[1187] Gio. Villani, iii. x. 39. Elsewhere he appears as a devout believer in astrology, x. 120, xii. 40.
[1188] In the passage xi. 3.
[1189] Gio. Villani, xi. 2, xii. 58.
[1190] The author of the Annales Placentini (in Murat. xx. col. 931), the same Alberto di Ripalta mentioned at p. 241, took part in this controversy. The passage is in other respects remarkable, since it contains the popular opinion with regard to the nine known comets, their colour, origin, and significance. Comp. Gio. Villani, xi. 67. He speaks of a comet as the herald of great and generally disastrous events.
[1191] Paul. Jov. Vita Leonis xx. l. iii. where it appears that Leo himself was a believer at least in premonitions and the like, see above p. 509.
[1192] Jo. Picus Mirand. Adversus Astrologos, libri xii.
[1193] Acc. to Paul, Jov. Elog. Lit. sub tit. Jo. Picus, the result he achieved was ‘ut subtilium disciplinarum professores a scribendo deterruisse videatur.’
[1194] De Rebus Caelestibus, libri xiv. (Opp. iii. 1963-2591). In the twelfth book, dedicated to Paolo Cortese, he will not admit the latter’s refutation of astrology. Ægidius, Opp. ii. 1455-1514. Pontano had dedicated his little work De Luna (Opp. iii. 2592) to the same hermit Egidio (of Viterbo?)
[1195] For the latter passage, see p. 1486. The difference between Pontano and Pico is thus put by Franc. Pudericus, one of the interlocutors in the dialogue (p. 1496): ‘Pontanus non ut Johannes Picus in disciplinam ipsam armis equisque, quod dicitur, irrumpit, cum illam tueatur, ut cognitu maxime dignam ac pene divinam, sed astrologos quosdam, ut parum cautos minimeque prudentes insectetur et rideat.’
[1196] In S. Maria del Popolo at Rome. The angels remind us of Dante’s theory at the beginning of the Convito.