University of Edinburgh

Faculty Member, School of History, Classics and Archaeology

Lecturer in Early Modern History

About

My work so far has investigated the intellectual, cultural, and political contexts of medicine and science in Renaissance and Early Modern Europe, with particular emphasis on anatomy and astrology in Renaissance Italy. My research has concentrated largely on Leonardo da Vinci’s anatomical drawings and his practice of dissection, and on the political uses of astrology in Renaissance Italy. The results of my doctoral dissertation, entitled _Leonardo in Context: Medical Ideas and Practices in Renaissance Milan_, appeared in a series of journal articles published in _Early Science and Medicine_ and _Renaissance Studies_, and in the volume of essays, _Visualizing Medieval Medicine and Natural History, 1200-1550_ (Ashgate, 2006). While working in the Milanese archives I discovered a series of documents related to Renaissance astrology and this has led me to my current research interest in the history of astrology. In this context, I have recently published an article that examines the way in which astrology was employed to predict death in Renaissance Italy, and another that concentrates on the function of collections of genitures (natal horoscopes) as practical learning tools used by astrologers to test and refine their skills. In these studies I am concerned with the way in which Renaissance astrology, as a legitimate intellectual discipline of Early Modern courts and universities, fulfilled eminently practical goals and provided useful “astrological intelligence” to clients of various social extractions, but particularly rulers.


My forthcoming book, _The Duke and The Stars: Astrology and Politics in Renaissance Milan_ (Cambridge. Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2012), investigates the role played by astrology in Italian court culture. While earlier historians have often concentrated on the intellectual and theoretical bases of astrology in the Renaissance, this book strives to bring theory and practice together, moving back and forth between astrological techniques and the ways in which these were practically applied in specific contexts. Based on extensive research in Italian and European archives and libraries, the book illustrates the way in which the Sforza dukes used astrology as a political and dynastic tool to contract alliances, wage war, plan and consummate marriages, and navigate health crises.