Dissertation Research: Giovanni Pico Della Mirandola, Disputationes Adversus Astrologiam Divinatricem: Texts & Contexts

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This is a dissertation research project that will allow the researcher to spend the academic year working closely with Professor Noel M. Swerdlow at the University of Chicago to analyze in detail-and to translate into English- Giovanni Pico della Mirandola's (1463-94) extensive (320 page) attack on astrology, his Disputationes adversus astrologiam divinatricem (1496). Professor Swerdlow is an expert in the highly technical features of mathematical astronomy and astrology. The methods to be employed are primarily philological and historico-critical. The researchers will read the text by one of the central figures of the Florentine Renaissance in order to come to a fully informed, detailed understanding of the full range of argumentation in Pico's vehement attack on astrology. Furthermore, they will read the text within two of its most important contexts: (1) the contemporary (Quattrocento) state of astrology in both court and university, and (2) the history of astrology as Pico, a highly skilled humanist, would have received it. This detailed reading will form the nucleus of a multifold contextual study. The potential import of such an in-depth study of Pico's Disputationes is that the scholarly community may thus come to a proper judgement of this important text and its influence. It has been judged important in the history of philosophy and science for many reasons, yet there still exists no thorough study thereof. In fulfilling this desideratum, the dissertation researcher will establish a solid foundation both for understanding the important, often misunderstood, place of astrology in the history of science during this period, and, in particular, for understanding the true import of Pico della Mirandola's role in that process.