H Darrel RUTKIN

EDUCATION

Ph.D. September, 2002. History of Science; minor, History. Indiana University, Bloomington.

 

Dissertation: “Astrology, Natural Philosophy and the History of Science, c. 1250-1700: Studies Toward an Interpretation of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola’s Disputationes adversus astrologiam divinatricem.” 

 

Doctoral Committee: William R. Newman (chair), Domenico Bertoloni Meli, Anthony T. Grafton, Jonathan L. Sheehan.

 

M.A. December, 1998. History of Science, Indiana University.

 

M.A. June, 1994. Classics (Latin and Greek), Stanford University. 

 

B.A. May, 1987. Majors: Greek (with honors), Classics, Philosophy; minor: German. The University of Texas at Austin.

 

APPOINTMENTS and FELLOWSHIPS

2018-2021 Assistant Professor (Ricercatore, non-tenure track), Dipartimento di Filosofia e Beni Culturali, Università Ca’Foscari Venezia.

 

2017-2020 Affiliated Research Fellow, Unit for the History and Philosophy of Science, University of Sydney.

 

2017-2018 Lecturer, The Fromm Institute for Lifelong Learning, University of San Francisco.

 

2015-2017  Associate Lecturer in the History of Science, Unit for the History and Philosophy of Science, University of Sydney (Two-Year Fixed-Term Contract, replacement for Ofer Gal).

 

Spring 2015 Visiting Research Fellow, Internationales Kolleg für Geisteswissenschaftliche Forschung (IKGF): Fate, Freedom and Prognostication. Strategies for Coping with the Future in East Asia and Europe, Friedrich-Alexander Universität, Nürnberg-Erlangen (March and April 2015).

 

Fall 2014 Associate Research Scholar, Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America, Columbia University.

 

2013-2014 Visiting Research Fellow, Internationales Kolleg für Geisteswissenschaftliche Forschung (IKGF): Fate, Freedom and Prognostication. Strategies for Coping with the Future in East Asia and Europe, Friedrich-Alexander Universität, Nürnberg-Erlangen (10/2013-7/2014).

 

2012-2013 Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of History, University of Nevada, Reno (Replacement for Bruce Moran).

 

2010-2012 Visiting Scholar, Program in History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, Stanford University; Guest Lecturer, Department of History, Stanford University.

 

2009-2010 Visiting Research Fellow, Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (ISAW), New York University.

 

2008-2009 Dibner Research Fellow in the History of Science and Technology, Huntington Library.

 

2007-2008 National Endowment for the Humanities Research Grantee, and Visiting Scholar, Program in History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, Stanford University.

 

2008 Lecturer, Department of History, Stanford University (Spring quarter).

 

2006-2007 Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of the History of Science, The University of Oklahoma. 

 

2005-2006 Hanna Kiel Fellow, Villa I Tatti, The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies.

 

2004-2005 Visiting Scholar, Program in History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, Stanford University. 

 

2002-2004 Post-Doctoral Fellow, Dibner Institute for the History of  Science and Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

 

2000-2001 Rome Prize, Lily Auchincloss Pre-Doctoral Fellowship in Post-Classical Humanistic— Modern Italian Studies, American Academy in Rome.

 

1999-2000 National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Research Grantee, University of Chicago.

 

MAJOR RESEARCH INTERESTS

The history of astrology as a part of Western and World science, philosophy and culture from Antiquity to the present, focused primarily on the Medieval, Renaissance and Early Modern periods (ca. 1250-1800), in conceptual, institutional, socio-political, theologico-religious and cultural respects.

 

Medieval and Renaissance Aristotelianism and Platonism.

 

The History of the so-called “Occult Sciences”: Astrology, Magic, Kabbalah, Alchemy and Witchcraft.

 

History of Medicine in various respects.

 

The transmission and transformation of Aristotelian-Ptolemaic-Galenic natural knowledge from Greco-Roman Antiquity through Medieval Persia, Islam and Byzantium into Medieval, Renaissance and Early Modern Western Europe.

 

The transformation and dismantling of Aristotelian-Ptolemaic-Galenic natural knowledge during the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment of the 17th and 18th centuries, with a special emphasis on the removal of astrology from its previously central conceptual and institutional locations within the premodern map of knowledge.

 

PUBLICATIONS

Books:

Monograph:

Sapientia Astrologica: Astrology, Magic and Natural Knowledge, ca. 1250-1800, to be published in the series, “Archimedes: New Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology,” Jed Z. Buchwald (ed), Dordrecht: Springer, 3 vols. 

 

Volume I, “Medieval Structures (1250-1500): Conceptual, Institutional, Socio-Political, Theologico-Religious and Cultural.” In press! It should appear later in 2018.

 

Volume II, “Renaissance Structures (1450-1500): Continuities and Transformations,” completion date: May 2020.

 

Volume III, “Early Modern Structures (1500-1800): Continuities and Transformations,” completion date: May 2023.

 

Edited Volume:

Horoscopes and Public Spheres: Essays on the History of Astrology, Günther Oestmann, H Darrel Rutkin and Kocku von Stuckrad (eds), in the series, Religion and Society (42), Kocku von Stuckrad and Gustavo Benavides (eds), Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2005; the proceedings of an International Conference, “Horoscopes and History,” held in Amsterdam, July 2004, with some additional invited essays.

 

Translation:

Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Disputationes adversus astrologiam divinatricem—Disputations against Divinatory Astrology, 3 vols, to be published in The I Tatti Renaissance Library, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press (completion date of volume I: May 2019).

 

Journal Articles and Book Chapters:

“How to Accurately Account for Astrology’s Marginalization in the History of Science and Culture: The Essential Importance of an Interpretive Framework,” in a special issue of Early Science and Medicine edited by Hiro Hirai and Rienk Vermij, 23 (2018): 217-43.

 

“An Idealized Astrological Courtier at a 13th-Century Papal and Royal Court: The Case of Roger Bacon,” in De Frédéric II à Rodolphe II: Astrologie, divination et magie dans les cours (XIIIe-XVIIe siècle), Jean-Patrice Boudet, Martine Ostorero and Agostino Paravicini Bagliani (eds), Micrologus Library 85, 2017, 53-69.

 

“Teaching Astrology in the 16th Century: Giuliano Ristori and Filippo Fantoni on Pseudo-Prophets and Other Effects of Great Conjunctions,” in From Masha’allah to Kepler: Theory and Practice in Medieval and Renaissance Astrology, Charles Burnett and Dorian Gieseler Greenbaum (eds), Ceredigion, Wales: Sophia Centre Press, 2015, 353-406. 

 

“Astrology, Politics and Power in 16th-century Florence: Giuliano Ristori’s Extensive Judgment on Cosimo I’s Nativity (1537),” in Astrologers and their Clients in Medieval and Early Modern Europe, Wiebke Deimann and David Juste (eds), Cologne: Böhlau Verlag, 2015, 139-150.

 

“Understanding the History of Astrology Accurately: Methodological Reflections on Terminology and Anachronism,” Philosophical Readings 7 (2015): 42-54 (a special issue on astrology edited by Donato Verardi). 

 

“The Physics and Metaphysics of Talismans (Imagines Astronomicae): A Case Study in (Neo)Platonism, Aristotelianism and the Esoteric Tradition,” in Platonismus und Esoterik in Byzantinischem Mittelalter und Italienischer Renaissance, Helmut Seng (ed), Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag Winter, 2013, 149-73.

 

“Astrology and Magic,” in A Companion to Albert the Great: Theology, Philosophy and the Sciences, Irven M. Resnick (ed), Leiden: Brill, 2013, 451-505.

 

“Astrologia e divinazione in Tommaso d’Aquino” (“Astrology and Divination in Thomas Aquinas,” tr. Chiara Petrolini), in Il linguaggio dei cieli: Astri e simboli nel Rinascimento, Germana Ernst and Guido Giglioni (eds), Frecce: Carocci Editore, 2012, 23-37.

 

“Astrology,” in The Harvard Companion to the Classical Tradition, Anthony T. Grafton, Glen W. Most, Salvatore Settis (eds), Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2010, 84-89 (in collaboration with François Charette).

 

“The Mysteries of Attraction: Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Astrology and Desire,” Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 41 (2010), Special Issue, Stars, Spirits, Signs: Towards a History of Astrology 1100-1800, Robert Ralley and Lauren Kassell (eds), 117-24 (6000 words, but extremely small type).

 

“The Use and Abuse of Ptolemy’s Tetrabiblos in Renaissance and Early Modern Europe: Two Case Studies (Giovanni Pico della Mirandola and Filippo Fantoni),” Ptolemy in Perspective: Use and Criticism of his Work from Antiquity to the Nineteenth Century, Alexander Jones (ed), Dordrecht: Springer, 2010, 135-149.

 

“L’astrologia da Alberto Magno a Pico della Mirandola” (“Astrology from Albertus Magnus to Giovanni Pico della Mirandola,” tr. Francesco La Nave), in Il Rinascimento Italiano e l’Europa, Vol. 5: Le Scienze nel Rinascimento Italiano, Antonio Clericuzio and Germana Ernst (eds), Costabissara: Angelo Colla, 2008, 47-58.

 

“Magia, Cabala, Vera Astrologia: Le prime considerazioni sull’ astrologia di Giovanni Pico della Mirandola” (“Magia, Cabala, Vera Astrologia: Giovanni Pico della Mirandola’s Early Views on Astrology,” tr. Germana Ernst), in Nello specchio del cielo: Giovanni Pico della Mirandola e le Disputationes contro l’astrologia divinatoria, Marco Bertozzi (ed.), Florence: Olschki, 2008, 31-45.

 

“Astrological Conditioning of Same-Sexual Relations in Girolamo Cardano’s Theoretical Treatises and Celebrity Genitures,” in The Sciences of Homosexuality in Early Modern Europe, Kenneth Borris and George Rousseau (eds), London: Routledge, 2008, 183-99.

 

“Astrology,” in The Cambridge History of Science, Vol. 3: Early Modern Science, Lorraine Daston and Katharine Park (eds), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006, 541-61. 

 

“‘Why Newton Rejected Astrology: A Reconstruction’ or ‘Newton’s Comets and the Transformation of Astrology: 20 Years Later,’” Cronos: Cuadernos Valencianos de Historia de la Medicina y de la Ciencia 9 (2006): 85-98.

 

“Galileo Astrologer: Astrology and Mathematical Practice in the Late-Sixteenth and Early-Seventeenth Centuries,” GALILAEANA: Journal of Galilean Studies 2 (2005): 107-43.

 

“Various Uses of Horoscopes: Astrological Practices in Early Modern Europe,” in Horoscopes and Public Spheres: Essays on the History of Astrology, Günther Oestmann, H. Darrel Rutkin and Kocku von Stuckrad (eds), Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2005, 167-82.

 

“Introduction,” in Horoscopes and Public Spheres: Essays on the History of Astrology (in collaboration with G. Oestmann and K. von Stuckrad), 1-9.

 

“Giovanni Pico della Mirandola’s Early Reform of Astrology: An Interpretation of Vera Astrologia in the Cabalistic Conclusions,” Bruniana e Campanelliana 10 (2004): 495-98.

 

“Celestial Offerings: Astrological Motifs in the Dedicatory Letters of Galileo’s Sidereus Nuncius and Kepler’s Astronomia Nova,” in Secrets of Nature: Astrology and Alchemy in Early Modern Europe, William R. Newman and Anthony Grafton (eds), Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2001, 133-72.

 

Forthcoming:

“Optimus Malorum: Giovanni Pico della Mirandola’s Complex and Highly Interested Use of Ptolemy in the Disputationes adversus astrologiam divinatricem (1496), A Preliminary Survey,” to be published in the proceedings of the International Conference: Ptolemaeus Arabus et Latinus, Warburg Institute, University of London, November 2015.

 

      Under Review:  

“Were the Heavens Alive in the Renaissance?: Marsilio Ficino’s and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola’s Contrasting Views on the Animation of the Heavens,” for a volume of essays edited by Hiro Hirai.

 

Festschriften:

“Astrological Timing and Architectural Sites: The Deborah Loeb Brice Loggiato in One of its Historical Contexts,” Renaissance Studies in Honor of Joseph Connors, Machtelt Israels and Louis Waldman (eds), Milan: Officina Libraria, 2013, 133-37.

 

Book Reviews:

Darin Hayton, The Crown and the Cosmos: Astrology and the Politics of Maximilian I (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2015), Journal for the History of Astronomy 47 (2016): 436-39.

 

Paola Zambelli, Astrology and Magic from the Medieval Latin and Islamic World to Renaissance Europe: Theories and Approaches (Farnham: Ashgate—Variorum, 2012), Journal for the History of Astronomy 44 (2013): 220-22.

 

Monica Azzolini, The Duke and the Stars: Astrology and Politics in Renaissance Milan (I Tatti Studies in Italian Renaissance History, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2013), Isis 104 (2013): 832-33.

 

Craig Martin, Renaissance Meteorology: Pomponazzi to Descartes (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011), Isis 104 (2013): 392-93.

 

Ornella Pompeo Faracovi, Lo specchio alto: Astrologia e filosofia fra Medioevo e prima età moderna (Bruniana e Campanelliana, Supplementi XXXII—Studi 11, Pisa: Fabrizio Serra Editore, 2011), The Medieval Review (on-line journal; http://hdl.handle.net/2022/15269), 2013.

 

Catalogus Codicum Astrologorum Latinorum I: Les manuscrits astrologiques latins conservés à la Bayerische Staatsbibliothek de Munich, David Juste (ed), (Documents, Études et Répertoires Publiés par l’Institut de Recherche et d’Histoire des Textes 81, Paris: CNRS Éditions, 2011), Early Science and Medicine 17 (2012): 648-49.

 

André Goddu, Copernicus and the Aristotelian Tradition: Education, Reading and Philosophy in Copernicus’s Path to Heliocentrism (History of Science and Medicine Library 15, Leiden: Brill, 2010), Early Science and Medicine 17 (2012): 650-52.

 

Silke Ackermann, Sternstunden am Kaiserhof: Michael Scotus und sein Buch von den Bildern und Zeichen des Himmels (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2009), Journal for the History of Astronomy 43 (2012): 119-20.

 

“Astrological Talismans in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.” Jérôme Torrella (Hieronymus Torrella), Opus praeclarum de imaginibus astrologicis, Nicolas Weill-Parot (ed), (Micrologus Library 23, Florence: SISMEL–Galluzzo, 2008), Metascience 19 (2010): 315-18.

 

Louise H. Curth, English Almanacs, Astrology and Popular Medicine: 1550-1700 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2007), British Journal for the History of Science 41 (2008): 606-608.

 

David Juste, Les Alchandreana primitifs: Étude sur les plus anciens traités astrologiques latins d’origine arabe (Xe siècle), (Brill Studies in Intellectual History 152, Leiden: Brill, 2007), Early Science and Medicine 13 (2008): 507-9.

 

Claudia Brosseder, Im Bann der Sterne: Caspar Peucer, Philipp Melanchthon und andere Wittenberger Astrologen (Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 2004), Early Science and Medicine 13 (2008): 518-19.

 

Gerolamo Vitali, Lexicon Mathematicum Astronomicum Geometricum (anastatic reprint of the 1668 Paris edition), edited by Giuseppe Bezza with a preface by Ornella Pompeo Faracovi (Medium Coeli: Testi Filosofici e Scientifici dei Secoli XVI e XVII, II, La Spezia: Agora Edizioni, 2003), Early Science and Medicine 12 (2007): 148-49.

 

Girolamo Cardano, Come si interprano gli oroscopi, introduction and notes by Ornella Pompeo Faracovi, translated by Teresa Delia and O.P. Faracovi (Pisa: Istituti Editoriali e Poligrafici Internazionali, 2005), Bruniana e Campanelliana 12 (2006), 657-58.

 

Günther Oestmann, Heinrich Rantzau und die Astrologie: Ein Beitrag zur Kulturgeschichte des 16. Jahrhunderts (Braunschweiger Beiträge zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte, Band 2, Braunschweig: Braunschweig-druck GmbH, 2004), Early Science and Medicine 11 (2006): 113-15. 

 

Steven vanden Broecke, The Limits of Influence: Pico, Louvain, and the Crisis of Renaissance Astrology (Leiden: Brill, 2003), Metascience 13 (2004): 145-49.

 

Tommaso Campanella, Opuscoli Astrologici: Come evitare il fato astrale, Apologetico, Disputa sulle bolle, Introduzione, traduzione e note di Germana Ernst (Milan: Biblioteca Universale Rizzoli, 2003), Early Science and Medicine 9 (2004): 370-71.

 

Jole Agrimi, Ingeniosa scientia nature: Studi sulla fisiognomica medievale (Florence: Galluzzo, 2002), Bulletin of the History of Medicine 78 (2004): 888-89.

 

Maike Rotzoll, Pierleone da Spoleto: Vita e opere di un medico del Rinascimento (Florence: Olschki, 2000); Franco Bacchelli, Giovanni Pico e Pier Leone da Spoleto: Tra filosofia dell’amore e tradizione cabalistica (Florence: Olschki, 2001), Neo-Latin News 52 (2004): 132-6.

 

Owen Gingerich, An Annotated Census of Copernicus’s De revolutionibus (Nuremberg, 1543 and Basel, 1566), (Leiden: Brill, 2002), Isis 94 (2003): 713-14.

 

Peter Whitfield, Astrology: A History (New York: Abrams, 2001), Journal for the History of Astronomy 34 (2003): 335-36.

 

Review Essays:

“Galileo as Practising Astrologer.” Le opere di Galileo Galilei, Appendice Volume III (with Galileo’s astrological manuscript 81, edited by Germana Ernst) for Journal for the History of Astronomy.

 

“‘See, Reflect, Be Changed’: Marsilio Ficino, Imagines astronomicae and a New Perspective on Renaissance Art and Science,” Mary Quinlan-McGrath, Influences: Art, Optics, and Astrology in the Italian Renaissance” (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013), Early Science and Medicine 19 (2014): 584-93.

 

“Astrology in Early Modern Italy: Reflections on Elide Casali, Le spie del cielo: Oroscopi, lunari e almanacchi nell’Italia moderna" (Turin: Einaudi, 2003), Bruniana e Campanelliana 9 (2003): 511-15.

 

    In Progress:

Brian P. Copenhaver, Magic in Western Culture: From Antiquity to the Enlightenment (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015), for Early Science and Medicine.

 

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Lecturer, The Fromm Institute for Lifelong Learning, University of San Francisco: 

“The History of Science from Antiquity to the Scientific Revolution,” Fall 2017.

 

“The History of Astrology from Antiquity to the Present,” Spring 2018.

 

Associate Lecturer, Unit for History and Philosophy of Science, The University of Sydney:

“The Scientific Revolution (3016),” Semester 1, 2015 (for Juniors and Seniors).

“History of Science (4102),” Semester 1, 2015 and 2016 (Convenor for the History of Science Honors seminar).

 

“The Birth of Modern Science (2100),” Semester 2, 2016, a massive undergraduate lecture course with 300 students.

 

“History and Philosophy of the Physical Sciences: Astrology, Magic and Science in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance (3108),” Semester 2, 2017, a Seminar style course for Seniors and Graduate Students.

 

Visiting Assistant Professor, University of Nevada, Reno, Department of History:

“European Intellectual History: Machiavelli and his World,” Fall 2012.

 

“Magic, Marvels and Nature in the Middle Ages,” Fall 2012.

 

“Witches, Wars and Wisdom in the Early Modern Era,” Spring 2013.

 

“Renaissance Science and the Secrets of Nature,” Spring 2013.

 

Lecturer, Stanford University, Department of History:

“Science, Art and Technology: The Worlds of Leonardo da Vinci,” Spring 2008.

 

Visiting Assistant Professor, University of Oklahoma, Department of the History of Science:

“Advanced Studies in the History of Renaissance and Early Modern Science: Astrology and the Scientific Revolution—A Reappraisal (Graduate Seminar),” Spring 2007.

 

“History of Science to the Age of Newton: The Origins and Early Development of Science (Junior-Senior Survey),” Fall 2006 and Spring 2007.

 

“History of Science since the Seventeenth Century: The Foundation and Growth of Modern Science (Junior-Senior Survey),” Fall 2006.

 

Instructor, Indiana University, Department of the History and Philosophy of Science:

“Introduction to the History of Science and Medicine: Revolutions in Science, Plato to Nato,” Fall 2001 and Fall 1998.

 

Assistant Instructor, Indiana University, Department of the History and Philosophy of Science:

“The Occult in Western Civilization,” Spring 2002, Spring 1999 and Spring 1997 (for William R. Newman).

 

“Voyages of Scientific Discovery,” Fall 1996 (for Richard Sorrenson).

 

Reader, University of California, San Diego, Department of History:

“Ancient History,” Winter 1992 (for Alden Mosshammer). 

 

 

 

Instructor, Stanford Law School:

Designed and taught an elective seminar for third-year law students entitled: “The Lawyer in Ancient Rome,” in which I focused on reconstructing the legal practice of the Roman Republic within its social, institutional and political contexts, Fall 1990. 

 

Teaching Assistant, Stanford University, Department of Classics:

“Ancient Greek History,” Winter 1988 (for Michael Jameson). 

 

SEMINAR SESSIONS LED

Michael Lackner’s Sinology seminar at the Friedrich-Alexander Universität, Nürnberg-Erlangen, Fall 2013 and Summer 2014.

 

Alison Frazier’s History Honors Seminar at the University of Texas at Austin, Spring 2014.

 

Lawrence Principe’s seminar in the History of Science at The Johns Hopkins University, Spring 2012.

 

Antonella Romano’s seminar in the History of Science at the European University Institute in Fiesole, Fall 2005.

 

PRESENTATIONS and CONFERENCE PAPERS

“Were the Heavens Alive in the Renaissance?: Astrology and Cosmology in Marsilio Ficino and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola’s Contrasting Views on the Animation of the Heavens” or “What Makes Early Modern Cosmology ‘Early Modern’?: Reflections on and a Suggestion for a Historical Periodization Scheme,” ERC Early Modern Cosmology Seminar, Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Oct 2018.

 

“Horoscopy in Medieval and Early Modern Europe: Reflections on Astrology as Divination in Relation to Fate, Freedom and its Scientific Status,” International Conference: “Horoscopy across Civilizations: Comparative Approaches to Western, Indian, and Chinese Astrology and Chronomancy,” Internationales Kolleg for Geisteswissenschaftliche Forschung (IKGF), Friedrich-Alexander Universität, Nürnberg-Erlangen, June 2016. 

 

“Optimus Malorum: Giovanni Pico della Mirandola’s Complex and Highly Interested Use of Ptolemy in the Disputationes adversus astrologiam divinatricem (1496), A Preliminary Survey,” International Conference: Ptolemaeus Arabus et Latinus, Warburg Institute, University of London, November 2015.

 

“Astrology and the Scientific Revolution—A Reappraisal”:

History and Philosophy of Science Research Seminar Series, University of Sydney, August 2015.

Colloquium, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain, April 2015.

Plenary Lecture, International Conference: “The Marginalization of Astrology,” Descartes Centre, Utrecht, the Netherlands, March 2015.

History and Philosophy of Science Colloquium Series, University of Texas at Austin, March 2014. 

Colloquium, Department of History, University of Nevada, Reno, October, 2012.

Roundtable talk, Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, University of California, Los Angeles, May 2009.

Colloquium, Department of History of Science, The University of Oklahoma, September 2006.

Colloquium, Centro Internazionale per la Storia delle Università e della Scienza, Department of Philosophy, University of Bologna, February 2006.

Early Science Working Group, Harvard University, November 2003.

Colloquium, Dibner Institute for the History of Science and Technology, MIT, March 2003.

 

 “How to Accurately Account for Astrology’s Marginalization in the History of Science and Culture: The Essential Importance of an Interpretive Framework,” International Conference: “The Marginalization of Astrology,” Descartes Centre, Utrecht, the Netherlands, March 2015.

 

“Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Astrology and Cultural Memory: Translating the Disputationes adversus astrologiam divinatricem,” Seminar, Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America, Columbia University, December 2014. 

 

“The Physics and Metaphysics of Talismans (Imagines Astrologicae): A Case Study in (Neo)Platonism, Aristotelianism and the Esoteric Tradition”:

Seminar in the Renaissance, Columbia University, November 2014.

Marsilio Ficino Colloquium, Charles Singleton Center, The Johns Hopkins University, March 2012. 

International Conference, “Platonismus und Esoterik in Byzantinischem Mittelalter und Italienischer Renaissance,” University of Frankfurt, Germany, July 2010.

 

“An Idealized Astrological Courtier at a 13th-Century Papal and Royal Court: The Case of Roger Bacon,” International Micrologus Conference, “Astrologie, Divination et Magie dans les Cours (XIIe-XVIIe siècle),” Université de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland, October 2014.

 

 “On Deriving Life from the Heavens: Astrology, Medicine and Magic in Marsilio Ficino’s De vita libri tres (1489),” Renaissance Society of America annual meeting, March 2014. 

 

 “Understanding the History of Astrology (and Magic) Accurately: Methodological Reflections on Terminology and Anachronism,” Lecture Series, Internationales Kolleg for Geisteswissenschaftliche Forschung (IKGF), Friedrich-Alexander Universität, Nürnberg-Erlangen, November 2013.

 

“Christoph Clavius and the Rejection of Astrology,” International Conference: “Western Conceptions of Nature and Japan’s Christian Century,” Gakushuin Women’s College, Tokyo, July 2013.

 

“Astrology in Medieval, Renaissance and Early Modern European Culture—A Reappraisal:”

Rikkyo University, Tokyo, Japan, July 2013.

University of Osaka, Japan, July 2013.

 

“Were the Heavens Alive in the Renaissance?: Marsilio Ficino’s and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola’s Contrasting Views on the Animation of the Heavens,” Renaissance Society of America annual meeting, April 2013.

 “Astrology and Politics in 16th-century Florence: Giuliano Ristori’s Extensive Judgment on Cosimo I’s Nativity (1537),” International Conference, “Astrologers and their Clients in Medieval and Early Modern Europe,” at the International Research Consortium (IKGF) at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany, September 2011.

 

“Revising Frances Yates’s Genealogy of Renaissance Magic: Astrology, Magic and Kabbalah in Marsilio Ficino and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola,” Renaissance Society of America annual meeting, April 2010.

 

“Comparing Cultural Configurations: Astrology and Divination in Cicero’s De divinatione and Thomas Aquinas’s Summa Theologiae,” Colloquium Series, Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York University, December, 2009.

 

“Astrology at Court and University in Cosimo I’s Tuscany: Giuliano Ristori (1492-1556), His Practice in Florence and Teaching at Pisa,” International Conference, “From Masha’allah to Kepler: the Theory and Practice of Astrology in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance,” at the Warburg Institute, University of London, 13-15 November, 2008.

 

 “Changing Curricular Patterns: Astrology and the Italian Universities, ca. 1300-1800,” History of Science Society annual meeting, November 2007.

 

“The Use and Abuse of Ptolemy’s Tetrabiblos in Renaissance and Early Modern Europe: Two Case Studies,” International Conference, “Ptolemy in Perspective: Use and Criticism of his Work from Antiquity to the Present,” California Institute of Technology, May 2007.

 

“Why Newton Rejected Astrology: A Reconstruction,” History of Science Society annual meeting, November 2006.

 

“The Mysteries of Attraction: Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Astrology and Desire,” International Conference, “Astrology and the Body, 1100-1800,” Cambridge University, Department of History and Philosophy of Science, September 2006.

 

“Teaching Ptolemy at Pisa: Filippo Fantoni’s Astrological Lectures during Galileo’s Student Years,” Shop talk-Seminar, Villa I Tatti, The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies, April 2006.

 

“Francis Bacon’s Reform of Astrology: De augmentis scientiarum III, 4,” History of Science Society annual meeting, November 2004.

 

“Galileo, Astrology and the Scientific Revolution,” Colloquium, Program in History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, Stanford University, November 2004.

 

“Various Uses of Horoscopes: Astrological Practices in Early Modern Europe.” Presented in absentia at the International Conference, “Horoscopes and History,” University of Amsterdam, July 2004.

 

“Magia, Cabala, Vera Astrologia: Le prime considerazioni sull’ astrologia di Giovanni Pico della Mirandola” (“Magia, Cabala, Vera Astrologia: Giovanni Pico della Mirandola’s Early Views on Astrology,” tr. Germana Ernst). Presented in absentia by Germana Ernst at the International Conference: “Nello specchio del cielo: Giovanni Pico della Mirandola e le Disputationes contro l’astrologia divinatoria,” Mirandola-Ferrara, April 2004. 

 

“Galileo Astrologer”:

Early Science Working Group, Harvard University, February 2003.

Conceptual Foundations of Science and Morris Fishbein Center Seminar, University of Chicago, April 2000.

Science, Technology and Society Colloquium, Pomona College, March 2000.

History of Science Society annual meeting, November 1999.

History and Philosophy of Science Colloquium, Indiana University, Bloomington, April 1999.

 

“The ‘Unnamed Master’ Revisited: Mathematics, Perspective and Astrology in Albertus Magnus and Roger Bacon,” History of Science Society annual meeting, November 2001. 

 

“When World-Views Collide: Natural Philosophy, Astrology and Spiritus in Marsilio Ficino’s De vita libri tres and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola’s Disputationes adversus astrologiam divinatricem,” Shop-talk Seminar, American Academy in Rome, March 2001. 

 

“Toward the Modern Configuration of the Mathematical Disciplines: Christoph Clavius and the Rejection of Astrology,” History of Science Society annual meeting, October 1998. 

 

GRADUATE PRIZES AND OTHER AWARDS

Benjamin Franklin Grant, American Philosophical Society, 2009.

 

Andrew W. Mellon Travel Fellowship, Department of the History of Science and History of Science Collections, University of Oklahoma, Sep-Oct 2007.

 

Fulbright Graduate Student Grant for study in Italy, 2000-2001.

 

Victor E. Thoren Graduate Research Fellowship, Department of History and Philosophy of Science, Indiana University, May 1999. 

 

Norwood R. Hanson Distinguished Graduate Student Prize Essay, Department of History and Philosophy of Science, Indiana University, April 1999 (for “Galileo Astrologer: New Perspectives on his Early Career”).

 

Halls Fellowship, Department of History and Philosophy of Science, Indiana University, 1997-98. 

 

PROFESSIONAL SERVICE

Honors Coordinator, Unit for History and Philosophy of Science, University of Sydney, 2015-17.

 

Reviewer of Book Manuscripts and Articles: Oxford University Press; Isis; Early Science and Medicine; Renaissance Quarterly; History of Science; British Journal for the History of Philosophy; Aries: Journal for the Study of Western Esotericism; Culture and Cosmos: A Journal of the History of Astrology and Cultural Astronomy; Journal of the History of Ideas; Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Viator, and Journal of Early Modern Studies.

 

Peer Review Panelist:

National Endowment for the Humanities, Summer Stipends program: Classical and Medieval Studies panel (Nov 2010).

 

American Philosophical Society, Franklin Research Grants program (every term from Fall 2012 to the present). 

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), Insight Grant, 2018

 

Scholarly Organization Advisory Board:

Japanese Association for Renaissance Studies (JARS)

 

Conference Panels Organized:

“Renaissance Medicine, Astrology and Dreams in honor of Nancy G. Siraisi,” Renaissance Society of America annual meeting (2014) with Hiro Hirai and Anthony Grafton (co-organized with Hiro Hirai). 

 

“Astrology: Art, Science and Medicine in Early Modern Culture,” History of Science Society annual meeting (2006) with Mary Quinlan-McGrath, Tayra Lanuza-Navarro and Ana Avalos.

 

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS

American Historical Association

History of Science Society

Renaissance Society of America

Society of Fellows, American Academy in Rome

 

LANGUAGES: Latin, Greek, Italian, German, French

 

REFEREES:

William R. Newman, Ruth Halls Professor of History and Philosophy of Science

Department of History and Philosophy of Science, 1011 East Third Street

Goodbody Hall 130, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA

wnewman@indiana.edu; phone: +1 (812) 855-3071; fax: (812) 855-3631

 

Anthony Grafton, Henry Putnam University Professor of History

Department of History, Princeton University

129 Dickinson Hall, Princeton, NJ 08544-1017

grafton@princeton.edu; phone: +1 (609) 258-4159; fax: (609) 258-5326

 

Katharine Park, Samuel Zemurray, Jr. and Doris Zemurray Stone Radcliffe Research Professor of the History of Science

Harvard University, Department of the History of Science

Science Center, Room 371, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138

park28@fas.harvard.edu; Phone: +1 (617) 495-9978; Fax: (617) 495-3344

 

Maria Mavroudi, Professor of History and Classics

Department of History, University of California, Berkeley

2223 Dwinelle Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720-2550

mavroudi@berkeley.edu; Phone: +1 (510) 643-4413; Fax: (510) 643-5323

 

Alexander Jones, Professor the History of the Exact Sciences in Antiquity

Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York University

15 East 84th Street, New York, NY 10028

alexander.jones@nyu.edu; Phone: +1 (212) 992-7816; Fax: (212) 992-7809

 

C. Philipp E. Nothaft, Postdoctoral Research Fellow

All Souls College, Oxford University

All Souls College, Oxford, OX1 4AL

philipp.nothaft@all-souls.ox.ac.uk; Phone: +44 1865 279 379 

 

Hans Pols, Associate Professor of the History of Science and Unit Chair

Unit for the History and Philosophy of Science, The University of Sydney

F07, Carslaw Building, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, AU

hans.pols@sydney.edu.au; Phone: +61 2 9351 3610