Marco Bertozzi - Astri d’Oriente. Alle origini delle geometrie stellari del Salone dei Mesi

Marco Bertozzi - Stars of the East. The Origins of the Stellar Geometry of the Hall of the Months Fourth installment of "Return to Schifanoia. Conversations from the Hall of the Months," organized by the Institute of Renaissance Studies and the Museums of Ancient Art of Ferrara. After Aby Warburg's celebrated lecture, "Italian Art and International Astrology in the Palazzo Schifanoia in Ferrara" (Accademia dei Lincei, Rome, 1912), much has been written, sometimes with a touch of esoteric excess, about the enigmatic figures of the "decans" (the lords of the ten days), painted on the middle section of the Hall of the Months in Palazzo Schifanoia. Marco Bertozzi, professor of theoretical philosophy at the University of Ferrara and author of numerous studies on the Hall (most notably, The Tyranny of the Stars, 1985, republished in 1999), explains, in addition to the general meaning of the "decans," the "philosophy" of the Persian scientist Albumasar, whose Introduction to Astronomy (mid-9th century) is the main source of inspiration (in its Latinized version) for the astrological images of the "Indian" tradition, which are so beautifully depicted on the walls of the Hall of the Months. © 2022 | Institute of Renaissance Studies | Museums of Ancient Art