Category Archives: History of Astrology
Badly researched footnotes.
Ted Hand historian of alchemy drew my attention, through a tweet, to the Camden Society’s 1842 edition of the Diary of John Dee. This diary contains one reference to Thomas Digges in the entry for 1593, which reads as follows: I … Continue reading
Reformation, revolutions and social media.
Sometime before Christmas I received an email from Jon Wilkins sick warped bastard[1] cartoonist of Darwin Eats Cake drawing my attention to this article at The Economist How Luther went virile viral [opps!]: Five centuries before Facebook and the Arab Spring, … Continue reading
Mythologizing John Dee
This is not really a post but more a short rant. To do real justice to John Dee, which I fully intend to do sometime in the future, would require more time and effort than I have to spare at … Continue reading
The world’s first scientific press
The first ever printing house dedicated to the printing and publishing of scientific books was established in Nürnberg in 1471 by the astronomer, astrologer and mathematician Johannes Müller, better known as Regiomontanus who was born in Königsberg in Lower Franconia … Continue reading
The astronomical revolution didn’t start here!
In the usual collection of myths that passes for history of science in our culture the astronomical revolution (and the so-called scientific revolution for that matter) is considered to have started with the publication of Copernicus’ De revolutionibus in Nürnberg … Continue reading
When did what end?
One of the advantages of this blog is that many of those who comment here are more intelligent, better read, better informed and better educated than the blog author, this means that in their comments they question, provoke and suggest … Continue reading
The fall of astrology: two footnotes
At the beginning of my post on the rise and fall of astrology I said that a full explanation would run to a full-length book or more and I attempted a short but informative sketch of history. Unfortunately the comments … Continue reading
Filed under History of Astrology
The rise and fall of astrology
Jim Harrison one of my regular commentators posted the following comment/ question on my post about the astrology wars: Arguments about the legitimacy or illegitimacy of astrology in the past may make us lose the opportunity to study the downfall … Continue reading
Filed under History of Astrology
The Astrology Wars a closing statement.
The Astrology Wars have also gone viral on the History of Astronomy Mailing List providing a flood of comments pro and contra with some interesting comments from the historians of astrology who frequent the list. The best summary of my … Continue reading
Filed under History of Astrology
The astrology wars and abandoned scientific research programmes.
In case you haven’t noticed the intertubes have descended into a series of skirmishes on the subject of astrology. The whole thing started with an astronomer in Minnesota who pointed out that the constellations move around the ecliptic (that’s the … Continue reading
