Luís Campos Ribeiro

“Where No Tradition Has Gone Before: Astrological Geography in the New World”

Associations of zodiac signs with lands, kingdoms, and cities were a common element of astrological forecasting. Since antiquity, these associations have assessed where the main effects of comets, eclipses, lunations, and planetary configurations would take place. Yet the discovery of new continents and territories in the early modern period challenged this system, since no associations existed for these new lands. This paper examines how astrologers faced this lacuna and the clash between traditional astrological knowledge and early modern geographical discoveries by exploring the propositions of astrologers working in the New World, their technical coherence, and their reception.