Annotazioni sul carattere 'possibile' del sapere astrologico tra Medioevo e Rinascimento

The history of astrology has become the

subject of rigorous study only since the mid-19th

century, thanks to the first contributions of Oriental

studies, and particularly of Egyptology. In close relation

with classical philology, these studies have

made available a number of Greek, Latin, Arabic

and Hebrew texts with an astrological content:

among them the fragments of Nechepto-Petosiris;

the treatises by Manetho, Dorotheus, Vettius Valens,

Ptolemy, Paul of Alexandria, Hephaestion

Theban; writings of Al-Biruni, al-Kindi, Masha ‘Allah,

Abu Masar, Abenragel, bar Hyya Abraham Ibn

Ezra. During the last century, moments and aspects

of the history of astrology and of its presence in the

history of culture and ideas have been clarified in

important works by Bouché-Leclercq, Boll,

Warburg, Saxl, Panofsky, Klibansky, Garin. However,

much remains to be done concerning the restitution

of the texts and the analysis of the “internal

history of astrology”, that is, its own history. In this

essay the main topics of the history of Astrology

during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance is

introduced providing some considerations on the

possible features of this branch of knowledge.