Askew, Anne (Anne Kyme) (1520–1546) English
Protestant writer and martyr
Daughter of a wealthy Lincolnshire landowner, she was
well educated in the Scriptures and interested in theolog-
ical debate. She was forced into an unhappy marriage to a
Catholic landowner, Thomas Kyme, but became alienated
from him as she embraced Protestantism. In about 1544
he renounced her as a heretic. Now the mother of two
children, Askew tried and failed to obtain a divorce. She
moved to London, associating with Protestants in the cir-
cle of Queen Catherine PARR. In 1545 she was arrested, ex-
amined for heresy, and released. Arrested again (June
1546), she was crippled by torture on the rack (unprece-
dented in view of her status as a gentlewoman), possibly
in an attempt to obtain incriminating evidence of the
queen’s reformist activities. During her incarceration in
the Tower of London Askew wrote The First Examynacyon
of Anne Askew (1546) and The Lattre Examynacyon of Anne
Askew (1547). In July 1546 she was burned at the stake at
Smithfield. The autobiographical Examynacyons, one of
the first such examples of women’s writing, featured in
John FOXE’s Book of Martyrs (1563).
Aspertini, Amico (c. 1475–1552) Italian painter and
sculptor
A native of Bologna, Aspertini was a pupil of ERCOLE DE’
ROBERTIof Ferrara and assistant to both COSTAand FRAN-
CIA, with whom he worked on the frescoes of the oratory
of Sta. Cecilia in San Giacomo Maggiore, Bologna (1506).
Aspertini also visited Rome and Florence and absorbed
features of the styles of such painters as SIGNORELLI, PIN-
TURICCHIO, RAPHAEL, and Filippino LIPPI, whose works he
studied in detail. Notable works include a series of rere-
doses and a cycle of frescoes (1508–09) in the church of
San Frediano, Lucca. Other paintings are remarkable for
their elements of fantasy. As a sculptor he collaborated on
the portals of San Petronio, Bologna. His sketchbook in
the British Museum shows his interest in antique models.
astrolabes Astronomical instruments formerly used to
determine time, latitude, and the altitude of various celes-
tial bodies above the horizon. The name means literally “a
star-taking” (Greek astrolabos). An astrolabe consists of a
flat circular plate (mater), usually made of brass, on which
is engraved a stereographic projection of the heavens.
Centered on one of the celestial poles, this normally
shows the tropics, celestial equator, ecliptic, and the ob-
server’s zenith and horizon. Subsidiary plates which can
be placed over the mater are often provided for use in dif-
ferent latitudes. Over the mater is fixed an adjustable rete,
or fretted plate, showing the positions of the brightest
stars. A sighting arm (alidade) is also attached. A simpli-
fied version of the instrument, known as the mariner’s as-
trolabe, was available for use at sea. There was also a rare
spherical form.
Although the planispheric astrolabe described above
is not mentioned by Ptolemy (see PTOLEMAIC SYSTEM), the
principles behind its design were familiar to him, and
through the influence of Islamic astronomers, particularly
Masha’allah (eighth century CE), knowledge of the instru-
ment passed to the West. Among early works on the sub-
ject to draw upon Masha’allah is Chaucer’s Treatise on the
Astrolabe (1391–92). Renaissance refinements of the as-
trolabe include two forms of the socalled “universal” as-
trolabe, suitable for use in any latitude: the astrolabium
catholicum of GEMMA FRISIUS and the Rojas astrolabe,
based on an orthographic projection first described by the
Frisian Hugo Helt in Juan de Rojas’s Commentarii (1550).astrology The study of movements of stars and planets,
traditionally divided into two distinct types: natural as-
trology, which simply predicted the motions of heavenly
bodies and is now part of astronomy, and judicial astrol-
ogy, which foretold future terrestrial events on the basis of
celestial signs. The most significant branch of judicial as-
trology, genethliacal astrology, purported to throw light on
human destiny by constructing natal horoscopes (i.e.
horoscopes based on the aspect of the heavens at the exact
time and place of the subject’s birth).
Although the origins of astrology can be traced to
Babylonian times, with the earliest known horoscopes dat-
ing back to 409 BCE, the fullest exposition of astrology in
antiquity occurs in the Tetrabiblos of Ptolemy (fl. 127–48
CE), a work from which much of Renaissance, and indeed
modern, astrology ultimately derives (see PTOLEMAIC SYS-
TEM). This, in turn, was based largely on the prevailing as-
sumptions of Hellenistic science. It was, at that time,
reasonable to suppose that celestial events influenced
human affairs; if ignorant sailors, Ptolemy argued, could
predict the weather from the sky, how much more capable
would learned scholars be to foresee its influence on man.
The precise links between the heavens and earth were
forged in terms of the traditional four elements. Planets
were assigned properties on the basis of their supposed
composition with, for example, the moon being classed as
hot and moist, and SATURNas cold and dry. As a moist heat
was deemed beneficial, and a cold dryness damaging, it
followed that the moon exercised a benign influence on
man and Saturn a harmful one. Greater complexity was
introduced by allowing celestial influences to be modified
by a planet’s position, both along the eclipic (zodiac) and
relative to other planets (aspects). The rules derived from
these assumptions proved sufficiently comprehensive to
allow astrologers to deal with almost any situation.
Opposition to astrology first arose within the Church;
both St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas set their great
authority against it. Something of an astrological revival
nonetheless occurred in the 13th century, through the
writings of such figures as Arnold of Villanova, Pietro
d’Abano, and, more significantly, Guido Bonatti whose3344 AAsskkeeww,, AAnnnnee