Dante and the early astronomers

by M. A. Orr

To the strong star of Mars the noble warlike nature of Can Grande was partly due;[707] Jupiter is a temperate star, not only in the purity of his colour, but his influence is felt where justice is worked on earth.[708] Saturn’s influence is modified when he shines in Leo,[709] the sun has special powers in Aries,[710] and to his presence in Gemini at the time of Dante’s birth the poet attributes his literary gift.[711] In Inf. xxvi. 23, he again suggests that his mental powers may be due to the influence of a good star, and Brunetto Latini bids him follow his star.[712]

Dante also quotes Albumassar, and Seneca, and the events of his own day, to show that those fiery vapours, meteorites, portend the death of kings and the downfall of states, adding that this is because they are effects of the sovereignty of Mars.[713] This passage explains why the warrior Malaspina is called a vapour drawn by Mars from Valdimagra, which in the tempest of battle at Piceno shall suddenly split the clouds and deal death to the combatants.[714]

The results of the right disposition of sphere with sphere are spoken of in Canz. xix. 77-79; all the nine were in perfect accord when Beatrice, herself a nine or miracle of perfection, was to be born;[715] and every star rained its light and its virtue into her beautiful eyes.[716] There is also a charming sonnet, in which the poet tells us how all the seven planets influence his lady.

“Da quella luce che il suo corso gira Sempre al volere dell’ empiree sarte, E stando regge tra Saturno e Marte, Secondo che l’astrologo ne spira; Quella che in me col suo piacere aspira, D’essa ritragge signorevol arte: E quei che dal ciel quarto non si parte Le dà l’effetto della mia desira. Ancor quel bel pianeta di Mercuro Di sua virtute sua loquela tinge, E ’l primo ciel di sè già non l’è duro. Colei, che ’l terzo ciel di sè costringe Il cor le fa d’ogni eloquenza puro; Così di tutti e sette si dipinge.”[717]

In more serious vein is the discourse in Par. ii. on the different virtues of the different stars;[718] and this should be compared with passages in the Quæstio and the Convivio. “Sciendum quod licet cœlum stellatum habeat unitatem in substantia, habet tamen multiplicitatem in virtute,”[719] sounds like an echo of the words of Beatrice:

“Così l’intelligenza sua bontate Multiplicata per le stelle spiega, Girando sè sopra sua unitate.”[720]

And when comparing Nobility with the star-spangled sky, our author says:

“Tante sono le sue stelle che nel cielo si stendono, che certo non è da maravigliare, se molti e diversi frutti fanno nella umana Nobiltà, tante sono le nature e le potenze di quelle, in una sotto una semplice sustanza comprese e adunate, nelle quali siccome in diversi rami fruttifica diversamente.”[721]

The author goes on to say in the Quæstio that the many and diverse stars which we see in the eighth heaven were placed there in order that it might pour down diverse virtues, and that he who perceives this not, let him know that he is outside the pale of philosophy.[722] In another place he tells us that the nearer a star is to the mid-circle of the star sphere, the greater is its virtue:[723] he no doubt means, not the celestial equator, but the zodiac (or more exactly the ecliptic), since this was the mid-circle of the star sphere, parallel to which its slow revolution of 36,000 years was made. This would agree with the view of the astrologers, who paid more attention to the constellations of the zodiac than to any others.

But we may search all Dante’s works in vain for any reference to the “houses” or “aspects” of the planets, or for any information about the masculine and feminine, mobile and stable, signs. All such things, which seemed to most writers of his day quite as important as the periods of the planets or the positions of the signs, he entirely ignores. Among the circumlocutions by which he describes the signs, such as “the fair nest of Leda,” or “the sign that follows Taurus,” we never find “the house of Saturn,” or “the sign in which Mars is mildest.” Leo is called Mars’ own Lion, probably because the “leo audax et ferox” of bestiaries agreed with the fiery colour and nature of Mars:[724] astrologically, his signs were Scorpio and Aries. It is quite astonishing that among all the characteristics of the planets and spheres mentioned in Convivio II. chapters xiv. and xv., only two relate to astrology, namely, the temperate disposition of Jupiter between the hot Mars and cold Saturn, and the power of Mars to draw up the hot vapours which become meteors and portend the deaths of kings. All the rest—the markings and phases of the moon, the small size and proximity to the sun of Mercury, the beauty of Venus and her appearance alternately as morning and evening star, the brilliance of the sun and his capability of giving light to all the stars, the position of the sphere of Mars midway between those of the other planets, the purity of Jupiter’s colour, the slow movement and distance of Saturn—all these are purely astronomical, to use the modern distinction. So also are the characters of the star sphere—the thousand and twenty-two visible stars, and the indistinguishable stars of the Galaxy, the pole we see and the other which remains hidden, the conspicuously swift diurnal movement and the almost imperceptible secular revolution of 36,000 years. Of the Primum Mobile it is remarked that it controls the movement of all the rest, and of the Empyrean that it is full of peace.