ASTROLOGY AND OBSERVATION OF THE COSMOS THROUGH THE VISION OF WITCHES IN THE MODERN AGE. ALONG WITH THE STATE OF ART

Abstract

In this contribution we intend, by means of archival sources and through an up-to-date bibliography on the subject, to construct the perception of the cosmos, the stars and their influence through a specific witch vision. Women defined as witches, insofar as they were sometimes not even interested in folk or herbal practices, interpreted life and its events through the interpretation and observation of the sky and its phenomena. Focusing in terms of order and methodological practice on Italy in the 16th and 17th centuries, we therefore intend to describe, through a particular vision mediated by ancient knowledge, the thoughts around which women ‘witches’ moved. It is particularly interesting to observe the proto-scientific thinking, often lacking any training and in years sometimes even before the revolutions relating to astronomical perception, of these women. The intermingling of knowledge again dutifully implies an interdisciplinary methodological approach, between philology, obviously historiography, cultural history and anthropology. Observation of reality, of nature, with a physical-experimental bent, allowed them to abstract problems, and filter them through ancient and folkloric knowledge. Analysing this thought through the lens of the so-called witches would bring further food for thought in dialogues and contributions aimed at analysing the thought of women in history, between body and sky. A dutiful analysis of the concepts, stylistic features and foundational disciplines for witch thought, with a focus on astrology, will be undertaken.