K is for Kepler

German Kepler stamp, from astampaday.com

Johannes Kepler was a late Renaissance astronomer/astrologer whose work helped launch Newton and the Scientific Revolution. A devout Christian, Kepler searched for ways to prove the divine within nature and the cosmos, creating models that tried to reconcile the Trinity with the movements of the planets and astro-phenomena. While Kepler had his own religious skirmishes with authorities, he managed to avoid the accusations of heresy and tragedy that enfolded is contemporary Galileo. 

He also explained snowflakes.

Horoscope from imperial astrologer Kepler. Photo from wikipedia.

Astronomy and Astrology: the STEM Disciplines in 1597

Back in 1600, astronomy was one of the foremost of the sciences, along with astrology. Since astrologers had to calculate planetary conditions down to precise moments of birth using limited information, their work was intricate, even if we might scoff at its purpose today. Astronomy and astrology were, therefore, branches of mathematics, which were categorized under the liberal arts. Math was sometimes taught as part of theology. Physics, which hadn’t developed much beyond Archimedes jumping out of the bathtub, was categorized as a part of “natural philosophy.”

Kepler enjoyed math as a youth and ended up studying under Tycho Brahe in Poland, as well as being imperial mathematician to the Holy Roman Emperors Rudolf II, Matthias, and Ferdinand II. If you want to know what an H.R.E. is, see G is for Ghibellines.

Continue reading “K is for Kepler”

J is for Julius II

Julius on the walls of Mirandola by Rafaello Tancredi, from wikipedia.

Has anyone ever made it all the way through The Agony and the Ecstasy? I have tried, since I delight in old-timey movies, but I confess I can only take about 20 minutes of Charlton Heston grimacing. As one critic said, he seems to paint the Sistine Chapel as long as Michelangelo did…

But much as I don’t care for Rex Harrison either, I like him as Pope Julius II, the Warrior Pope, the dude that hired and fired Michelangelo, the dude that shepherded in St. Peter’s and the painting of the Sistine Chapel. Julius happened to be good buddies with Raphael, Da Vinci, and my buddy, Luca Pacioli. Rome was practically a small town back then.

The Della Rovere popes, by Mellozo da Forli, HistoryofYesterday.com
Continue reading “J is for Julius II”

I is for Indulgences

Czech manuscript shows Satan distributing indulgences. Image from wikipedia.

Indulgences had a huge influence on the Renaissance in a not-so-pleasant way. These are dispensations granted by the Catholic church under very specific conditions, but those conditions weren’t always followed. Representatives, particularly far from Rome, bent the rules, until the rules were in pretzels. Which might remind you of Germany, and that, as it happens, is where the end of the Renaissance sprouted like a seed.

Just to be clear, indulgences aren’t, on their own, a problem. The church still issues them, and the internet is replete with modern info-graphics on how they can be acquired. It’s just that they aren’t sold on the open market or include absolution for 20,000 years. Clarification is required.

Continue reading “I is for Indulgences”