration for Galileo's ma- ture scientific method (as William A. Wallace would have them be), then at least they form the common tradition of Galileo's Dominican and Jesuit opponents. With this edition of these ques- tions by Antonius de Carlensis, we are one step closer to understanding that tradition. W. R. LAIRD Laura Ackerman Smoller. History, Prophecy, and the Stars: The Christian Astrology of Pierre d'Ailly, 1350-1420. xii + 233 pp., illus., tables, apps., bibl., index. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1994. $35, ?26.50. In this admirable monograph, on the astrological and apocalyptic writings of the famous cardinal and scholar Pierre d'Ailly, Laura Smoller begins by drawing our attention to his subsequent influ- ence on Christopher Columbus. It seems almost poetic justice that the continent to which modem astrology owes most for its survival should have been discovered by a man who voyaged in the astrological belief-inspired by a 1483 printing of d'Ailly's works-that the end of time was at hand. But the intellectual world in which Colum- bus lived was not the old world in which his sources were conceived. Smoller is careful to avoid the all-too-common mistake of treating medieval and Renaissance astrology as an en- tirely seamless web, and she provides a careful account of the complex interrelations of late me- dieval astrology, Christian thinking, and the ra- tional study of the world in general. This intro- ductory material-balanced and well chosen though it may be-is of secondary importance. What makes her book so valuable is that it al- lows us to see into the mind of an individual, one immured in a set of beliefs for which most of us can have no real sympathy. She shows how astrology appealed to him as offering a rational means of interpreting history and prophecy, and how it brought such ambitions into jeopardy by dragging with it the twin problems of free will and divine omnipotence. Astral influence on the world was typically seen as an aspect of God's plan for the world's unfolding history. Academic astrology was not primarily a magical art-pace many a modem (or mistransmission) and elaboration of medi- eval-and especially Thomistic-notions about subalternation, the mathematical sciences, and theology as a science, which would culminate in the modified Thomism of sixteenth-century Do- minicans and of Jesuit teachers at the Collegio Romano. If these ideas about subalteration were not the direct inspiration for Galileo's ma- ture scientific method (as William A. Wallace would have them be), then at least they form the common tradition of Galileo's Dominican and Jesuit opponents. With this edition of these ques- tions by Antonius de Carlensis, we are one step closer to understanding that tradition. W. R. LAIRD Laura Ackerman Smoller. History, Prophecy, and the Stars: The Christian Astrology of Pierre d'Ailly, 1350-1420. xii + 233 pp., illus., tables, apps., bibl., index. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1994. $35, ?26.50. In this admirable monograph, on the astrological and apocalyptic writings of the famous cardinal and scholar Pierre d'Ailly, Laura Smoller begins by drawing our attention to his subsequent influ- ence on Christopher Columbus. It seems almost poetic justice that the continent to which modem astrology owes most for its survival should have been discovered by a man who voyaged in the astrological belief-inspired by a 1483 printing of d'Ailly's works-that the end of time was at hand. But the intellectual world in which Colum- bus lived was not the old world in which his sources were conceived. Smoller is careful to avoid the all-too-common mistake of treating medieval and Renaissance astrology as an en- tirely seamless web, and she provides a careful account of the complex interrelations of late me- dieval astrology, Christian thinking, and the ra- tional study of the world in general. This intro- ductory material-balanced and well chosen though it may be-is of secondary importance. What makes her book so valuable is that it al- lows us to see into the mind of an individual, one immured in a set of beliefs for which most of us can have no real sympathy. She shows how astrology appealed to him as offering a rational means of interpreting history and prophecy, and how it brought such ambitions into jeopardy by dragging with it the twin problems of free will and divine omnipotence. Astral influence on the world was typically seen as an aspect of God's plan for the world's unfolding history. Academic astrology was not primarily a magical art-pace many a modem 480 480 This content downloaded from 129.125.148.19 on Mon, 10 Dec 2018 15:07:01 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms BOOK REVIEWS-ISIS, 86: 3 (1995) BOOK REVIEWS-ISIS, 86: 3 (1995) Frontispiece from Pierre d'Ailly's Concordantia astronomie cum theologia (Augsburg, 1490) showing an astrologer and a theologian in harmonious discussion (reprinted in Smoller, History, Prophecy, and the Stars). writer-but a way of understanding the pattern of human history at a personal and social level. In the first case there were the personal horo- scopes, medical practices, and so forth that con- cerned the human individual, but it was on the grander scale that d'Ailly invoked astrology's assistance. God acted on the world through sec- ondary causes and associated legitimate author- ity, he thought, with certain signs. Brushing over the logical connection somewhat, he argued that the proper authority over the Church was a body of wise Christian men, namely, the General Council. Theologians remember him chiefly for his conciliar theory and tend to view with unease his defense of astrology as a form of natural the- ology underpinning it. D'Ailly's concern for the Great Schism in the Church (1378-1414), how- ever, was both a cause and an effect of his astro- logical awareness. Smoller amply justifies the thesis that the division in the Church led him to take seriously the imminence of the apocalypse and that he eventually turned to astrology to sup- press his fears, becoming convinced in the course of doing so that a Church council could heal the rift. Most of d'Ailly's writings were the product of Frontispiece from Pierre d'Ailly's Concordantia astronomie cum theologia (Augsburg, 1490) showing an astrologer and a theologian in harmonious discussion (reprinted in Smoller, History, Prophecy, and the Stars). writer-but a way of understanding the pattern of human history at a personal and social level. In the first case there were the personal horo- scopes, medical practices, and so forth that con- cerned the human individual, but it was on the grander scale that d'Ailly invoked astrology's assistance. God acted on the world through sec- ondary causes and associated legitimate author- ity, he thought, with certain signs. Brushing over the logical connection somewhat, he argued that the proper authority over the Church was a body of wise Christian men, namely, the General Council. Theologians remember him chiefly for his conciliar theory and tend to view with unease his defense of astrology as a form of natural the- ology underpinning it. D'Ailly's concern for the Great Schism in the Church (1378-1414), how- ever, was both a cause and an effect of his astro- logical awareness. Smoller amply justifies the thesis that the division in the Church led him to take seriously the imminence of the apocalypse and that he eventually turned to astrology to sup- press his fears, becoming convinced in the course of doing so that a Church council could heal the rift. Most of d'Ailly's writings were the product of the last ten years of his life (1410-1420), but he was no novice then. Starting from a cautious Thomistic stance, he grew increasingly enthusi- astic, and by the time the Council of Constance was convened (1414) the science-and in partic- ular the theory of great conjunctions-had led him to conclude that the End was not nigh. Smoller traces his changes of heart, and the in- fluences of writers who helped to bring them about, with meticulous care. On the way she raises numerous important questions. Why, for instance, were there not more examples of as- trologico-historical writing in the fifteenth cen- tury, in view of the fact that it could unite the passing troubles of the Church with the grand history of human salvation? What were the dif- ferences between God's time and astrological time conceived to be? How best should one re- late biblical utterances to astrological ones? Smoller offers partial answers to these and many comparable questions. She writes with econ- omy-the main text of her book is under 130 pages, although its rich annotation is more than half as long-and with good sense. Her book is sufficiently general for it to be read as an intro- duction to medieval astrology, but it is narrowly focused where it matters. For the reader in a hurry, the penultimate chapter, "Astrology and the Postponement of the End," is essential read- ing, and a model of how to cross medieval in- tellectual frontiers with impunity. J. D. NORTH Pierre Brind'Amour. Nostradamus astrophile: Les astres et l'astrologie dans la vie et l'oeuvre de Nostradamus. 561 pp., illus., tables, apps., bibl., index. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press; Paris: Editions Klincksieck, 1993. Can $48. More than four hundred years after his death, Nostradamus continues to fascinate. His life and writings have inspired an unending stream of books and articles and even a recent feature film. But much of this activity produces only imagi- native fiction or groundless speculation. Pierre Brind'Amour's scholarly and engrossing book returns Nostradamus to his historical context, documenting the "Nostradamus phenomenon" that made him for the last twenty years of his life a European celebrity and best-selling author, beset by plagiarists and literary pirates. Brind'Amour cannot avoid entirely the "naive but inevitable question": Was Nostradamus a prophet or a charlatan? The author modestly con- cludes, without attributing to his subject the power of clairvoyance, that one cannot deny his the last ten years of his life (1410-1420), but he was no novice then. Starting from a cautious Thomistic stance, he grew increasingly enthusi- astic, and by the time the Council of Constance was convened (1414) the science-and in partic- ular the theory of great conjunctions-had led him to conclude that the End was not nigh. Smoller traces his changes of heart, and the in- fluences of writers who helped to bring them about, with meticulous care. On the way she raises numerous important questions. Why, for instance, were there not more examples of as- trologico-historical writing in the fifteenth cen- tury, in view of the fact that it could unite the passing troubles of the Church with the grand history of human salvation? What were the dif- ferences between God's time and astrological time conceived to be? How best should one re- late biblical utterances to astrological ones? Smoller offers partial answers to these and many comparable questions. She writes with econ- omy-the main text of her book is under 130 pages, although its rich annotation is more than half as long-and with good sense. Her book is sufficiently general for it to be read as an intro- duction to medieval astrology, but it is narrowly focused where it matters. For the reader in a hurry, the penultimate chapter, "Astrology and the Postponement of the End," is essential read- ing, and a model of how to cross medieval in- tellectual frontiers with impunity. J. D. NORTH Pierre Brind'Amour. Nostradamus astrophile: Les astres et l'astrologie dans la vie et l'oeuvre de Nostradamus. 561 pp., illus., tables, apps., bibl., index. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press; Paris: Editions Klincksieck, 1993. Can $48. More than four hundred years after his death, Nostradamus continues to fascinate. His life and writings have inspired an unending stream of books and articles and even a recent feature film. But much of this activity produces only imagi- native fiction or groundless speculation. Pierre Brind'Amour's scholarly and engrossing book returns Nostradamus to his historical context, documenting the "Nostradamus phenomenon" that made him for the last twenty years of his life a European celebrity and best-selling author, beset by plagiarists and literary pirates. Brind'Amour cannot avoid entirely the "naive but inevitable question": Was Nostradamus a prophet or a charlatan? The author modestly con- cludes, without attributing to his subject the power of clairvoyance, that one cannot deny his 481 481 This content downloaded from 129.125.148.19 on Mon, 10 Dec 2018 15:07:01 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Contents image 1 image 2 Issue Table of Contents Isis, Vol. 86, No. 3, Sep., 1995 Front Matter Friction and Lubrication in Medieval Europe: The Emergence of Olive Oil as a Superior Agent [pp.373-393] The Snakestone Experiments: An Early Modern Medical Debate [pp.394-418] Recluse, Interlocutor, Interrogator: Natural and Social Order in Turn-of-the-Century Psychological Research Schools [pp.419-439] History of Science Society Distinguished Lecture Science as a Weapon in Kulturkampfe in the United States during and after World War II [pp.440-454] News of the Profession Eloge: Churchill Eisenhart, 11 March 1910-25 June 1994 [pp.455-456] Letters to the Editor [p.457] Essay Review Science, Technology, and Higher Education under Nazism [pp.458-462] Book Reviews Collections [pp.528-534] General untitled [p.463] untitled [pp.463-464] untitled [pp.464-465] untitled [pp.465-466] untitled [pp.466-467] untitled [pp.467-468] Antiquity untitled [pp.468-469] untitled [p.469] untitled [pp.469-470] untitled [pp.470-472] Middle Ages & Renaissance untitled [pp.472-475] untitled [p.475] untitled [pp.475-476] untitled [pp.476-477] untitled [pp.477-478] untitled [p.478] untitled [pp.478-479] untitled [pp.479-480] untitled [pp.480-481] untitled [pp.481-482] untitled [pp.482-483] Seventeenth Century untitled [pp.483-484] untitled [pp.484-485] untitled [pp.485-486] untitled [pp.486-488] untitled [p.488] untitled [pp.488-489] untitled [pp.489-490] untitled [pp.490-491] untitled [p.491] Eighteenth Century untitled [pp.491-492] untitled [p.492] untitled [p.493] untitled [p.494] untitled [pp.494-495] untitled [pp.495-496] untitled [pp.496-497] untitled [pp.497-498] untitled [p.498] untitled [pp.498-499] untitled [pp.499-500] Nineteenth Century untitled [pp.500-501] untitled [pp.501-502] untitled [pp.502-503] untitled [pp.503-504] untitled [p.504] untitled [pp.504-505] untitled [pp.505-506] untitled [pp.506-507] untitled [pp.507-508] untitled [p.508] untitled [pp.508-509] untitled [pp.509-510] untitled [pp.510-511] untitled [pp.511-512] untitled [pp.512-513] Twentieth Century untitled [pp.513-514] untitled [pp.514-515] untitled [p.515] untitled [pp.515-516] untitled [pp.516-517] untitled [pp.517-518] untitled [pp.518-519] untitled [pp.519-520] untitled [p.520] untitled [pp.520-522] untitled [pp.522-523] untitled [pp.523-524] untitled [pp.524-525] untitled [pp.525-526] untitled [p.526] Sociology & Philosophy of Science untitled [pp.526-527] Reference Tools untitled [pp.527-528] Back Matter [pp.535-540]