8. The New Astral Medicine

What is it about?

In the Renaissance, two major factors contributed to the modification of this traditional relationship between medicine and astrology. One is the severe criticism of judicial astrology, advanced by Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463–1494) in his posthumous work, entitled "Disputations against Judicial Astrology" (Disputationes adversus astrologiam divinatricem) (Bologna, 1496). Many of his contemporaries (followed by modern historians) generally considered that Pico rejected the divinatory aspects of astrology and accepted only its physical dimensions, which can be labeled as “natural astrology.” According to this interpretation, the influences of the celestial region were exerted only by physical means: motion, light and heat. Pico thus criticized the astrological aspects of the doctrine of critical days. Another stimulus came from Florentine philosopher, Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499). Among his works there was a treatise on longevity, entitled "Three Books on Life" (De vita libri tres) (Florence, 1489). His worldview, heavily influenced by ancient Neoplatonism, was blended with ideas borrowed from late medieval alchemy, astrology and natural magic. Pico’s criticism of judicial astrology and Ficino’s promotion of cosmic harmony lead sixteenth-century physicians to present theoretical innovations for a new system which can be called “astral medicine.” 1. Introduction 2. Leoniceno’s Naturalistic Interpretation 3. Fernel’s Astral Medicine 4. Mizauld’s Harmony between Heaven and Earth 5. Cardano’s Theory of Cosmic Heat 6. Gemma and the Apogee of Astral Medicine 7. The Paracelsians and the Quest for the Universal Medicine

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