- Questo evento è passato.
Paolo Dal Pozzo Toscanelli, Cosimo de’ Medici and the Sky of the Magi: a new reading of the Florentine Celestial Hemispheres in the Sagrestia Vecchia at San Lorenzo and in the Pazzi Chapel at Santa Croce.
6 Dicembre 2018 @ 11:45 - 12:45
After 30 years since the historical pubblication of the analysis
conducted by Forti, Lapi Ballerini, Monsignori Fossi and Ranfagni (1987), I
offer a careful re-examination of the two famous florentine starry vaults of
the early Renaissance, taking into account the recent restoration of the
hemisphere of the Pazzi Chapel and the almost coeval maps drawn by Paolo
Dal Pozzo Toscanelli for his studies of comets in 1456 (Halley) and 1457.
The authorship by the Tuscan cosmographer is confirmed in the Sagrestia
Vecchia on the basis of a comparison between a sample of stars from the
dome, Toscanelli’s maps and Ptolemy’s Catalogue. The Pazzi Chapel instead,
reveals on close inspection to be a clumsy, derivative later work.
While the double date proposed in 1987, the enigmatic 4/5 july 1442, still
remains astronomically the most probable, I will show that the exactness of
the planetary positions have been overestimated, unfairly provoking a lack of
attention for other candidate dates, more astrologically meaningful if not
depicted with satisfying correctness. Relying indeed on the astrological
techniques and interests of the time, I propose to assess the 1442 and the
1439 most probable candidate horoscopes following the very appropriate line
of reasoning introduced by Dieter Blume (2000), i.e. considering the
congruence of the sky charts with principles and rules of astral divination as
well as with the political situation in Florence and with the cultural needs of
the clients.
Finally, I single out as most probable the second date (even exhibiting a
marginal evidence for it on the basis of Lorenzo de’ Medici’s calendarial
concerns), and I offer a new hypothetical explanation for this preference,
linking medicean interest in the magian narrative and the Star of Bethlehem,
astrological speculation and political propaganda.