https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8079-8072
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ABSTRACT
While the link between navigation and astronomy is quite evident and its history has been extensively explored, the prognosticatory element included in astronomical knowledge has been almost completely left out. In the early modern world, the science of the stars also included prognostication known today as astrology. Together with astronomical learning, navigation also included astrology as a means to predict the success of a journey. This connection, however, has never been adequately researched. This paper makes the first broad study of the tradition of astrology in navigation as well as its role in early modern globalization. It shows how astrological doctrine had its own tools for nautical prognostication. These could be used when dealing with the uncertainty of reaching the desired destination, to inquire about the condition of a loved one, or an important cargo. It was widely used, both in time and geographical context, by navigators and cosmographers for weather forecasting and elections for the start of a successful voyage.
Acknowledgement
I would like to thank the useful suggestions by the peer reviewers, express my gratitude to Professor Henrique Leitão for his support, early revision and comments on the paper, to my team members at the Rutter project for their feedback, and in particular to thank José Maria Moreno Madrid's valuable advice on some of the sources used.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Gaspar Correia, Lendas da Índia, ed. by Manuel Lopes de Almeida (Porto: Lello & Irmão Editores, 1975), I, p. 10.
2 ‘Foi muito dado à Astrologia judiçiaria, em tanto que no partir das naos pera ha India, ou no tempo que has speraua, mandaua tirar juizos per hum grande Astrologo Portugues, morador em Lisboa, per nome Diogo Mendez Vezinho, natural de Couilhã, dalcunha ho coxo, porque ho era daleijam, e depois deste faleçer com Thomas de Torres seu physico, homem mui experto, assi na Astrologia, quomo em outras sciençias’ – Damião de Góis, Crónica do Felicissimo Rei D. Manuel, ed. by Joaquim Martins Teixeira de Carvalho and David Lopes (Coimbra: Imprensa da Universidade de Coimbra, 1926), iv, pp. 201–02. Diogo Mendes Vizinho, also called José Vizinho, is known for his astronomical activities which include the publication of the Almanach Perpetuum (1496), containing the astronomical tables by Zacuto.
3 For a study of the use of astrology in the Portuguese chronicles, see Helena Avelar de Carvalho, ‘Vir Sapiens Dominabitur Astris: Astrological Knowledge and Practices in the Portuguese Medieval Court (King João I to King Afonso V)’ (Universidade Nova de Lisboa – Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas, 2011).
4 Discussed at length in João de Barros, Decada terceira da Asia de João de Barros. Dos feitos que os portugueses fezerão no descobrimento & conquista dos mares & terras do Oriente, 3 vols (Lisboa: impressa per Jorge Rodriguez aa custa de Antonio Gonçalvez mercador de livros, 1628), III, chap. 6. A first exploration of the role of astrology in the work of Andrés de San Martín was made by Leonardo Ariel Carrió Cataldi, ‘Astrología a Bordo: Andrés de San Martín y El Viaje de Magallanes’, Anais de História de Além-Mar, XX (2019), 121–44.
5 ‘& mandou coele a hum astrologo chamado Andrés de Sam Martim, pera que por astrologia visse se podia alcançar a saber a altura de leste a oeste de que se esperaua muyto dajudar pera ho dereito deste descobrimento’ – Fernão Lopes de Castanheda, História do descobrimento & conquista da India pelos portugueses (Coimbra: João Barreira, 1554), VI, p. 6 (chapter 6).
6 ‘Mas parece que também este não calculous bem a hora do dia que a armada partio de São Lucar de Barrameda que foi a vinte & hum dias de Settembro do anno de quinhentos & dezanoue, pois não vio como elle & Fernão de Magalhães auião de acabar na ilha de Subo’ – Barros, III, fol. 141r.
7 ‘O qual tempo & lugar de suas mortes não alcançou o astrologo Andres de San Martin: posto que pelo ascendente de sua partida, & por algumas interrogações que lhe Fernão de Magalhães fezera, elle lhe tiha ditto que naquelle caminho lhe via hum grande perigo de morte’ – Barros, III, fol. 145r. Barros also states that Ruy Faleiro could have predicted an ill end to the journey and chose not to go (fol. 141r).
8 ‘porque desejando achar alguma terra firme, & fazendo interrogações sobre isso ao astrólogo Andres de San Martin, porque como lhe já falecia a conta & razão do marear, leixando a Astronomia, couertiase á Astrologia.’ – Barros, III, fol. 145r.
9 ‘Fernão de Magalhães desejando saber o que era feito della, disse ao astrologo Andres de San Martin que prognosticasse, pela ora da partida & sua interrogação’ – Barros, III, fol. 143r.
10 Lisboa, Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo (ANTT), Corpo Cronológico, Parte II, mç. 101, n.o 87.
11 ‘e dali desapareçeu a nao de que era capitam Alvaro de Mezquita e a presunçam em todo sera que o piloto Estevam Gommez portugues prendera ao dito capitam e tornava em busca de Joham de Cartagena e do creligo e que esta presunçam era por hum juizo que hum estrolico hy tirou por mandado do dicto Fernam de Magalhaes’ – ANTT, Corpo Cronológico, Parte II, mç. 101, n.o 87, fol. 3r.
12 ‘All books and writings on geomancy, hydromancy, aeromancy, pyromancy, onomancy, chiromancy, necromancy, or those in which are contained the drawing of lots, sorceries, auguries, auspices, incantations of the magic art, are entirely rejected. But let the bishops see carefully that books, treatises, indices on judicial astrology be not read or kept, which dare to affirm as certain that something is to happen regarding future contingent, or chance events, or those actions dependent on the human will. However, judgments and natural observations which are written for the purpose of aiding navigation, agriculture, or the medical art, are allowed.’ These and other documents are reproduced in Ugo Baldini and Leen Spruit, Catholic Church and Modern Science: Documents from the Archives of the Roman Congregations of the Holy Office and the Index. Volume I. Sixteenth-Century Documents (Roma: Libreria editrice vaticana, 2009), I, pp. 160–67.
13 ‘by this constitution that shall be forever valid, we establish and command by virtue of our apostolic authority that against the Astrologers, Mathematici, and any others who from now on practice the aforementioned art (except in regard to agriculture, navigation or medicine), or cast judgments and nativities of men in which they dare to state something will happen regarding future occurrences, successes and chance happenings, or acts dependent upon human will – even if they say or protest that such a thing is not stated as a certainty.’ – Sixtus V, ‘Contra exercentes artem astrologiae judiciariae’, in Magnum bullarium Romanum, a Pio Quarto usque ad Innocentium IX, ed. by Angelo Cherubini (Lovain: sumptib. Philippi Borde, Laur. Arnaud, et Cl. Rigaud, 1655), II, pp. 515–17 (p. 516 (section 3)).
14 As noted by H Darrel Rutkin, Sapientia Astrologica: Astrology, Magic and Natural Knowledge, ca. 1250–1800: I. Medieval Structures (1250–1500): Conceptual, Institutional, Socio-Political, Theologico-Religious and Cultural, Archimedes (Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2019), p. 197.
15 This does not mean that such applications did not continue to be used. They were practised privately in Catholic countries, as attested by some manuscript evidence, and openly in many Protestant countries.
16 For example, the popular Ephemeris published by the mathematician Giovanni Antonio Magini in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century, offered an introduction to astrology which in later editions, after the papal bull, is replaced by texts on astrology for use in agriculture, navigation, and weather forecasting.
17 An example is the excising of the significations of the twelve houses. See Luís Campos Ribeiro, ‘Transgressing Boundaries? Jesuits, Astrology and Culture in Portugal (1590–1759)’ (unpublished PhD Thesis, University of Lisbon, 2021), pp. 387–92 <http://hdl.handle.net/10451/49744>.
18 See, for example, Lauren Kassell, Medicine and Magic in Elizabethan London: Simon Forman: Astrologer, Alchemist, and Physician (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005); Astro-Medicine: Astrology and Medicine, East and West, ed. by Anna Akasoy, Charles Burnett, and Ronit Yoeli-Tlalim, Micrologus’ Library, 25 (Firenze: SISMEL Edizioni del galluzzo, 2008).
19 This would not accommodate any medical practice that made use of talismans and other magically based cures that could be associated with astrology. See: Mark A. Waddell, Magic, Science, and Religion in Early Modern Europe, 1st edn (Cambridge University Press, 2021), pp. 88–89.
20 On almanacs and their history see, among others, Bernard Capp, Astrology and the Popular Press: English Almanacs 1500–1800 (London: Faber, 1979); William E. Burns, ‘Astrology and Politics in Seventeenth-Century England: King James II and the Almanac Men’, The Seventeenth Century, 20.2 (2005), 242–53; Louise Hill Curth, English Almanacs, Astrology and Popular Medicine, 1550–1700 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2007); Luís Miguel Carolino, A escrita celeste: almanaques astrológicos em Portugal nos séculos XVII e XVIII, Memória & saber (Rio de Janeiro: Access, 2002); Elide Casali, Le Spie Del Cielo: Oroscopi, Lunari e Almanacchi Nell’Italia Moderna, Biblioteca Einaudi 158 (Torino: Einaudi, 2003); Justin Rivest, ‘Printing and Astrology in Early Modem France: Vernacular Almanac-Prognostications, 1497–1555’ (MA dissertation, Ottawa, Carleton University, 2004).
21 Following the same argument, and although farming schedules and advice could be considered under the larger topic of agriculture, its proper connection to astrology is in dire need of further exploration, however the present paper will deal only with navigation.
22 Namely Gilbert Dagron and Jean Rougé, ‘Trois horoscopes de voyages en mer (5e siècle après J.-C.)’, Revue des études byzantines, 40.1 (1982), 117–33; Joanna Komorowska, ‘Seamanship, Sea-Travel and Nautical Astrology: Demetrius, “Rhetorius” and Naval Prognostication’, Eos, 88 (2001), 245–56; Aurelio Pérez Jiménez, ‘Dodecatropos, Zodíaco y Partes de la Nave en la Astrología Antigua’, MHNH, 7 (2007), 217–36; and some aspects of astrological symbolism and navigation are also addressed in Wolfgang Hübner, Raum, Zeit Und Soziales Rollenspiel Der Vier Kardinalpunkte in Der Antiken Katarchenhoroskopie, Beiträge Zur Altertumskunde, Bd. 194 (München: Saur, 2003).
23 In this period the seven planets in the astrological sense of ‘errant stars’ are Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, as well as the Sun and the Moon.
24 William Lilly's Christian Astrology is usually a good source for the common early modern correlations, but many others could be used such as Dorotheus of Sidon, Alcabitius, Guido Bonatti, to name just a few. William Lilly, Christian Astrology Modestly Treated in Three Books, 1st edn (London: Tho. Brudenelle, 1647), p. 82.
25 Ibid., p. 94.
26 Ibid., p. 98.
27 Ibid., pp. 52 and 55.
28 Abū Maʿšar, The Great Introduction to Astrology, ed. by Keiji Yamamoto and Charles Burnett, 2 vols (Leiden: Brill, 2019), I, p. 889. The lots or parts are mathematical computations used for very specific subjects and are calculated taking the distance between two points in the chart (commonly planets) and projecting it from a third point (usually the ascendant degree). This lot is taken by day from Saturn to 15° of Cancer and cast from the ascendant (reversed in nocturnal charts). The lots gradually fell out of favour in seventeenth-century astrology.
29 Examples of the zodiacal horse can be found in New York, Morgan Library, MS M.735 fol. 62r, and in Martín Arredondo, Obras de Albeyteria: primera, segunda y tercera parte (Madrid: por Bernardo de Villadiego, 1669), p. 170. On this representation see also Josefina Planas Badenas, ‘El caballo astrológico en el tratado de albeitería de Manuel Díez’, Goya: Revista de arte, 340 (2012), 187–99.
30 El libro complido en los iudicios de las estrelas, more widespread in his Latin translation, Preclarissimus liber completus in iudiciis astrorum, which had multiple editions.
31 ‘Da el signo de Aries a los pechos de la naue, e Tauro a aquello que es so los pechos un poco escontra el agua, e Gemini a los gouernios de la naue, e Cancer al fondon de la naue, Leon al somo de la naue, aquello que esta sobre la agua, Virgo al uientre de la naue, Libra a lo ques alça e se abaxa de los pechos de la naue en el agua, Scorpion al logar o esta el marinero, Sagitario al mismo marinero, Caprico(r)nio a las sogas que son en la naue, Aquario al maste de la naue, Piscis a los rimos.’:ʻAlī Abū al-Ḥasan al-šaybānī Ibn Abī al-Riǧāl, El libro conplido en los iudizios de las estrellas, ed. by Gerold Hilty (Madrid: Real Academia Española, 1954), p. 128; for an English early modern version, see William Lilly, Christian Astrology, pp. 157–58.
32 In William Lilly and other English early modern astrological authors, Capricorn is listed as ‘the ends of the ship’. This appears to be an error of the Latin translation where the word ‘finibus’ replaces the original Spanish ‘sogas’, ropes or rigging. This misreading of the Latin ‘funibus’ which appears in manuscript versions such as that of Wolfenbüttel, Herzog August Bibliothek, Cod. Guelf. 12.7 Aug. 2°, fol. 91v. As to Aquarius, Lilly, and others list ‘The master or captain of the ship’, possibly a mistranslation of the Spanish ‘maste’ to the Latin ‘magister’, and consequently ‘master’ in English.
33 Pérez Jiménez.
34 See al-Riǧāl, p. 128. For a discussion on the sources and variations of this method, see Pérez Jiménez, pp. 218–21. A more detailed study of these attributions, their transmission, and translation is being currently researched by Juan Acevedo and Luís Ribeiro (forthcoming in Rutter Technical Notes: <https://rutter-project.org/technical-notes/>).
35 Lisboa, Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo (ANTT), Tribunal do Santo Ofício, Inquisição de Lisboa, proc. 7544.
36 ANTT, Tribunal do Santo Ofício, Inquisição de Lisboa, proc. 7544, fol. 18v: ‘e quem quer navegar lhe pergunta se sucederá bem a viagem’; fol. 19v, ‘pessoas que navegam se sam vivos ou mortos.’ Other mentions are in fols. 35v, 40r-41r, 49r.
37 ANTT, Tribunal do Santo Ofício, Inquisição de Lisboa, proc. 7544, fols. 15v–16r.
38 Tayra Lanuza Navarro, ‘Astrología, Ciencia y Sociedad En La España de Los Austrias’ (Universitat de València, 2005), pp. 154–59.
39 Lisboa, Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal. Cod. 887, fol. 1r.
40 For a study of these cases see Adelina Sarrión Mora, Médicos e inquisición en el siglo XVII (Cuenca: Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, 2006), pp. 86–103.
41 Ana Cecilia Ávalos Flores, ‘Cosmografía y astrología en Manila: una red intelectual en el mundo colonial ibérico’, Memoria y Sociedad, 13.27 (2009), 27–40 (pp. 34–37).
42 John Newsome Crossley, Hernando de Los Ríos Coronel and the Spanish Philippines in the Golden Age (Farnham: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2013), pp. 147–49.
43 Tayra Lanuza Navarro, ‘Astrology in Spanish Early Modern Institutions of Learning’, in Beyond Borders: Fresh Perspectives in History of Science, ed. by Josep Simon and others (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars, 2008), pp. 79–103 (pp. 84–88).
44 The case of Pérez de Soto case as a bookseller and book owner is well documented although few studies focus the details of his astrological practices. See: Donald G. Castanien, ‘The Mexican Inquisition Censors a Private Library, 1655’, Hispanic American Historical Review, 34 (1954), 374–92; Ana Avalos, ‘As Above, So Below. Astrology and the Inquisition in Seventeenth-Century New Spain’ (unpublished PhD thesis, European University Institute, 2007), pp. 211–35; Alejandra Isabel Ledezma Peralta, ‘Contrabando de libros prohibidos en la Nueva España (1650–1700): el caso de Melchor Pérez de Soto’ (unpublished MA dissertation, Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro, Facultad de Filosofía, 2018).
45 Ávalos Flores, p. 37.
46 As also referred to by Lanuza Navarro, ‘Astrología, Ciencia y Sociedad En La España de Los Austrias’, p. 136. There are, however, more documents containing nativities, especially for noblemen and women. Judgements of the year, eclipses, and comets are more common due to their status as natural astrology. A few examples of interrogations seem to exist in Inquisition records, but these have not been catalogued. See, for example, Sarrión Mora, pp. 89–90.
47 Lilly, Christian Astrology Modestly Treated in Three Books, pp. 165–66.
48 In an astrological judgment of this kind, the first house (which begins at the ascending zodiacal degree at the eastern horizon) represents the ship. It is at 6° of Cancer, a sign said to be ruled by the Moon, so it becomes the significator of the ship. A square aspect (i.e., an angular relationship of 90°) is said to afflict a planet, especially if from a malefic planet such as Saturn, as is the case. Since Saturn rules the eighth house of death (because the house begins at 26° of Capricorn, ruled by said planet), its meaning is considered to be even more destructive, leading to a bleak answer.
49 ‘Sabias que (en) as carreiras por agua (e en) entrar enas naves á mester grande guarda e seguir as raizes das eleiçoes. (…) Pois que isto dissemos de comegamento de fazer a nave é ua raiz. E a segunda raiz a ora que a conpran. E a terceira raiz a ora que a meten ena agua, esta é apoderada raiz. E a quarta é a ora que entra en ela omen. E a quinta raiz é a ora que moove a nave, esta outrossi é muito apoderada raiz. E todas estas raizes son de guardar.’ – Abu-’l-Ḥasan ʻAlī Ibn-Abī-’r-Riǧāl, El libro conplido en los iudizios de las estrellas: partes 6 a 8: trad. hecha en la corte de Alfonso el Sabio, trans. by Gerold Hilty (Zaragoza: Inst. de Estudios Islámicos y del Oriente Próximo, 2005), p. 149.
50 When studying a birth it was usual to consider the time of that birth and the nativity or natal chart arising from that time. The conception chart, sometimes used alongside the natal, was derived from a method known as the Trutine of Hermes or Mora.
51 David Pingree, Dorothei Sidonii. Carmen astrologicum (Leipzig: Teubner, 1976), p. Book V, Chapters 23–25, 281–86; or in another version Dorotheus of Sidon, Carmen Astrologicum: The ’Umar al-Tabari Translation, trans. by Benjamin N. Dykes, 2nd edn (Minneapolis: Cazimi Press, 2019), p. Book V, Chapters 24–26. Dorotheus’ text is one the major sources for astrological doctrine because of its practical approach to astrology which contrasted with Ptolemy’s theoretical discussion of astrology.
52 On these earlier sources and applications, see: Dagron and Rougé; Komorowska; Pérez Jiménez.
53 John Gadbury, Nauticum Astrologicum or, the Astrological Seaman; Directing Merchants, Marriners, Captains of Ships, Ensurers, &c. How (by Gods Blessing). They May Escape Divers Dangers Which Commonly Happen in the Ocean· Unto Which Is Added a Diary of the Weather for XXI. Years Together, Exactly Observed in London, with Sundry Observations Thereon. (London: printed for Matthew Street, 1691), p. [8], 245, [11]p. :; the other editions are: Ἀστρολογοναύτης or, The Astrological Seaman Directing Merchants, Mariners, &c. Adventuring to Sea, How (by God’s Blessing) to Escape Many Dangers Which Commonly Happen in the Ocean. Unto Which (by Way of Appendix) Is Added, A Diary of the Weather for XXI. Years, Very Exactly Observed in London: With Sundry Observations Made Thereon. (London: Printed by Matthew Street, 1697); Nauticum Astrologicum or, the Astrological Seaman; Directing Merchants, Marriners, Captains of Ships, Ensurers, &c. How (by Gods Blessing) They May Escape Divers Dangers Which Commonly Happen in the Ocean· Unto Which Is Added a Diary of the Weather for XXI. Years Together, Exactly Observed in London, with Sundry Observations Thereon (London: Printed for George Sawbridge, 1710).
54 John Gadbury, Nauticum Astrologicum, pp. 95–96, 105, 120–22, 126–27.
55 Ibid., p. 127.
56 For example, in al-Riǧāl, pp. 241–42.
57 Another example of astrology applied to navigation comes exactly from the Ottoman court, on whose archives can be found reports from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries by court astrologers regarding propitious dates for launching ships. See A. Tunç Şen, ‘Manuscripts on the Battlefields: Early Modern Ottoman Subjects in the European Theatre of War and Their Textual Relations to the Supernatural in Their Fight for Survival’, Acaib: Occasional Papers on the Ottoman Perceptions of the Supernatural, no. 2 (2021): 77–106.
58 The revolutions of the years of nativities are charts cast for the annual return of the Sun to the same zodiacal degree it occupied at the time of birth. From this chart the conditions of the year for the individual in question are ascertained.
59 Lisboa, Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo (ANTT), Tribunal do Santo Ofício, Inquisição de Lisboa, proc. 17749. A reverse calculation of the 1538 revolution based on the chart presented in the Inquisition file makes this forecast more significant. This conjunction took place in the ninth house of the revolution which would signify foreign or overseas places.
60 On the astrological treatises by Diego Pérez de Mesa, see Lanuza Navarro, ‘Astrología, Ciencia y Sociedad En La España de Los Austrias’, pp. 92–98. For a recent study on Pérez de Mesa’s writings and manuscripts see José María Ortiz de Zárate Leira, ‘Manuscrito con obras atribuidas a Diego Pérez de Mesa en la Biblioteca Histórica de la Universidad Complutense’, in Ciencia y técnica entre la paz y la guerra: 1714, 1814, 1914, Vol. 2 (Sociedad Española de Historia de las Ciencias y de las Técnicas, SEHCYT, 2016), pp. 1141–48.
61 Tratado de Astrologia – De diferentes modos de levantar Figura, Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional de España (BNE), MSS 5995.
62 ‘A sabiendas dexo aqui aquellas disputas sin fundamento de los Arabes de la fabricacion de las naues y de echarlas al agua y esto solo auiso ques lo que Píndaro disse quel oficio del buen marinero es conoçer la tempestad tres dias antes que venga las senales evidentes a la tempestad son – La [conjuncion] de la [Luna] y [Marte], o con estrelas fixas de su naturalesa. Yten el nacimiento o postura del Arturo o boiero del orion de las cabrillas estas estrelas cada año leuantan unas tempestades muy grandes de la misma manera miraras donde esta [Saturno], y si la [conjuncion] o [oposicion] de los luminares mas cercana pronostica tempestades’ – BNE, MSS 5995, fol. 145r.
63 On the long tradition of weather forecast and its connections to astrology, see Anne Lawrence-Mathers, Medieval Meteorology: Forecasting the Weather from Aristotle to the Almanac (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019).
64 This line of research is present throughout the eighteenth century in authors such as Robert Boyle who discussed the influence of celestial bodies in the air and the atmosphere in General History of the Air (1692); Richard Mead’s argumentation on celestial influence and human health, and the studies on the natural effects of comets, and other celestial bodies by Edmund Halley, Joseph Lalande and Giuseppe Toaldo. On this subject, see: Mary Ellen Bowden, ‘The Scientific Revolution in Astrology: The English Reformers, 1558–1686’ (unpublished PhD thesis, Yale University, 1974), pp. 196–212; Simon Schaffer, ‘Newton’s Comets and the Transformation of Astrology’, in Astrology, Science, and Society: Historical Essays, ed. by Patrick Curry (Woodbridge, Suffolk ; Wolfeboro, N.H: Boydell & Brewer Inc, 1987), pp. 219–43; Simon Schaffer, ‘Authorised Prophets: Comets and Astronomers after 1759’, Studies in Eighteenth Century Culture, 17, 1987, 45–67; Mark Harrison, ‘From Medical Astrology to Medical Astronomy: Sol-Lunar and Planetary Theories of Disease in British Medicine, c. 1700–1850’, The British Journal for the History of Science, 33.1 (2000), 25–48.
65 Tratado del arte de navegar, Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional de España (BNE), MSS 11078. I thank my colleague José Moreno Madrid for calling my attention to this text.
66 ‘meteorological’ in a second copy of the first book in Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional de España (BNE), MSS 9050, fol. 24v.
67 ‘el conocimiento pues deste mouimento, o tormentas, se a de tomar de 3 partes, la 1ª de la causa eficiente uniuersal, quiero decir de las constellaciones, por que estas son las que principalmiente muevem, y alteram los uientos, que son la causa de sacudir el agua e inquietarla, la 2ª de la materia que es del parte del mismo mar, la 3ª de ciertas señales astrologicas, que suelem parecer en los elementos y los mixtos animals e inanimados, a las quales señales llama Tolomeu estrellas 2as (…)’ – BNE, MSS 11078, fol. 26r.
68 ‘viniendo pues a la 1ª parte del navegante astrologo, podra ver la disposicion del cielo o figura celeste, por el principio del anno, o entrada del Sol en aries bien examinada, o por perfecta observacion matematica, o por la doctrina del rey Don Alonso de la qual temenos satisfaction por experiencia, la quarta del año, en que a de navegar, aduirtiendo tambien si anda debaxo dela periodo y dominio del alguna eclipse, examinando la figura de la tal eclipse (…)’ – BNE, MSS 11078, fol. 26r-v.
69 ‘(…) assi mismo siguiendo la doctrina de Ptolomeo, podra ver el navegante astrologo la disposicion del cielo en las conjunciones y oposiciones y en los quartos del [sol] y [luna] y si en ellas hallare alguna de las constelaciones dichas dentro de aquel mes o periodo de la luna, o dentro de aquel quarto podrá temer tormentas o vientos (…)’ BNE, MSS 11078, fol. 27r-v.
70 ‘Solamente se pueden hacer estas el verdadero conocimiento de las constelaciones y movimiento de las estrellas causas naturales, pues de ahí depende la natural variación y mudanza de los tiempos. Y si dijesen los pilotos que en esperar serenidad y viento con su mando se fundan en que la constelación que causa la tal serenidad y viento esta firme; van peligrosísimos su crédito, porque aquella constelación puede mudarse luego tras su partida, y revolver el tiempo, lo cual ellos no conocen por la ignorancia que tienen de aquella constelación y movimiento’ – BNE, MSS 11078, fol. 91r.
71 ‘Conviene pues que el perfecto navegante sepa astrología, y que mire no solamente las significaciones del cuarto y mes de sus almutanes, sino también los cuartos, aspectos, conjunciones y oposiciones que los planetas superiores hacen entre sí y con el sol; los eclipses, sus efectos, y el tiempo que comienzan y determinan los otros y ocasos de las (91v) estrellas fijas principales, y todas las demás diligencias que hacen los astrólogos.’ – BNE, MSS 11078, fol. 91r-v.
72 ‘Y por eso Sixto Quinto, en el propio motu que hizo contra las adivinaciones supersticiosas y todos los padres antiguos y toda la iglesia conoce y declara ser la astrología necesaria entre otras cosas para navegación.’ – BNE, MSS 11078, fol. 91r.
73 ‘Para o qual sin duda ayudam como los Astrologos dizen el concurso de las estrellas por conjunciones, y aspectos que con sus influencias tambien mueuen los vientos.’ – Antonio de Najera, Navegacion especulativa y pratica, reformadas sus reglas y tablas por las Observaciones de Ticho Brahe (…) (Lisboa: Pedro Craesbeeck, 1628), fol. 70v.
74 ‘Pues como yo notase todas estas dificuldades, conociendo quanto era de importancia, para vtilidad del buen gouierno de vna republica el perfecto conocimiento delos tiempos para las comodidades delas labranças delos campos, de los sembrados de semillas dela plantacion delos arboles, y criacion delos animals domesticos al seruicio del hombre, y assi mas, para las nauegaciones, y comercios dela Mar, eligendo los dias en que las Estrellas con sus influxos muestram vientos faborables para las nauegaciones, y dias templados, y saludables para los caminos, tambien para los enfermos eligir dias conuenientes para los Medicamientos; y finalmente para muchas acciones humanas excercitadas a tiempos conuenientes, que por los influxos dellas Estrellas se conocem quien bien, y rectamente alcançare esta scienfica delos tiempos, y mudanças del Aire.’ – Antonio de Najera, Summa astrologica y arte para enseñar hazer pronosticos de los tiempos (Lisboa: Antonio Alvarez, 1632), p. prologue.
75 Patrick Curry, ‘Gadbury, John (1627–1704), Astrologer’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2004 <https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/10265>.
76 Timothy Gadbury and John Gadbury, Astronomical Tables Shewing the Declinations, Right Ascentions, and Aspects of Three Hundred Sixty Five of the Most Principall Fixed Stars and the Number of Them in Their Constellations after Aratus: As Also the True Oblique Ascentions and Descentions of All the Said Stars upon the Cusps of Every of the Twelve Houses of Heaven According to Their Latitude First Invented by George Hartgill; and Now Reduced to This Our Age by Timothy and John Gadbury (London: Printed for the Company of Stationers, 1656), p. [18], 226, [2] p.
77 Timothy Gadbury, The Young Sea-Man’s Guide, or, The Mariners Almanack Containing an Ephemeris with the Use Thereof, Teaching Every Ordinary Capacity How to Give an Astronomical Judgement of the Windes and Weather, and in What Quarter the Winde Will Sit, from the Lunations and Suns Quarterly Ingresses. Also the Names and Natures of All the Thirty-Two Windes: With Necessary Tables of Houses Fitted for Several Latitudes (London, England: Printed for Francis Cossenes, 1659), p. [103] p.
78 Timothy Gadbury, The Young Sea-Man’s Guide or, the Mariners Almanack, for the Year of Our Lord God 1661. With a List of the Ships of His Majesties Navy Royal; Distinguished into Their Several Ranks: As Also, a Table of the Monthly Wages Belonging to All Officers, Sea-Men and Others Serving His Majestie in the Several Ranks of the Said Ships. Together with a Catalogue of Books and Instruments Useful for Sea-Men; with Directions, Whereby Every Ordinary Capacity May Give an Astronomical Judgement of the Winds and Weather; and in What Quarter the Wind Will Fit. Also, the Names and Natures of the 32 Winds; with Tables of Houses Fitted for Several Latitudes (London, England: Printed for Fr. Cossinet. at the Anchor and Mariner in Towerstreet, 1660), [114] p.; and A Health to the King, or, An Astrological Prediction of Charls II His Coming to the Crown of England &c. (London, England: Printed for W. Gilbertson, 1660), 8 p.
79 Timothy Gadbury, The Young Seamans Guide, or, The Mariners Almanack, chapter ‘Of the Weather’ (no folio number).
80 Lisboa, Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo (ANTT), Tribunal do Santo Ofício, Inquisição de Lisboa, liv. 203.
81 Tomás Vicente Tosca, Compendio mathematico: en que se contienen todas las materias mas principales de las ciencias que tratan de la cantidad (Valencia: Joseph Garcia, 1757), IX. Tomás Vicente Tosca, Compendio Mathematico: En Que Se Contienen Todas Las Materias Mas Principales de Las Ciencias Que Tratan de La Cantidad, 9 vols (Valencia: por Antonio Bordazar, 1707), IX.
82 For a more thorough description of this text, see Lanuza Navarro, ‘Astrología, Ciencia y Sociedad En La España de Los Austrias’, pp. 413–26.
83 ‘Para empezar el viage, se procurarà sea à tiempo, que suba por el Oriente Signo aqueo, exceptando Escorpion, ò que la Luna se halle en Signo aqueo com Jupiter, ò Venus; o con aspecto trino, ò sextil de estos Planetas; y que niel ascendente, ni la Luna estèn mirados de Saturno, ò Marte. El Sol em el ascendente, ò com la Luna, como tambien sus aspectos de oposicion, ò quadrado, se tienen por nocivos. Assi miesmo se tienen por nocivas e nel ascendente, ò com la Luna las Estrellas tempestuosas, como son las Pleyadas, Hyadas, Orion, Arcturo, Antares, Aldebaran, Hercules, Delfin, Argonave, Can mayor, y menor, y Capella. En el ascendente, bien el lugar de la Luna, no han de dominar Planetas maleficos, sino es que concurra aspecto benefico de Jupiter. Al tiempo de la navegacion ha de estàr la Luna en Signos que sean dignidades de Planetas beneficos, y con algun aspecto de èstos: assimismo se procurarà, que la Luna este sobre la tierra; y si estuviere de baxo de ella, se a em la tercera, ò quinta Casa. Los Planetas dominantes en el ascendente, y en el lugar de la Luna, sean beneficos, y bien puestos en angulo, libres de malos aspectos, y assistidos de los buenos; y especialmente no se hallen em la sexta, octava, ni duodezima Casas, ni estèn retrogrados, ni con Planetas retrogrados’ – Vicente Tosca, IX, pp. 429–30.
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