Niccolo
Orsini-Pitigliano asked the physicist and astrologer Alessandro
Benedetto to fix a favourable hour for the conclusion of his bargain
with Venice. When the Florentines on June 1, 1498, solemnly invested
their new Condottiere Paolo Vitelli with his office, the Marshal's
staff which they handed him was, at his own wish, decorated with
pictures of the constellations.
Sometimes it is not easy to make out whether }n important political
events the stars were questioned beforehand, or whether the astrologers
were simply impelled afterwards by curiosity to find out the
constellation which decided the result. When Giangaleazzo Visconti by a
master-stroke of policy took prisoner his uncle Bernabo, with the
latter's family (1385), we are told by a contemporary that Jupiter,
Saturn and Mars stood in the house of the Twins, but we cannot say if
the deed was resolved on in consequence. It is also probable that the
advice of the astrologers was often determined by political calculation
not less than by the course of the planets.
All Europe, through the latter part of the Middle Ages, had allowed
itself to be terrified by predictions of plagues, wars, floods, and
earthquakes, and in this respect Italy was by no means behind other
countries. The unlucky year 1494, which for ever opened the gates of
Italy to the stranger, was undeniably ushered in by many prophecies of
misfortune--only we cannot say whether such prophecies were not ready
for each and every year.
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