The eminent Byzantine astrologer John Abramius

Byzantine astrology is rather unknown among the general public. In fact, many people might be surprised to find out that Byzantine astrology even existed. It did, though, and it was marvelous!

Byzantium was somehow a continuation of the Hellenistic world, so astrology was a natural part of its tradition. Additionally, the Byzantines were geographically close to the Persians and Arabs - who themselves had adopted and developed the Hellenistic astrology. Consequently, Byzantium became a particularly fertile ground for the dissemination of astrological ideas, at the time.

Some of the most competent astrologers of that era originated in this part of the world. Among them was John Abramius, whom I am sharing with you in this article. Aside from his skills as an astrologer, Abramius kickstarted what we might call a “tardive Byzantine astrological school"! Its influence was such that even illustrious figures, such as Cardinal Isidore of Kiev, studied astrology there!

The (erected by Cardanus) horoscope of the top Byzantine/ Renaissance astrologer Trapezuntius!

                            (Portrait of the top Byzantine/ Renaissance astrologer George Trapezuntius)

Many historians nowadays are beginning to realize that the contribution of the Byzantine scholars to the Italian Renaissance - although much praised  - in reality has been underestimated! I could share my own testimony here - for the little it counts for - since I am researching Byzantine astrology for many years and I have come to the conclusion that the Byzantines Astrologers have substantially influenced their European colleagues - and the Renaissance Astrology in general!

A leading figure of the Byzantine and Renaissance Astrology - a figure that directly and indirectly influenced many European astrologers - is George of Trebizond (or George Trapezuntios)! He was born in 1396 in the island of Crete. His family originated from Trebizond in Pontus (now Trabzon in Turkey but back then a major Greek-Byzantine city and an important astronomical and astrological center). Trapezuntius was a true cultured Astrologer (we might call him today an "omniscient" as he was an astronomer, a mathematician, a translator, orator, philosopher, physician etc.).

People know next to nothing about Byzantium and the Byzantines. So, to make you realize - in the blink of an eye  - how important Trapezuntius has been to the European astrology I am inviting you to take a look at the photo below. It shows a list of the books that the famous English astrologer William Lilly had in his possession (he enlists them himself at the end of his book "Christian Astrology"). In this list we can clearly see that Lilly was studying the Georgius Trapezuntius' book "In centum Ptolomei Aphorismos"!

In those times Crete was under Venetian rule. Thus, in 1496 Trapezuntius - having already distinguished himself in literature, philosophy and science - moved to Venice in order to work as a secretary at the powerful politician and humanist Francesco Barbaro. Alongside his work he began teaching Greek (which was becoming "fashionable" back then in Italy) and probably astrology too! His fame spread rapidly throughout Italy and he was soon receiving invitations to teach at various universities (he taught at the ones of Vincenza, Florence and Rome). A few years after, an even greater recognition came for him by the hand of the very Pope Gregory IV (a great lover of literature and the arts) who appointed him an apostolic secretary!

In all those years Trapezuntius (apart from teaching letters, phisosophy, oratory and eventually translating greek texts into latin) was most probably practicing and teaching astrology too! We have a testimony on this from the famous Italian astrologer Lucas Gauricus. In his popular book "Tractatus astrologicus" Gauricus collected/ computed the horoscopes of the most illustrious scholars of his era and among them he displays the one of Trapezuntius! You may see it below in its square form that was very popular up to a couple of centuries ago. Gauricus is "tagging" Trapezuntius as an astronomer (a term that in the language of that era means mostly an astrologer!)

Below this horoscope Gauricus is adding some info on Trapezuntius (in Latin): "He was born in the island of Crete, whose latitude is 36 degrees. He has been a professor of letters in many Italian cities and a distinguished astronomer. He himself recorded all his relative birthday events (Gauricus means here the specific date and time of every Trapezuntius' Solar Return) and he computed this particular natal chart, in various Greek and Latin forms"!

The above horoscope looks neat and well calculated but in reality it is somehow inconsistent! First of all, it indicates as Trapezuntius birth year the one of 1395. In his biographies though Trapezuntius is reported as been born in 1396. To make things more complicated, the planetary positions in this horoscope do not correspond to the very year indicated on it (1395) but to the year 1396! Furthemore, the indicated time of birth is 12:20 "An. Mer." (meaning "Ante meridiem"), resulting to 00:20 AM. Thus Trapezuntius' full data of birth should be April 4, 1396, 00:20 in Iraklion - Crete. By providing these data to the overall infallible astrology program "Solar Fire Gold" we get the chart you see below (I am using the Porphyry house system that was the most popular in that period - Gauricus is using another house system that is none of the ones we are familiar with. I think it is the obsolete by now "Bianchinus").

What strikes us immediately is the fact that the Moon is in Aquarius and not in Pisces. Actually it is in the 16th degree of Aquarius, almost half a sign away from the position indicated by Gauricus (1 degree of Pisces). In fact, on that specific date the Moon would enter the sign of Pisces at 22:18 - almost 22 hours after the time indicated on Gauricus chart! For the rest, the other planetary positions are almost coinciding!

There is though another major Italian Renaissance astrologer who somehow paid tribute to Trapezuntius by publishing his horoscope as well: Hieronymus Cardanus!  In his book "Liber de exemplis centum geniturarum" ("A Book of a hundred nativities' examples", in which Caedanus is analyzing many horoscopes that were already present in Gauricus "Tractatus Astrologicus" - plagiarizing thus Gauricus, a common practice back then - he includes as well the horoscope of our brilliant Byzantine scholar. Cardanus was a "Ptolemaic" astrologer and that was an additional reason for him to honor the "par excellence: Ptolemaic Trapezuntius - whose books most probably had thoroughly read! Actually, he is presenting the horoscope of Trapezuntius on the very first pages of his book - second only to the horoscope of Petrarch!

Cardanus is using the Equal House planetary system and certain planetary positions in his chart are identical to the Gauricus ones - to the minute! (Venus', Saturn's and the North Node's)! But we find again here a wrong natal Moon for Trapezuntius: 2 degrees and 20 minutes of Pisces - instead of the 16 degrees and 52 minutes of Aquarius). So, either the birth data of Trapezuntius is wrong and he indeed has a Pisces Moon or his data is right and his Moon is in Aquarius (it was miscalulated by both Gauricus and Cardanus - or simply Cardanus blatantly copied Gauricus, changing slightly the positions of some planets so that they do not all match the ones provided by Gauricus...). 

In any case, we are rather perplexed by the apparent miscalculation of the Moon from the part of both Gauricus and Cardanus. Especially Cardanus - apart from being an excellent astrologer / astronomer - is considered one of the greatest mathematical minds in the history of mankind! And even if this Trapezuntius' horoscope was casually found by Gauricus and Cardanus in some manuscript and was merely copied to their books, they should have accurately verified every single planetary position on it before publishing it.

We should add a precious piece of information here: John Monfasani - a major Trapezuntius'  modern biographer -  is arguing that this great personality was born on April 3, 1395 (if this is the case then his Moon is in Virgo - and that Moon reflects very well the fact that he was very productive, that he worked for a long time as a secretary and that he was attracted by young girls). Apparently though Monfasani is not a great astrology connoisseur, because he draws the conclusion that Trapezuntius was born on the 3rd of April out of a personal note the latter wrote, stating that on the 3rd of April 1453 he was having his 58th Solar Revolution. Every astrologer knows though that a solar revolution may occur a day before our calendric birthday - so Trapezuntius might very well have had his 58th Solar Return on the 3rd of April 1453 while actually his birthday was on the 4th of April.

Of course, if Trapezuntius in 1453 was celebrating  his 58th (and not his 57th) Solar Return  then he must have been born in 1395 and not in 1396! There is though an elemenet capable of causing a certain confusion: a byzantine year was starting on the 1st of September! The byzantines that is were celebrating the first day of their new year 4 whole months before the Italians! This sort of discrepancy might have brought a certain difficulty in the conversion of the byzantine years into the corresponding Italian ones.

In 1447 the patron of Trapezuntius Pope Eugene died and Nicholas V took his place. Nicholas maintained Trapezuntius as an apostolic secretary - and as a translator of Greek secular and religious texts! At about this time Trebizond translated into Latin the "Almagest" of Ptolemy adding to it a commentary of his own in Latin - a commentary that would become very popular throughout Europe for the next four centuries!

                                   (A commentary of Trapezuntius on Ptolemy's "Almagest")

In the new papal entourage though another scholar figure was becoming the center of attention: Poggio Bracciolini. Perhaps in order to differentiate himself from Trapezuntius - or to advance a "fellow patriot" of his in front of the unstoppable stream of Greek culture that was ever more sweeping Italy - Bracciolini imposed the rather minor (as we know today) Latin orator Quintilianus as the supreme intellectual figure of the day! Trapezuntius - who obviously felt unfairly sidelined by this meteoric rise of Bracciolini - began to feverishly shatter Quintilianus in his speeches and letters. Thus he inevitably came into conflict with Bracciolini himself - and obviously with the circle of Bracciolini's "supporters". That was a big mistake, because no matter how just Trapezuntius was (and how unfair Bracciolini) ultimately Trapezuntius was all alone in this fight - while Bracciolini as a typical Aquarius (and as an Italian of course) had numerous and powerful allies.

The pretence for dismissing Trapezuntius was given to the Bracciolini's entourage at a meeting of the apostolic secretaries. There, Bracciolini made ​​an ironic comment to Trapezuntius who got up and  threw a powerful punch in his face (we shouldn't forget that Trapezuntius was as Aries - and if he was born in 1396 he had his Mars in Aries too!). By committing this explicitly violent act against the vain reviver of Quintilianus he fell completely out of favour and eventually was forced to leave Rome in 1452 and move with his family to the - ruled by the Spaniards' back then - city of Naples.

In Naples George of Trebizond worked as a secretary to the King Alfonso of Aragon. This was one of the his most flourishing periods, as he wrote then his two major astrological essays: the "A Short essay on Antiscia" ("Brevis de antisciis tractatus") and "Why the judgements (predictions) of the astrologers are failing in our times" ("Cur his temporibus astrologorum judicia fallant "). At the same time, he translated into Latin the astrological work of pseudo-Ptolemy "Centiloquium", which became as well a mega hit throughout Europe. Furthermore, he continued teaching and one of his disciples - in this dominated by Vesuvius city - was Giovanni Pontano, who would later on become a major humanist and astrologer! And while his Naples sojourn started pretty well, after a few years Trapezuntius began experiencing problems there too...

At a certain point Pope Nicholas V summoned Trapezuntius back to Rome. There he met (and probably even taught) Regiomontanus, who around the year 1462 was living  at the Roman villa of the Byzantine cardinal Bessarion - who had turned his house into a cradle of hellenism and humanism). But the environment in Rome was still "toxic" to this Greek emigre and he consequently fell victim to new adversities and intrigues. He left Rome and travelled to his fatherland Constantinople - which had fallen by then to the Ottoman Turks. Apparently the Turks were not very much thrilled by the Trapezuntius' literary and astrological virtues, so he returned to Rome. But he was again treated in a hostile manner (as he had sought to establish relations with the arch enemies of Christendom the Turks). He finally died around 1473, destitute and suffering from dementia (he was wandering like a fool through the streets of Rome), without ever been acknowledged for the pivotal role he played in the revival of the ancient Greek-knowledge (and of astrology in particular) in the renascent Europe...

Thomas Gazis
Copyright: Thomas D. Gazis

The first English astrologers were Greek - Byzantines (and oddly enough Saints)!

The story I am going to tell you is true, but it might very well have been just another Canterbury tale. It is a story that connects in strange ways England and Byzantium. It started in medieval England, in the year 667 CE. The city of Canterbury was then one of the most prominent Anglo - Saxon cities in Britain. Its people had been converted from pagans to Christians just 2 generations before (in 597 CE, by Saint Augustine). The Episcopal See of the city though - founded by St. Augustine - was left vacant in that specific year. And that was serious, because the Canterbury See was (and still is) considered England's primary See.

To fill the gap, the king of Kent sent emissaries to the Pope in Rome, asking him to appoint a new Archbishop to Canterbury. Back then not very many people were eligible for such a place – most of the people could not even read, let alone debate on religious matters. Not to mention that to the high ranked priests in Rome the idea of moving to a distant, misty and (still) barbaric land was not promising at all. With limited choices available Pope Vitalian’s mind went to certain monasteries in Italy run by Greek-Byzantine monks – the Byzantines considered then the most erudite scholars in Europe (by the way, Pope Vitalian himself was Greek-Byzantine, as several other Popes of the 7th century CE were – but not very many people know that).

Actually, the Byzantines were no strangers to Italy. A century ago they owned almost all the land, from Milan to Sicily. And even in the 7th century Greek was the language most spoken in Sicily and in some other coastal parts of Italy. Byzantine monasteries (brimming with precious Greek manuscripts, religious and secular) were scattered all over Sicily, southern Italy and even Rome itself [1]. Byzantines and Italians were mutually feeling each other as a sort of “cousins”. So, it was no exception for the Pope to appoint a Greek-Byzantine scholar to some particular task.

Pope’s first choice was Hadrian the “African”, abbot of a Greek monastery situated on a picturesque island just off the bay of Naples. But Hadrian was hesitant, so he introduced to the Pope one of his close friends, the monk Theodore (from Tarsus in Asia Minor - in modern Turkey, now), who was residing then in Rome. Vitalian didn’t think twice (a whole year had already passed from the day the Canterbury See was left vacant) and immediately consecrated Theodore (already 66, too old for those times) as the new Canterbury Archbishop. Theodore undertook the long and adventurous journey to England through France. And indeed it was a long journey because Theodore arrived at Canterbury on May 669 CE! Shortly after Hadrian arrived too, sent by the Pope – probably in order to oversee the aged Theodore.

The fact is that nobody had great expectations out of this mission – and reasonably so. A northern misty land of ex “savages”, an aged archbishop and an indifferent Afro -Byzantine abbot did not seem the right ingredients for a successful outcome. But against all odds, it turned to be a brilliant mission!

We might have never heard anything about Theodore’s great achievements in England unless they were recorded by the “venerable” Bede himself, in his major work “Historia Ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum”. According to Bede, the first thing Theodore did when he set foot in England was to travel all around the island, to every single corner English people resided in (“Theodorus…moxque peragrata insula tota, quaquauersum Anglorum gentes morabantur” [2] ). He established contacts with all the churches, which he mapped in detail, appointed bishops to the sees that were vacant and rearranged the English dioceses. Moreover he called forth a Synod, in order to reform various matters ranging from the proper celebration of Easter to certain English marriage customs. In these actions we discover a surprisingly alert, energetic and effective Theodore, who displays remarkable administrative skills and courage. And although he was a total foreigner, he acted as if he were England’s indisputable religious leader.

It seems that Bede never met Theodore in person. But the two (and Byzantium again) are connected. There is no doubt, for example, that Theodore influenced Bede [3]. Moreover, one of the scholars that trained Bede was the abbot Benedict Biscop (the other being Ceolfrid – Biscop’s intimate friend). Biscop was visiting Rome the very days Theodore was consecrated Archbishop. So, the Pope met Biscop and ordered him to escort Theodore in England. As we explained before, it was a very long voyage that lasted a whole year and 2 months (Theodore was consecrated in Rome on 26 March 668 and arrived in Kent on 27 May 669) [4]. Theodore and Biscop definitely spent endless hours conversing together in that long dull voyage. The Byzantine was obviously taught English during that voyage and Biscop Greek. When they arrived at Canterbury Theodore appointed Biscop as abbot of the SS. Peter and Paul convent. Biscop stayed in Canterbury for two years [5], so all in all he spent three years beside Theodore and Hadrian.

My point is that Theodore (and the Greek-Byzantine civilization) impacted enormously Benedict Biscop in those three years . Certainly it is not a coincidence that Biscop founded just a few years ahead the most prominent library in Anglo-Saxon England, in his Wearmouth-Jarrow twin monasteries (where Bede studied, lived, wrote his works and learned Greek)! Biscop returned again to Rome in 679 CE in order to acquire books for his newly founded library and privileges for his monasteries granted by the Pope, who apparently liked him and assisted him in many ways. Guess who was Pope then in Rome: the Byzantine Agatho ! And it is a fact that during this “Byzantine Papal dynasty” (590 – 752 AD) a large number of the Papal courtiers were Greeks [6] . So, Biscop dealt in Rome mainly with Greek – Byzantines.

But what has all this to do with astrology, you will say? Well, a lot! Theodore and Hadrian were knowledgeable not only about religious matters but secular as well (as most of the Middle Ages scholars). Thus, they established a school in Canterbury (which became legendary in a short time) where apart the religious subjects they taught to their many and quenched students metrical art (poetry and probably music too), astronomy and ecclesiastic calculus, as Bede recounts (“ita ut etiam metricae artis, astronomiae, et arithimeticae ecclesiasticae disciplinam inter sacrorum apicum uolumina suis auditoribus contraderent”) [7]. What Bede does not specify is that the subject “astronomy” comprised astrology as well. So Theodore and Hadrian were teaching the much advanced by then Byzantine astrology! And what Bede omits Aldhelm is clearly stating.

Aldhelm was the other major English cultural figure of the period. He lived for 2 years in Canterbury and studied mostly with Hadrian, as he personally attests in his writings, calling Hadrian “the venerable preceptor of my rude childhood”. His studies included Roman law, arithmetic, astronomy, the ecclesiastic calculus, astrology and probably Greek (the typical Theodore’s school curriculum). Aldhelm himself attests the fact that he learned astrology in Theodore’s school. Some modern scholars tried to “twist” the fact he was an astrologer but he is very explicit about it, saying that he studied “the zodiac, the skillful art of astrology and the horoscope’s elaborated reckoning” (“de zodiaco… astrologicae artis peritia et perplexa oroscopi computatio”) [8] . In another letter to his friend Heahfrith Aldhelm describes Theodore himself “like an old boar surrounded by hounds” (the hounds being in this case the many Irish Theodore’s disciples, which apparently Aldhelm disliked) [9]. The paradox is that Aldhelm is revered by the church as a Saint and by the astrologers as the first English astrologer ever!

To realize the importance of the Theodore’s Canterbury school it would suffice to quote Cambridge’s Anglo-Saxon expert Michael Lapidge. In a symposium he organized back in 1990, on the occasion of the thirteen hundredth anniversary of Theodore’s death, he states: “It very quickly became clear from the discussion at the symposium that wholly new-indeed revolutionary-awareness was emerging of the role which Theodore had played in transmitting Greek learning to the Latin West and the establishment of higher education in Anglo-Saxon England. [10]

All the more so, Lapidge suggests that Theodore was taught astrology in Constantinople, by none else than the illustrious astrologer Stephen of Alexandria (who in turn studied in the famous Olympiodorus astrology school in Alexandria)! The time-frame is right (Stephen was indeed teaching in Constantinople when Theodore was young). Additionally, in Theodore’s biblical comments we encounter certain particular medical terms that bear a striking similarity to those used by Stephen of Alexandria (who was teaching medicine too) [11] . If that is the case, then Theodore and Hadrian introduced a highly advanced astrology in the Middle Ages England! And as Bede himself states, in a reference of his to the Theodore’s mini-university: “Neque umquam prorsus, ex quo Brittaniam petierunt Angli, feliciora fuere tempora” [12]: “There have never been happier times than these, since the English captured Britain”!

Thus, we have here the case of two Byzantine scholars that influenced enormously the culture of early England. And the paradox stands for them too. As we are sure by now, Theodore and Hadrian were (among others) astrologers. But at the same time they are both revered as Saints by the Christian church [13]!

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

1) “The Laterculus Malalianus and the school of Archbishop Theodore”, Jane Stevenson, p. 16, (Cambridge Studies in Anglo-Saxon England n. 14) 

2) “Historia Ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum”, Bede, Book IV, 2, 2 

3) “The Laterculus Malalianus” and the school of Archbishop Theodore” , Jane Stevenson, p. 2 (Cambridge Studies in Anglo-Saxon England n. 14) 

4) “Archbishop Theodore”, edited by Michael Lapidge, p. 1 (Cambridge Studies in Anglo-Saxon England n. 11) 

5) “The Laterculus Malalianus and the school of Archbishop Theodore” , Jane Stevenson, p.3 (Cambridge Studies in Anglo-Saxon England n. 14) 

6) “The Laterculus Malalianus and the school of Archbishop Theodore” , Jane Stevenson, p. 16 (Cambridge Studies in Anglo-Saxon England n. 14) 

7) “Historia Ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum”, Bede, IV, 2, 7 

8) “Aldhelmi Opera” (translated by Lapidge and Herren) p. 476 (Ehwald ed.) 

9) “The Laterculus Malalianus and the school of Archbishop Theodore” , Jane Stevenson, p. 11 (Cambridge Studies in Anglo-Saxon England n. 14) 

10) “Archbishop Theodore”, edited by Michael Lapidge, p. viii (Cambridge Studies in Anglo-Saxon England n. 11) 

11) “Archbishop Theodore”, edited by Michael Lapidge, p.18 (Cambridge Studies in Anglo-Saxon England n. 11) 

12) “Historia Ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum”, Bede, IV, 2, 10 13) “The Oxford dictionary of Saints of the Catholic church”

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This is an original article written by Thomas Gazis. Copyright: Thomas D. Gazis. 

In order to republish it - either parts or all of it - please contact first the author at: ifestion@gmail.com
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