Vol. 5 no 1

Demetra George
‘Manuel I Komnenos and Michael Glykas: A Twelfth-Century Defence and Refutation of Astrology’, Part 1: History and Background
pp. 3-49
Abstract
Manuel Komnenos I, Emperor of the Byzantine Empire, composed a defence of astrology to the Church Fathers, in which he asserted that this discipline was compatible with Christian doctrine. Theologian Michael Glykas, possibly imprisoned and blinded by Manuel for political sedition, refuted this defence, claiming that the astrological art was heretical. This is the first time that this exchange of treatises has been translated into any language since their composition in the twelfth-century. The introduction sets these works into their historical framework, a time when the belief in the validity of astrology was held by some of the best scholars of this century as a result of the flood of Arabic astrological translations coming into the Latin West and Greek East. The writings of these two antagonists precipitated anew in mediaeval thought the problem of the correct relationship between man, the celestial bodies and God who dwelled in Heaven.

Richard L. Poss
‘Stars and Spirituality in the Cosmology of Dante’s Commedia’
pp. 49-56.
Abstract. Combining Aristotelian and Platonic philosophy in a complex cosmological system, Dante employs astrology to provide contextual coherence for the reader on earth and for the pilgrim on his journey to God. Stars are spiritualized in the Commedia to provide glimpses of divinity, visible on Earth, from beyond the material world. Imbued with life, intelligence, and love, stars first guide then inspire the pilgrim in increasingly profound levels of meaning. This paper examines the relationship between the astronomical and cosmological functions of the stars and their metaphoric, poetic, and spiritual functions in the pilgrim’s journey.