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Re: Ephemerides at Columbus' Time
From: Alexandre Eremenko
Date: 2012 Oct 25, 15:21 -0400
From: Alexandre Eremenko
Date: 2012 Oct 25, 15:21 -0400
Many mathematicians/astronomers did astrology for a living. Some even believed it. The most famous example is Kepler. (It seems that he indeed believed in astrology. For example, he composed and published a horoscope on himself). Ptolemy was famous not only for Almagest and Geography but for Tetrabiblos (a book on astrology). For example, our university library has Almagest and Tetrabiblos (several copies!) but does not have other books of Ptolemy (Geography, Handy Tables, etc.) And I suspect thast even Almagest survived to out time only because it was used by astrologers. (Hipparchus works did not survive). So astrology and astronomy were really inseparable during some preiod. (Science can exist only if someone pays for it. So there must be some demand. During a long period there was no much demand for "pure" astronomy or math). Alex. > Incidently, the English version of the Wikipedia article on Zacuto > *does*say he was an astrologer. ;-) > > Yes but Zacuto was from Salamanca and the spanish version say he is > a mathematician and an astronomer ;-)