Dante and the early astronomers . ectual fervour was the influenceof Arab culture, with which Europe came into contactthrough the crusades, and through the Saracens inSicily, and the Moors in Spain. For this reasonastronomy and astrology took a high rank among thenew studies. To distinguish between the two is quitea modern idea, and in mediaeval times either name wasused indifferently to cover both subjects. In Bolognauniversity in the thirteenth century an important schoolof medicine and arts arose, through Arab influence, andthe Arab doctors of medicine introduced the systemof astronomy whic
Dante and the early astronomers . ectual fervour was the influenceof Arab culture, with which Europe came into contactthrough the crusades, and through the Saracens inSicily, and the Moors in Spain. For this reasonastronomy and astrology took a high rank among thenew studies. To distinguish between the two is quitea modern idea, and in mediaeval times either name wasused indifferently to cover both subjects. In Bolognauniversity in the thirteenth century an important schoolof medicine and arts arose, through Arab influence, andthe Arab doctors of medicine introduced the systemof astronomy which they had learned from the Greeks. A doctor without astrology, it was said, is like aneye that cannot see; and before prescribing for apatient it was thought quite as important to determinethe positions of the planets, as the nature of the the beginning of the fourteenth century there weresalaried professors of astrology in Bologna, and theywere more highly esteemed than any other professorsexcept those of ASTRONOMY TO EUROPE. 201 One of their duties was to provide judgments{ to cast the horoscope) gratis for students. But thedignity was a perilous one. Legitimate prediction byastrology bordered close on necromancy, which wasbanned by the Church, and one of Bolognas mostCecco dAscoli famous professors in astrology, the learnedd. 1327 Cecco dAscoli, was burned at the stake inFlorence in 1327 for the crime of sorcery. Astronomy, like other subjects, was taught chieflyby lectures and repetitions, or classes for catechizingthe students on what they had already heard. Bookscould also be had, though they were dear, on hire orpurchase, from the university stationers or librarians. The first books on Greek astronomy which foundtheir way into European universities were Latin trans-lations of Arabic commentaries and paraphrases ofAristotle, which travelled from Moorish academies inSpain to Paris. The astronomical treatises withstrange technical terms in Arabi
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