Enrico G. Rafaelli: Loroscopo del mundo.

Il teme di nascita del mundo e del primo uomo seconda

Pastrologla zoroastriana
Loroscopo del mundo: Il teme di nascita del mundo e del primo uomo seconda Pastrologla
zoroastriana by EnricoG. Rafaelli
Review by: rev. by DavidPingree
Isis, Vol. 96, No. 1 (March 2005), p. 104
Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of The History of Science Society
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BOOK REVIEWSISIS, 96 : 1 (2005) 103
suit that does not t. It is also far more interest-
ing.
JULIUS ROCCA
Patricia F. OGrady. Thales of Miletus: The
Beginnings of Western Science and Philosophy.
(Western Philosophy Series, 58.) xxii 310
pp., bibl., indexes. Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate,
2002. $84.95 (cloth).
According to Aristotle, Thales was the rst phi-
losopher, the rst to consider questions of meta-
physics. According to Kant, Thales put mathe-
matics on the sure path of science when he
proved the equality of the base angles of an
isosceles triangle. According to Patricia F.
OGrady, Thales accomplished even morehe
was also the rst Western scientist (p. 2). This
claim is controversial enough (e.g., Kant dis-
agrees) to merit attention from historians and
philosophers of science. OGradys case is not
entirely convincing, but this is unsurprising for
a project that demands mastery of classics, an-
cient history, ancient philosophy, and history
and philosophy of science. Experts from these
disciplines will nd that OGrady misses certain
subtleties. Yet her book will be interesting to
anyone studying the emergence of scientic
thought.
Chapter 1 lays out the books plan. Two dis-
cusses the sources for our knowledge of Thales,
contending that commentators probably had ac-
cess to Thales own writings. Three argues that
Aristotle was correct to write, Thales . . . says
that the principle is water. However, Aristotle
probably misunderstood the problems which
motivated Thales (p. 41). Four supports this
claim by criticizing Aristotles account of the
reasons for Thales watery thesis. Aristotle
failed to appreciate the traditional cyclic theory
of change, whereby water is seen to be the
causal agent which brings about all change (p.
45). This chapter is lled with examples that
illustrate (the author says justify) the cycle
(e.g., metal being transformed to a molten
state). But the fundamental character of water,
in contrast to that of air or earth, is never es-
tablished. The cycle might as well begin and
end with air as with water; that, of course, is
Anaximenes idea.
Five argues that Thales was not inuenced by
mythology and rejected any appeal to the di-
vine. Exactly why he rejected theological ex-
planations was not made clear, though it is cru-
cial to the emergence of scientic thought.
OGrady observes that Thales was a practical
man, and I hoped she might pursue this as a
reason for abandoning the gods. Six discusses
physical hypotheses attributed to Thales (e.g.,
the earth rests on water). OGrady does her best
to make them seem plausible. Seven considers
a thorny issuewaters being transformed into
various states by an inherent force. Forces may
not be gods, but, at least before its been mea-
sured, a force has no explanatory advantage
over a god. Moreover, forces lack instrumental
advantage, since they cant be implored.
OGrady addresses this problem, but her treat-
ment is question begging: Although the power
in neither the lodestone nor amber is observ-
able, the result of the hidden force is readily
perceivable (pp. 240241).
Eight provides the best glimpse of Thales
mind by discussing his investigations of
eclipses, solstices, the calendar, and the sizes of
sun and moon. OGrady argues, convincingly,
that Thales eclipse prediction was based on a
lunar-solar eclipse cycle of 23.5 months rather
than a Saros cycle. Nine considers and rejects
the story that Thales engineering genius helped
an army to cross the Halys. Ten defends Thales
as the inventor of mathematical proof, a view I
have criticized (D. Sherry. Thales Sure Path,
Studies in History and Philosophy of Science,
1999, 31:621650). The author fails to consider
Seidenbergs work on ritual peg and cord (i.e.,
ruler and compass) constructions in the Indus
River Valley circa 3000 BC (A. Seidenberg,
The Ritual Origins of Geometry, Archive for
History of Exact Science, 1962, 1:488527).
One such ritual consists in constructing a square
altar equal in area to a given rectangular one.
This construction is, of course, the culmination
of Elements III.
Eleven argues that Thales was scientic be-
cause his watery thesis was falsied by Lavoi-
sier in 1769 (p. 232). The experiment involved
distilled water, heated over a long period of
time and weighed. Invariance in the waters
weight refutes the thesis that water can be trans-
formed into earth. OGrady doesnt explain why
transformability entails a change in the waters
weight. Aside from this, the alleged falsication
conicts with an earlier observation:
the ancient concept of water was quite different from
a modern view. Water is now generally compre-
hended only as liquid that falls as rain . . . but there
is another kind of water, a fusile kind. (p. 59)
The fact that fusile kind refers to molten
metal (p. 60) undermines the relevance of La-
vosiers experiment.
DAVID SHERRY
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104 BOOK REVIEWSISIS, 96 : 1 (2005)
Enrico G. Rafaelli. Loroscopo del mundo: Il
teme di nascita del mundo e del primo uomo se-
conda Pastrologla zoroastriana. 216 pp., bibl.,
index. Milan: Mimesis, 2001. 15.49 (paper).
The reconstruction of the astrology of Sasanian
Iran (ca. AD 224652), which was originally de-
scribed in Pahlav texts that have now mostly
been lost, has been ourishing in the last few
decades. Earlier authors depended on fragments
of this science preserved in the post-Muslimcon-
quest Pahlav texts, the Bundahishn (V, VA, VB,
and VIA) and the Wiz dag h of Zadspram, and
in the Karnamag Ardaxs r Pabagan and Zand
Wahman Yasn of the Sasanian period. The rele-
vant sources were considerably expanded as it
was realized, on the basis of Arabic astrological
texts and their Greek and Latin translations, that
Sasanian astrology was based on a fusion of
Greek and Sanskrit science. Since its Pahlav
roots are necessary for understanding much of
Medieval and Renaissance European astrology,
they should be more carefully studied by those
who write books and articles on the history and
inuence of astrology in the West.
The horoscope of Gayomard in the Bunda-
hishn was published rst by E. Blochet (Texts
Pehlvis inedits relatifs a` la religion mazdeenne,
Revue de lhistoire des religions, 1895, 32:99
115 and 217241, esp. pp. 110115 and 217
220). The subsequent history of its interpretation
is reviewed by Raffaelli (pp. 6066). Eventu-
ally, it was shown to contain a mixture of Greek,
Indian, and Iranian ideas, and to have been cast
in the sixth century, most probably during the
reign of Khusro Anoshirwan (531578). The
previous understanding of the astrology involved
in the horoscope, set forth by D. N. MacKenzie
(Zoroastrian Astrology in the Bundahisn, Bul-
letin of the School of Oriental and African Stud-
ies, 1964, 27:511529), has been replaced with
one that explains satisfactorily every word in this
opaque text. (His newly constituted text, its
translation, and a detailed philological and tech-
nical commentary is given by Raffaelli on pp.
66135; copies of the original three Pahlav
manuscripts are given on pp. 197216.) The his-
tory of the transmission of the Bundahishns text
could have been further illuminated by his men-
tioning the planetary geography of the seven
vkils (Keshvars) that accompanies the hor-
oscope in most of its Arabic, Greek, and Latin
derivatives, from the late eighth century on (see
D. Pingree, Sasanian Astrology in Byzantium,
to appear in the publication of the papers pre-
sented at the conference La Persia e Bisanzio,
held at Rome in 2002). But some of the Pahlav ,
Arabic, Greek, and Latin texts that describe the
horoscope itself are presented by Raffaelli (pp.
137162).
Much remains to be done in the history of Sas-
anian astrology, but this is a notably useful con-
tribution to it by a most promising young Pahlav
scholar.
DAVID PINGREE
Middle Ages and Renaissance
Anthony Grafton. Cardanos Cosmos: The
World and Works of a Renaissance Astrologer.
xii 284 pp., illus., bibl., index. Cambridge,
Mass: Harvard University Press, 1999. $37.50
(cloth).
Anthony Grafton provides readers with an illu-
minating glimpse into the mental and physical
worlds of Girolamo Cardano, one of the Renais-
sances most intriguing gures. Cardano has
been the object of another important recent
study, Nancy Siraisis The Clock and the Mirror:
Girolamo Cardano and Renaissance Medicine
(Princeton University Press, 1997). The two
books are complementary, examining different
facets of an individual whose intellectual range
and interests can be bewildering. In Cardanos
Cosmos, Grafton succeeds in bringing order to
his subjects life by examining the chief way in
which Cardano himself sought to understand the
world and his place in it: early modern astrology.
In a series of brilliantly crafted chapters, Graf-
ton leads the reader through Cardanos efforts to
nd a niche in the competitive world of Renais-
sance intellectuals. The internal technical crisis
in astrology enabled Cardano to manipulate tra-
ditional forms and genres of the astrologers art,
blending them in new ways that brought him na-
tional and international acclaim. We follow Car-
dano as he moves from an empiricist prognos-
ticator to a stylish astrologer who wrote gossipy
genitures for the rich and famous, both alive and
dead. Entering enthusiastically into the newprint
culture, Cardano gained important clients such
as Edward VI of England and formidable adver-
saries such as Georg Joachim Rheticus and Luca
Gaurico. Near the end of the book we see how
Cardanos familiarity with medicine and his pas-
sion for astrology led him towards the ambitious
humanist goal of restoring classical astrology.
Grafton draws persuasive analogues between the
early modern interest in restoring Hippocrates to
the medical canon, and Cardanos belief that he
could essentially recapture Ptolemys lost source
texts for the Tetrabiblos. Cardano emerges as an
early historian of science, studying individual
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