ad Astra

In episode 60 of the podcast I have the pleasure of talking with Professor Steven Vanden Broecke, a well known scholar on the history of astrology. We discuss the history of astrology as a discipline and field of study within the academia. Steven Vanden Broecke is a Full professor at the Faculty of Arts and Philosophy, Department of History, University of Ghent. He has written many papers on the h...

In this episode I speak with researcher Sergio Orozco-Echeverri, Associate Professor at the Instituto de Filosofía, Universidad de Antioquia, and the principal researcher at the project: Repertorios. An alternative history of knowledge. We discuss his project on Reportorios, an early modern form of almanac in the Iberian world, and its importance in the transmission of astrological and astronomica...

In this episode I talk with Simon Dolet about his research on astrometeorology in the early eighteenth century. Simon is a PhD candidate at the Côte d’Azur University (Nice) and has been studying the role of astrology in the history of meteorology. His project is a continuation of his MA "L'astrologie saine de Giuseppe Toaldo. Un astro-météorologue dans la République des sciences" (2022). Simon's...

In this episode, I talk with Fien de Block about her research on astrologers and astrological practices in the fifteenth-century Sultanate of Cairo. This was the subject of her PhD thesis titled "(Re)drawing the lines: the science of the stars in the late fifteenth century Sultanate of Cairo" (2020). Fien de Block is currently a guest professor and a researcher at the University of Gent. Her publi...

In this episode, I talk to Professor Tunç Şen, Assistant Professor at the Department of History of Columbia University. He is a historian of the Ottoman Empire interested in intellectual, cultural, and political history. Is PhD thesis “Astrology in the Service of the Empire: Knowledge, Prognostication, and Politics at the Ottoman Court, 1450s-1550s” (2016) focuses the astrological practices and pr...

In this episode I talk with Tayra Lanuza Navarro on her research on Early Modern Astrology in Spain. Tayra has been one of the foremost historians of astrology in Spain and has produced numerous papers on this topic. She is currently a researcher at the ERC project Early Modern Cosmology: Institutions and Metaphysics at the Ca' Foscari University of Venice. Find more about Tayra's work at: https:/...

In this episode, which is very dear to me, I invite three previous guests of the podcast to discuss Helena Avelar's work, in particular her book: "An Astrologer at Work in Late Medieval France. The Workbooks of S. Belle". Helena was the co-founder of the Astra project and co-host of this podcast. She passed way unexpectedly in March 2021 before her book published. Dorian Greenbaum, Charles Burnett...

In this episode we talk to Josefina Rodriguez Arribas and Dorian G. Greenbaum about their new edited volume "Unveiling the Hidden – Anticipating the Future: Divinatory Practices Among Jews Between Qumran and the Modern Period" (Brill, 2021). Gathering the work of ten scholars, the book explores various Jewish practices of divination (astrology, bibliomancy, physiognomy, dream requests, astral magi...

In this episode we speak with Professor Jean-Patrice Boudet, about his new book containing his collected works on the history of astrology. Professor Boudet is one of the chief researchers in this field has published various books and numerous papers on the medieval practices of astrology in Europe now collected in this volume by Micrologus Library (Sismel): https://www.sismel.it/pubblicazioni/179...

In this episode we talk to Michael Ryan, associate professor of medieval and early modern history at the University of New Mexico. Michael research interests include the intersection of magic, science, and religion in the premodern world. In the podcast we discuss his book, A Kingdom of Stargazers: Astrology and Authority in the Late Medieval Crown of Aragon (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press,...

This is episode 50 of the main podcast series! In this podcast we talk once more with researcher David Juste on his latest research on medieval astrological charts accompanied by their judgement. We discuss several aspects of the existing corpus of medieval charts. David Just has specialised in the study and cataloguing of astrological manuscripts and has published three volumes of the Catalogus C...

In this episode we talk with Yael Kedar a specialist on Roger Bacon about his writings on astrology. Yael Kedar is a faculty member at Tel-Hai College, research fellow at the University of Haifa, and vice-president of the Roger Bacon Society. For more details on Dr. Kedar’s works see: https://telhai.academia.edu/yaelraizmankedar or https://english.telhai.ac.il/faculty-members/single-faculty-member...

This episode of In Memoriam addresses another monumental figure of the history of science, who made invaluable contributions to the history of astrology: Otto E. Neugebauer (26 May 1899 –19 February 1990). Together with Professors Alexander Jones and Charles Burnett we discuss his life and work and become aware of the scholar, and also the man. Born in Innsbruck, Austria, he became one of the lead...

In this episode we talk to Pietro Omodeo, historian of science and philosophy and historical epistemology specialising in the early modern period. He currently the principal investigator on the ERC Consolidator Project Institutions and Metaphysics of Cosmology in the Epistemic Networks of Seventeenth-Century Europe hosted by the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. In our conversation Pietro Omodeo p...

In this episode we have as our guest Professor Richard Lynn Kremer. He is an emeritus professor of History of Dartmouth College, specialising in the history of science, medicine and technology. He is also the Curator of the Collection of Scientific Instruments at Dartmouth. Our conversation addresses one of Professor Kremer’s main research topics, mathematical astronomy, from Ptolemy to the early...

In this episode we talk with Darin Hayton, associate Professor of History and Chair of History Department at Haverford College. Professor Hayton has published several woks on the history of astrology and the mathematical sciences in the contexts of courtly politics, among which his book The Crown and the Cosmos. Astrology and the Politics of Maximilian I (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2015). In...

This episode of In Memoriam we are joined by Günther Oestmann to remember historian Peter Franz Schiller (29 November 1947 – 23 January 2013).  Born in Düsseldorf, Schiller was musically and artistically talented, his vocation was art history and he studied this subject together with archaeology and philosophy as minor subjects. Catholic theology was added as a double degree course. His scientific...

In this episode we talk with researcher Michael Noble about his recent book: Philosophising the Occult. Avicennan Psychology and ‘The Hidden Secret’ of Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī (De Gruyter, 2021). This work is the result of Michael’s PhD research at The Warburg Institute and touches on many aspects of Arabic cosmology and astral magic. Michael is currently a post doctoral researcher at the Ludwig-Maxi...

In this episode we talk to Samuel Gessner about the armillary sphere, an interesting astronomic instrument with astrological applications. Samuel explains the role and functions of these spheres, often used as teaching tools in medieval universities. He demonstrates some of its applications in astrology. Samuel is a post doctoral researcher at the ERC ALPHA project, Observatoire de Paris. We thank...

In this episode we talk with Jonathan Green, professor at the University of North Dakota, and a researcher of German medieval and early modern literature. We discuss his work on prophecy and its dissemination during the early modern period, as well as his current research projects. Jonathan Green has written two important books on prophecy literature. The first, Printing and Prophecy: Prognosticat...

In this episode we talk with Teri Gee, professor of Physics at Brigham Young University. Her PhD dissertation, “Strategies of Defending Astrology: A Continuing Tradition”, addresses the arguments used for defending the practice of astrology from the classical to the late medieval periods in the Greek, Arabic and Latin contexts. In this very lively podcast we discuss her research and her current re...

In this podcast we talk with researcher Márton Veszprémy about his research on the practice of astrology in East-Central Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries. Márton is currently developing his PhD on this topic at the Eötvös Loránd University, and shares with us some aspects of his research. For more details on Márton Veszprémy’s work, see: https://elte.academia.edu/MártonVeszprémy

In this podcast we talk with Klaus Herbers, Professor of Medieval History at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität. He is also the First Deputy Director of the IKGF – International Consortium for Research in the Humanities “Fate, Freedom and Prognostication”, a partner institution of the Astra Project. Our conversation addresses the Professor’s study on the medieval world and prognostication. In thi...

In this episode we talk with Professor Kocku von Stuckrad, historian of religion and culture about the role of astrology and the ‘hybrid’ nature of “the science of the stars”, which has always combined rigorous empirical research and hermeneutical layers in its theory and activity. The podcast takes a look at what is accepted and what is fringe knowledge and how this concepts shift throughout time...

In this podcast we talk once more with researcher Petra Schmidl on her research on a thirteenth-century manuscript from Yemen. We talk on the constellation of practical or useful knowledges contained in this type of work, which range from the religious, to the geographical, and the astronomical and astrological material. For details on the project and more information about her work, see: https://...