The Occult Sciences in the Renaissance

The Occult Sciences in the Renaissance PDF Author: Wayne Shumaker
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520340914
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
"The only short and acceptable summary and analysis of the five Renaissance occult sciences." - Times Literary Supplement

The Occult Sciences in the Renaissance

The Occult Sciences in the Renaissance PDF Author: Wayne Shumaker
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520340914
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 305

Get Book

Book Description
"The only short and acceptable summary and analysis of the five Renaissance occult sciences." - Times Literary Supplement

The Occult Sciences in the Renaissance

The Occult Sciences in the Renaissance PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 284

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Book Description


The Occult Sciences in the Renaissance

The Occult Sciences in the Renaissance PDF Author: Wayne Shumaker
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520020214
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 316

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Book Description
"The only short and acceptable summary and analysis of the five Renaissance occult sciences." - Times Literary Supplement "The . . . usefulness of this book for students of Renaissance literature and culture will not soon be ended." - Virginia Quarterly Review "The absence of contaminating traces either of condescension or of credulousness give this absorbing volume a special authority and place on the shelves of any reader or any library where the history of modern thoughts is relevant." - Scientific American "A remarkable summary and analysis of the five systems of esoteric science so influential in the Renaissance." - Milton Quarterly "A magnificent job of tying together a vast number of diverse sources into a unified whole . . . engrossing in its entirety." -The Sciences

Occult Scientific Mentalities

Occult Scientific Mentalities PDF Author: Brian Vickers
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521338363
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 428

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Book Description
The essays in this volume present a collective study of one of the major problems in the recent history of science: To what extent did the occult 'sciences' (alchemy, astrology, numerology, and natural magic) contribute to the scientific revolution of the late Renaissance? These studies of major scientists (Kepler, Bacon, Mersenne, and Newton) and of occultists (Dee, Fludd, and Cardano), complemented by analyses of contemporary official and unofficial studies at Cambridge and Oxford and discussions of the language of science, combine to suggest that hitherto the relationship has been too crudely stated as a movement 'from magic to science'. In fact, two separate mentalities can be traced, the occult and the scientific, each having different assumptions, goals, and methodologies. The contributors call into question many of the received ideas on this topic, showing that the issue has been wrongly defined and based on inadequate historical evidence. They outline new ways of approaching and understanding a situation in which two radically different and, to modern eyes, incompatible ways of describing reality persisted side-by-side until the demise of the occult in the late seventeenth century. Their work, accordingly, sets the whole issue in a new light.

The Occult Tradition

The Occult Tradition PDF Author: David S. Katz
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 0712667865
Category : Occultism
Languages : en
Pages : 282

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Book Description
Is the universe alive? Are there hidden connections within it, revealed in history and in sacred texts? Can we understand or even learn to control these secrets? Have we neglected an entirely separate science that works according to a different set of principles? Certainly by the time of the Renaissance in Europe, there were many thinkers who answered in the affirmative to all of these questions. Despite the growth of modern science and a general disenchantment of the world, the 'occult' or 'esoteric' tradition has evolved in the West, manifesting itself in such diverse groups as the Freemasons, the Mormons, Christian Scientists, the Theosophists, New Ageists and American Fundamentalism. Paradoxically, the turn to science and the triumph of evolution in the nineteenth century produced an explosion of occultism, increasing its power as a kind of super-science. Gothic, fantastic, and supernatural fiction flourished, while Spiritualism emerged as a serious inquiry into the possibility of contacting the dead. After all, if you could communicate with the living at great distances, why should a similar teletechnology not be possible to the other world? Disciplines had not yet hardened, and the borders were as yet undefined between parapsychology and psychology, between mythology and anthropology. Mesmerism became hypnotism, and the subconscious came to be recognized as more than a medium's stomping ground. This book describes the growth and meandering path of the occult tradition over the past five hundred years, and shows how the esoteric world view fits together.

Occult Scientific Mentalities

Occult Scientific Mentalities PDF Author: Brian Vickers
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521338363
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 424

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Book Description
The essays in this volume present a collective study of one of the major problems in the recent history of science: To what extent did the occult 'sciences' (alchemy, astrology, numerology, and natural magic) contribute to the scientific revolution of the late Renaissance? These studies of major scientists (Kepler, Bacon, Mersenne, and Newton) and of occultists (Dee, Fludd, and Cardano), complemented by analyses of contemporary official and unofficial studies at Cambridge and Oxford and discussions of the language of science, combine to suggest that hitherto the relationship has been too crudely stated as a movement 'from magic to science'. In fact, two separate mentalities can be traced, the occult and the scientific, each having different assumptions, goals, and methodologies. The contributors call into question many of the received ideas on this topic, showing that the issue has been wrongly defined and based on inadequate historical evidence. They outline new ways of approaching and understanding a situation in which two radically different and, to modern eyes, incompatible ways of describing reality persisted side-by-side until the demise of the occult in the late seventeenth century. Their work, accordingly, sets the whole issue in a new light.

The Occult Philosophy in the Elizabethan Age

The Occult Philosophy in the Elizabethan Age PDF Author: Frances Yates
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134524412
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 284

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Book Description
It is hard to overestimate the importance of the contribution made by Dame Frances Yates to the serious study of esotericism and the occult sciences. To her work can be attributed the contemporary understanding of the occult origins of much of Western scientific thinking, indeed of Western civilization itself. The Occult Philosophy of the Elizabethan Age was her last book, and in it she condensed many aspects of her wide learning to present a clear, penetrating, and, above all, accessible survey of the occult movements of the Renaissance, highlighting the work of John Dee, Giordano Bruno, and other key esoteric figures. The book is invaluable in illuminating the relationship between occultism and Renaissance thought, which in turn had a profound impact on the rise of science in the seventeenth century. Stunningly written and highly engaging, Yates' masterpiece is a must-read for anyone interested in the occult tradition.

Music in Renaissance Magic

Music in Renaissance Magic PDF Author: Gary Tomlinson
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 9780226807928
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 318

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Book Description
Magic enjoyed a vigorous revival in sixteenth-century Europe, attaining a prestige lost for over a millennium and becoming, for some, a kind of universal philosophy. Renaissance music also suggested a form of universal knowledge through renewed interest in two ancient themes: the Pythagorean and Platonic "harmony of the celestial spheres" and the legendary effects of the music of bards like Orpheus, Arion, and David. In this climate, Renaissance philosophers drew many new and provocative connections between music and the occult sciences. In Music in Renaissance Magic, Gary Tomlinson describes some of these connections and offers a fresh view of the development of early modern thought in Italy. Raising issues essential to postmodern historiography—issues of cultural distance and our relationship to the others who inhabit our constructions of the past —Tomlinson provides a rich store of ideas for students of early modern culture, for musicologists, and for historians of philosophy, science, and religion. "A scholarly step toward a goal that many composers have aimed for: to rescue the idea of New Age Music—that music can promote spiritual well-being—from the New Ageists who have reduced it to a level of sonic wallpaper."—Kyle Gann, Village Voice "An exemplary piece of musical and intellectual history, of interest to all students of the Renaissance as well as musicologists. . . . The author deserves congratulations for introducing this new approach to the study of Renaissance music."—Peter Burke, NOTES "Gary Tomlinson's Music in Renaissance Magic: Toward a Historiography of Others examines the 'otherness' of magical cosmology. . . . [A] passionate, eloquently melancholy, and important book."—Anne Lake Prescott, Studies in English Literature

The Forbidden Universe

The Forbidden Universe PDF Author: Lynn Picknett
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1620876647
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 400

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Book Description
Secret societies, famous scientists, ancient Egyptian mysticism, and a fascinating addition to the god-versus-science debate: the Catholic Church. By the bestselling authors of The Templar Revelation and Mary Magdalene, The Forbidden Universe reveals how the foundations of modern science were based around a desire to destroy the church. The great pioneering scientists of the Renaissance and the early Enlightenment (including Copernicus, Galileo, and Sir Isaac Newton) were fervent devotees of the philosophical/mystical system of Hermeticism. Many of the most important scientists of this age, including Galileo, belonged to a secret society called the Giordanisti, which had the agenda to overthrow the Church and establish a new age of Hermetic supremacy.

Jean Fernel's On the Hidden Causes of Things

Jean Fernel's On the Hidden Causes of Things PDF Author: John Forrester
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9047406486
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 791

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Book Description
An annotated translation of Jean Fernel’s On the Hidden Causes of Things (1542). A major innovatory work in Renaissance natural philosophy and medicine, and a crucially important source for understanding the notion of occult qualities, with a scholarly introduction.