Morandi's Last Prophecy and the End of Renaissance Politics
Princeton University Press (Verlag)
978-0-691-04864-2 (ISBN)
One year before Galileo's, another trial was the talk of Rome. The city's most notorious astrologer--Orazio Morandi, abbot of the monastery of Santa Prassede--was brought before the governor's court on charges of possessing prohibited books, fortune telling, and political chicanery. His most serious crime was to have predicted the death of Pope Urban VIII and allowed news of this to spread as far as Spain, where cardinals quickly embarked for Italy to attend a conclave that would not occur for fourteen years. The pope, furious at such astrological and political effrontery, personally ordered the criminal inquiry that led to Morandi's arrest, trial, and death in prison, probably by assassination. Based on new evidence, this book chronicles Morandi's fabulous rise and fall against the backdrop of enormous political and cultural turmoil that characterized Italy in the early seventeenth century. It documents a world in which occult knowledge commanded power, reveals widespread libertinism behind monastery walls, and illuminates the arduous metamorphosis of intellectual culture already underway.
It also sets the stage for, and lends new understanding to, the trial of Galileo that would follow shortly. The mystery of Morandi concerns the basic compulsion to advance in a status-drenched society and the very nature of knowledge at the birth of science. Told here in colorful detail, Morandi's story is fascinating in its own right. Beyond that, it allows us to glimpse the underside of early modern high society as never before.
Brendan Dooley taught history at Harvard University for many years. He is now Chief of Research at the Medici Archive Project. His books include Italy in the Baroque, The Social History of Skepticism, and Science and the Marketplace in Early Modern Italy.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ix PROLOGUE xi Introduction 1 ONE: Crime and Memory 6 TWO: The Road to Vallombrosa 14 THREE: Ad Astra per Aspera 22 FOUR: The Astrologer's Books 35 FIVE: The Sun Pope 46 SIX: The Widening Circle 59 SEVEN: Heavenly Bodies 74 EIGHT: Clean Teeth, Pure Souls 83 NINE: The Harmony of the Universe 92 TEN: Charting the Firmament 101 ELEVEN: The Science of the Stars 112 TWELVE: The Business of Astrology 125 THIRTEEN: De Re Publica 132 FOURTEEN: Occult Politics 144 FIFTEEN: The Last Prophecy 154 SIXTEEN: The Vendetta 162 SEVENTEEN: The Body of the Accused 172 EPILOGUE 181 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 187 NOTES 189 INDEX 225
| Erscheint lt. Verlag | 21.4.2002 |
|---|---|
| Zusatzinfo | 13 halftones, 3 line illus. |
| Verlagsort | New Jersey |
| Sprache | englisch |
| Maße | 152 x 235 mm |
| Gewicht | 510 g |
| Themenwelt | Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Gesundheit / Leben / Psychologie ► Astrologie |
| Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Neuzeit (bis 1918) | |
| Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte | |
| ISBN-10 | 0-691-04864-9 / 0691048649 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-691-04864-2 / 9780691048642 |
| Zustand | Neuware |
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