What do you think?
Rate this book
A History of Western Astrology Volume II: The Medieval and Modern Worlds
Astrology is a major feature of contemporary popular culture. Recent research indicates that 99% of adults in the modern west know their birth sign. In the modern west astrology thrives as part of our culture despite being a pre-Christian, pre-scientific world-view.
Medieval and Renaissance Europe marked the high water mark for astrology. It was a subject of high theological speculation, was used to advise kings and popes, and to arrange any activity from the beginning of battles to the most auspicious time to have one's hair cut.
Nicholas Campion examines the foundation of modern astrology in the medieval and Renaissance worlds. Spanning the period between the collapse of classical astrology in the fifth century and the rise of popular astrology on the web in the twentieth, Campion challenges the historical convention that astrology flourished only between the twelfth and seventeenth centuries.
Concluding with a discussion of astrology's popularity and appeal in the twenty-first century, Campion asks whether it should be seen as an integral part of modernity or as an element of the post-modern world.
Medieval and Renaissance Europe marked the high water mark for astrology. It was a subject of high theological speculation, was used to advise kings and popes, and to arrange any activity from the beginning of battles to the most auspicious time to have one's hair cut.
Nicholas Campion examines the foundation of modern astrology in the medieval and Renaissance worlds. Spanning the period between the collapse of classical astrology in the fifth century and the rise of popular astrology on the web in the twentieth, Campion challenges the historical convention that astrology flourished only between the twelfth and seventeenth centuries.
Concluding with a discussion of astrology's popularity and appeal in the twenty-first century, Campion asks whether it should be seen as an integral part of modernity or as an element of the post-modern world.
392 pages, Paperback
First published April 16, 2009
1 person is currently reading
231 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 12, 2017
This will take you from the 12th century to the New Age / Age of Aquarius movement, and astrology's role throughout that time. Like Campion's History of Western Astrology Vol. 1, it's heavy/textbook-toned reading, but profound + filled with thought-provoking metaphors. My copy is heavily starred, highlighted and underlined. Even if you're only interested in the modern history of astrology, this book is worth the price for chapters 15-epilogue. I had no idea how many well-known writers, artists and scientists practiced astrology until I read this.
May 19, 2021
Why do so many rational types sneer at astrology and its practitioners? There’s no easy answer. Astrology, in its many guises, tends to elude definition. But this book, which could have been so good, isn’t a bad example. Like A History of Western Astrology Vol 1: The Ancient World, the second volume – The Medieval and Modern Worlds – is almost a book all serious astrology students should read.
An engaging and erudite speaker as well as author, Nicholas Campion is prolific, more or less single-handedly filling a gap in the market with a series of cultural histories on astrology and related topics. But the publisher in this case is ‘Bloomsbury Academic’, and educated readers are used to high standards of accuracy. Campion clearly excels at both a general perspective and synthesis, which is great if others can take care of details, and ultimate responsibility rests with the publisher. Yet Bloomsbury, which no doubt dedicates part of their budget for fiction to editing, apparently failed to assign a proof reader, let alone a copyeditor, to this text.
Its grammar problems seem symptomatic of Campion’s thought rate exceeding his typing speed. Some sentences simply don’t make sense. He omits words or whole phrases or inserts redundant ones; writes ‘concerted’ where he means ‘converted’, ‘1553–34’ when I’d guess he means ‘–54’, ‘singly’ when he means ‘single’ (and what’s a ‘vivid dealcation’?), often transposes letters, misspells numerous names (e.g., ‘Ptolemey’, ‘Tolkein’) and errs on dates (e.g., Swedenborg’s and Robert Cross Smith’s birth years; the year that CG Jung is known to have begun astrological studies). And I’ve barely scratched the surface: the text’s hundreds of glaring (or even just fairly evident) errors cast doubt on the accuracy of countless supposed facts.
Of course, to fact-check a work of this scope within the kind of window typically allotted such a project may not be practical. And yet, if other researchers use this as a source, known history starts to look somewhat fuzzier than it ought to. Does this sloppiness negate the value of the book? No. Campion is at his best when asking pertinent questions and speculating on gaps in the records. But it’s as if his publisher doesn’t respect his readers. And why would they need to? How many have offered Bloomsbury feedback?
An engaging and erudite speaker as well as author, Nicholas Campion is prolific, more or less single-handedly filling a gap in the market with a series of cultural histories on astrology and related topics. But the publisher in this case is ‘Bloomsbury Academic’, and educated readers are used to high standards of accuracy. Campion clearly excels at both a general perspective and synthesis, which is great if others can take care of details, and ultimate responsibility rests with the publisher. Yet Bloomsbury, which no doubt dedicates part of their budget for fiction to editing, apparently failed to assign a proof reader, let alone a copyeditor, to this text.
Its grammar problems seem symptomatic of Campion’s thought rate exceeding his typing speed. Some sentences simply don’t make sense. He omits words or whole phrases or inserts redundant ones; writes ‘concerted’ where he means ‘converted’, ‘1553–34’ when I’d guess he means ‘–54’, ‘singly’ when he means ‘single’ (and what’s a ‘vivid dealcation’?), often transposes letters, misspells numerous names (e.g., ‘Ptolemey’, ‘Tolkein’) and errs on dates (e.g., Swedenborg’s and Robert Cross Smith’s birth years; the year that CG Jung is known to have begun astrological studies). And I’ve barely scratched the surface: the text’s hundreds of glaring (or even just fairly evident) errors cast doubt on the accuracy of countless supposed facts.
Of course, to fact-check a work of this scope within the kind of window typically allotted such a project may not be practical. And yet, if other researchers use this as a source, known history starts to look somewhat fuzzier than it ought to. Does this sloppiness negate the value of the book? No. Campion is at his best when asking pertinent questions and speculating on gaps in the records. But it’s as if his publisher doesn’t respect his readers. And why would they need to? How many have offered Bloomsbury feedback?
August 31, 2019
While my interests only took me through the first five chapters of this book, I can recommend it highly for its clarity and thoroughness. Reading Campion clarified a number of things that were muddled in my mind. I was particularly interested in the relationship of astrology to the emergence of Aristotelianism as an intellectual force. Showing the importance of astrology for the study of the stars helped contextualize the work of Copernicus and Kepler.
June 3, 2024
The second volume is as interesting as the first one of its kind. I appreciate the nuanced perspective on modern day astrology and its depiction in science and the popular press.
My favourite parts included the renaissance pagan revival of astrology and the astrology of the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
Of course, this is a hard read since its jampacked with information but I still found my experience enjoyable.
My favourite parts included the renaissance pagan revival of astrology and the astrology of the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
Of course, this is a hard read since its jampacked with information but I still found my experience enjoyable.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews