Stefano Protonotaro was (as you may already know) one of the "Sicilian Poets" at the court of Federico II. He is also credited with two astrological works, the Liber Revolutionum and the Flores astronomiae. I have never seen either of these texts; however, "Stephanus Messanensis" was the compiler of the so-called Centiloquium Hermetis, which is supposed to have been drawn from various Arabic sources, and I suspect that the Flores astronomiae may be an alternative title for that same work. I am familiar with the Leipzig edition (1494 or earlier), as well as the Basel editions of 1533 and 1551.
Sol et Luna post Deum, omnium viventium vita sunt. ["The Sun and Moon, after God, are the life of all living things."]
This opening sentence of the Centiloquium seemed quite apt as a beginning to the present collection of discourses. So what does it mean? With reference to the Sun and Moon, it conveys the idea that astrological influences are to be understood in much the same way that we understand gravity; while God is indeed sovereign over all of Creation, He has subjected it to certain natural laws and mechanisms. These include the laws of Physics (cf. Matthew 4:6, "If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone") as well as the laws of Astrology (cf. Genesis 1:16-18, "And God made two great lights; the greater light [luminare majus] to rule the day, and the lesser light [luminare minus] to rule the night: he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good").
It is interesting that the same people who reject Astrology on the grounds that it somehow detracts from God's sovereignty have nothing at all to say against the laws of Physics.
Nevertheless, the laws of Astrology and the laws of Physics are of precisely the same sort. This point is cogently argued by William Ramesey:
"for as he hath made the Heavens for the ordinary administration of nature, so he can whensoever it is his good pleasure, as in the days of Joshua, Hezekiah, and at the death of our Saviour Jesus Christ, alter their course; but since these were miracles, and thus to do were miraculous, and that we read but of these three times he thus did work since the Creation, it is not therefore to be ordinarily or frequently seen, neither ought it then to be objected, since as long as God doth continue the order of nature, it must needs follow that the effects of the Stars, by which nature is upheld, have very much of certainty and truth, . . . we are taught that he finished his work in six days, Gen. 1, Exod. 20.11. Ergo, he worketh now no more, but (according to his inevitable decree by his Providence) upholdeth all things by the same power of his word by which they were first made, and leaveth the effecting of all things to the influence of the Heavens and Stars, which you have already heard, by the word of God hath been proved to be next under him the sole cause of all mutations and blessings here on earth, and in elementary bodies." (Astrologia Restaurata, 1653)
I am now thinking of working through the entire Centiloquium Hermetis, discussing a new aphorism every week or so. Vivete felice! OTTAVIO BELTRANO
