ABSTRACT
Bruno’s attitude towards astrology was multifaceted. In his early as well as in his later works, he levelled various attacks against astrology.1 Yet one of his first works, the lost De segni de’ tempi, was probably an astrological treatise.2 Moreover, in Spaccio de la bestia trionfante and other works, he endorsed the horoscope of religions,3 and in Libri Aristotelis physicorum explanati, composed in the late 1580s, he explained generation and corruption drawing on clearly astrological concepts.4 Also in his magical works he endorsed astrological concepts. And at the very moment of his arrest in Venice, he was in possession of a manuscript entitled De sigillis Hermetis, Ptolomaei et aliorum, copied in Padua by his pupil Besler.5 These apparently conflicting attitudes are to be understood in the light of the specific cultural context of Bruno’s intellectual formation and activity.
