Nor
could the new astronomy and the acceptance of the heliocentric views
dislocate the popular belief. The literature of the seventeenth century
is rich in astrological treatises dealing with medicine.
(31) De Thou, Lib. LXII, quoted by Morley in Life of Jerome
Cardan, Vol. II, p. 294.
No one has ever poured such satire upon the mantic arts as did Rabelais
in chapter twenty-five of the third book of "Pantagruel." Panurge goes
to consult Her Trippa--the famous Cornelius Agrippa, whose opinion
of astrology has already been quoted, but who nevertheless, as court
astrologer to Louise of Savoy, had a great contemporary reputation.
After looking Panurge in the face and making conclusions by metoposcopy
and physiognomy, he casts his horoscope secundum artem, then, taking a
branch of tamarisk, a favorite tree from which to get the divining
rod, he names some twenty-nine or thirty mantic arts, from pyromancy to
necromancy, by which he offers to predict his future. While full of rare
humor, this chapter throws an interesting light on the extraordinary
number of modes of divination that have been employed. Small wonder that
Panurge repented of his visit! I show here the title-page of a popular
book by one of the most famous of the English astrological physicians,
Nicholas Culpeper.
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