A History of Magic and Experimental Science, Volume 2 (of 2) / During the First Thirteen Centuries of Our Era

by Lynn Thorndike

Reasons for his celebrity.

The name of Cecco d’Ascoli has perhaps received more attention and is better known than the writings and actual achievements of its owner deserve. If so, this is mainly for two reasons; first, that his poem l’Acerba has been associated with the study of Dante; second, that he was condemned by the Inquisition and burned at the stake in Florence in 1327. Doubtless Cecco should receive some attention in the histories both of literature and science as one who was both an Italian poet and a Latin teacher and writer of astronomy and astrology. But his works and personality would perhaps have been long since forgotten but for the fact that his learned poem, l’Acerba, was taken to be an invidious parody of Dante’s Divine Comedy, and that both it and his astrological work in Latin were ordered to be burned at the same time with himself, while all persons retaining copies of them were to be excommunicated. Recently, it is true, it has been held that Cecco imitated Dante out of admiration for him and not from any desire to cast aspersion upon the Divine Comedy,[2950] but in any case their names have long been coupled. As for the condemnation by the Inquisition, its chief effect seems to have been to raise a rather ordinary astrologer to the position of a martyr for science and a reproach to the medieval church. Many apologies for and eulogies of Cecco have been penned through the centuries since, while a few writers have tried to justify the action of the Inquisition, to discredit Cecco, and to question his scientific reputation.[2951] Certainly the condemnation by the Inquisition seems to have advertised rather than repressed his writings, since not only has the poem l’Acerba survived but also two works on astrology. Of these three the two that the Inquisition probably meant to forbid were both in print before 1500 and the Protestant Revolt. The third, which the Inquisitors seem to have overlooked, was also neglected by publishers until the present century.

An astrologer burned by the Inquisition.

Hitherto in our survey of medieval learning, more particularly of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, we have found little or no evidence in support of the old view, or rather assumption, that every medieval scientist was persecuted by the church. Signs of a theological party hostile to the growing interest in natural science we have seen, but much more evidence of this growing interest itself, and that too among bishops, friars, Franciscan as well as Dominican, and even popes. We have seen that the scientific attitude of William of Conches prevailed in the long run, that it is very doubtful if Roger Bacon was in any sense persecuted by the church for devotion to natural science, and that Peter of Abano did not have to die in order to escape the Inquisition but that it had to wait until after his death before it could do him any harm. But now in Cecco d’Ascoli we come at last, and it is not until the fourteenth century, to a well authenticated case of an astrologer of some learning being put to death through the agency of the Inquisition. This makes his writings the more important for us to note, although we do not find their contents such as to entitle him to any high rank as a natural scientist.

Works by Cecco to be considered here.

It is hard to see any reason for the condemnation of l’Acerba by the Inquisition except that it was written by Cecco. Its superstition is so slight as not to call for notice here, nor is its natural science more remarkable than that of other vernacular poems such as the Romance of the Rose. Our discussion will center about his two extant Latin works which are in the form of commentaries upon the Sphere of Sacrobosco[2952] and the Principia of Alcabitius.[2953] Both seem to be in the form of class-room lectures and were presumably delivered by Cecco at Bologna. As we shall see, it is reasonably certain that the Latin work condemned by the Inquisition was the commentary on the Sphere and not that on Alcabitius, although why the latter should be overlooked when the innocuous l’Acerba was condemned is difficult to explain except by the usual ignorance and stupidity of censors and persecutors. It is unlikely that either of the Latin works has been altered from Cecco’s original either by himself or others in order to render it less objectionable from the theological point of view, after the Inquisition had condemned his book on astrology in toto. It would be more likely if anything to be touched up in the other direction. In any case these two works are what we have from Cecco’s pen to show what were the views of an astrologer condemned by the Inquisition.

Other sources.

We have, it is true, some documentary evidence other than Cecco’s own works to show what his views were and why he was condemned by the Inquisition, but it is not very satisfactory. Boffito, who in recent times has made the most specialized study of Cecco d’Ascoli and his works, editing the commentary on Alcabitius hitherto unprinted and investigating the problem, “Why was the astrologer Cecco d’Ascoli condemned to be burned?”[2954] accepts outside of Cecco’s own writings only two sources as at all original and reliable, namely, the account in Giovanni Villani’s contemporary chronicle[2955] and a Latin manuscript in the Riccardian library at Florence[2956] which contains a summary of the inquisitorial sentence against Cecco. This manuscript is on paper and I should say is certainly not earlier than the fifteenth century. Boffito views with suspicion the longer sentence in Italian which was reproduced by Cantù[2957] and made use of in Lea’s History of the Inquisition,[2958] since it is not found earlier than in a manuscript of the seventeenth century.

The sentence by the Inquisition.

According to the Riccardian manuscript Cecco’s astrology was the reason, or at least the pretext, for his condemnation, but it does not make clear just what was found objectionable in his astrological teaching. It brings out further, however, that he was not put to death for a first offense but was burned at Florence as a relapsed heretic on the ground that he had violated the terms of a previous sentence imposed upon him by the inquisitor at Bologna. In 1324 the Bolognese inquisitor had found Cecco guilty of improper utterances concerning the Catholic Faith and had imposed upon him a penance of fifteen days of confession, daily recital of thirty Paternosters and as many Ave Marias, occasional fasting for a year, and the hearing every Sabbath of a sermon by the friars. He furthermore took from Cecco “all his astrological books, great and small,” forbade him ever again to teach astrology at Bologna or elsewhere, publicly or privately, deprived him indefinitely of his professorial chair and doctor’s degree, and fined him seventy pounds Bolognese. Taken altogether, this sentence, while it did not condemn Cecco to death, would seem to have deprived him rather effectually of future means of livelihood. Three years later the inquisitor at Florence received the account of the foregoing process against Cecco at Bologna, summoned him before himself, pronounced him a heretic, and handed him over to the secular arm to be burned at the stake. This part of the sentence was duly executed by the ducal Vicarius, Lord Jacob of Brescia. It was further decreed that Cecco’s astrological book in Latin and his poem l’Acerba in Italian should be burned and that all persons retaining copies of them should be excommunicated.