Asturias-León, kingdom of 73astrology(discourse on the stars) Astrology, or the
“discourse on the stars,” is based on belief in the influ-
ence of celestial bodies on worldly events. As a possible
way of divination, it played a considerable role among
some Christians in the Middle Ages. Astrology and
astronomy were sometimes considered in the Middle
Ages as two complementary faces of one discipline.
Astrological data were important in astronomical calcula-
tions and frequently taken into consideration in the prac-
tice of medicine.
HISTORYAstrology dated from the ancient Babylonians. In the
Hellenistic period it was based on the authority of two
great second-century Greek scholars, Ptolemy and
Galen. From them it passed to Christianity, Islam, and
Judaism. In the LATINWest, the situation was different
until the early 12th century, because the work of the
Greek and Arab astronomers and astrologers linked with
divination was not known. In the early Middle Ages,
there was little true astrological theory. The reappear-
ance in Christian Europe of a learned astrology or a
clearly organized and hierarchical system of knowledge
that took into account a number of celestial parameters,
occurred in the first half of the 12th century. Then
translations from Arabic to Latin provided the basic
rules of astrological judgments and astronomical tables
to show how the planets might be placed in evaluating
horoscopes. The astral determinism or influences taught
by Arab science were linked to Aristotelian theory of
natural causality.
In the beginning of the 14th century, there was a
sudden extension of its practices from 1320. The new
Alfonsine Tablessuggested a considerable improvement in
the art of prediction. By 1470, the spread of printing gave
a new stimulus to astrological output. It was vulgarized
by way of almanacs and annual predictions, which
became general all over the West and were now addressed
to a wider group. The practice of astrology remained the
prerogative of a small elite of clerics or the educated.
CONCEPTSMedieval astrologers relied on four main components
in the study and practice of their art: birth-dates, revo-
lutions, elections, and interrogations. The births and
conceptions of individuals were the starting points for
any judgments that could be drawn. The study of the
revolutions of sets of birth days was based on the exam-
ination of positions of objects in the sky at the moment
or anniversary of the subject’s birth. Ideas about the
revolutions of years were tied to the location of the
spring equinox of a particular year and the new and
full moons immediately before. Decision-making
could correspond to a choice of favorable moments to
undertake an activity. Interrogations were intended to
provide answers to questions asked by the astrologer of
a person. The practitioner then drew or cast a horo-
scope based on the precise moment when the question
was asked.
Medieval astrology never became a simple set of
techniques for prediction. It was supposed to be a com-
prehensive system of interpreting the world, embracing
every sphere of human life. And it was in this capacity as
an alternative to the idea of free human will so essential
to Christianity that it occasioned numerous questions
and antagonism about its orthodoxy.
Further reading:Hilary M. Carey, Courting Disaster:
Astrology at the English Court and University in the Later
Middle Ages(London: Macmillan, 1992); Eugenio Garin,
Astrology in the Renaissance: The Zodiac of Life,trans. Car-
olyn Jackson and June Allen (London: Routledge and
Kegan Paul, 1983); Anthony Grafton, Cardano’s Cosmos:
The Worlds and Works of a Renaissance Astrologer(Cam-
bridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1999); S. J.
Tester, A History of Western Astrology(Woodbridge: Boy-
dell, 1990); Lynn Thorndike, A History of Magic and
Experimental Science, 8 vols. (New York: Macmillan,
1923–1958), especially volumes 1–4.astronomy SeeSEVEN LIBERAL ARTS.Asturias-León, kingdom of In the early eighth cen-
tury, the kingdom of Asturias-León extended over the
western end of the Picos de Europa, a mountain range in
the northern part of the present Spanish provinces of
Santander and Asturias. At the kingdom’s peak, early in
the 10th century, the Asturian-Leonese kings ruled over
most of the northwest section of the Iberian Peninsula.
In 711 the armies of ISLAM had crossed the Strait of
Gibraltar and destroyed the Visigothic Kingdom. Only in
the far north, in the mountains of Asturias and
Cantabria, did any region resist assimilation and con-
quest by the new invaders of the peninsula. Asturias
expanded and contracted as a result of the frequent
political convulsions of AL-ANDALUS, the area of south-
ern Spain controlled by ISLAM. By the 10th century, the
rulers of Asturias had managed to survive. The Muslims
continued to send punitive expeditions against them but
could not conquer them. Asturias was periodically from
the ninth to the 11th century an independent kingdom.
The Asturian-Leonese kings claimed to be the rightful
heirs of the Visigoths. King Alfonso II (ca. 759–842)
established his capital in Oviedo and solidified the king-
dom’s hold on GALICIA.
Cereals, wine, and livestock were the basis of the
region’s agriculture, which remained relatively backward,
not employing a three-crop rotation and with horses
pulling heavy plows. The social structure of the Asturian-
Léonese kingdom was dominated by a military elite who
ruled over free, semifree, and servile people. True serf-
dom and slavery were also present.