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William R. Newman and Anthony Grafton, eds. Secrets of Nature: Astrology and Alchemy in Early AModern Europe. Transformations: Studies in the History of Science and Technology. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2001. 443 pp. III. $50.00 (0-262-14075-6).
This volume is a collection of eight essays. After an introductory chapter by the editors, pointing to the importance of the subject, there are two papers on Girolamo Cardano. First, Germana Ernst discusses Cardano's early rejection of Arabic authorities and his desire to return to the work of Ptolemy. This belief in ancient authority is reminiscent of the then-contemporary medical search for an uncorrupted Galen. Considered the greatest astrologer of the sixteenth century, Cardano insisted that astrology and religion were in basic agreement. Anthony Grafton and Nancy Siraisi turn next to Cardano's medical astrology and show that "for the most part, he seems to have viewed astrology and medicine as separate disciplines with their own theoretical (and practical) bases" (pp. 27-28). Cardano sought to revive Ptolemy's astrology through his extensive commentary on the Tetrabiblos, but his work in this field seems to have concentrated more on the reform of astronomy than on its application to medicine.
Darrel Rutkin examines the dedication by Johann Kepler to Rudolf II in Astronomia nova (1609). In his praise of the Holy Roman Emperor, Kepler employed astrology to associate him with Mars. This is of interest because of recent research on Galileo's similar use of astrology in his dedication of the Sidereus nurvius (1610) to Cosimo II: Rutkin raises the question whether Galileo might have been influenced by Kepler. However, regardless of their use of astrology in their dedications, both authors...