An Esoteric Education: Astrological Paths in Vespasiano Gonzaga’s Private Library

• In Event: Dangerous Stars: Astrology and Magic According to a Prince and a Learned Jesuit

Abstract

Since Vespasiano Gonzaga had planned Sabbioneta to be a “cathedral of learning”, he equipped it with a public library that he called “the great library”. He settled also a private “little library”. Both were dispersed after Vespasiano’s death, but recently the inventory of the “little library” has been found in Guastalla. It lists about 450 books, among which many astronomy and astrology treatises, from Ptolemy to Copernicus, but also John of Holywood, Regiomontanus, Peuerbach, Johann Stöffler, Peter Apian, Clavius... Among the books, the list mentions a candlestick for astrological operations, as could hardly be expected from the former page boy of Philip II. This sends us back to the education of Vespasiano as a child, in Naples, with his aunt Giulia Gonzaga and her circle of eclectic humanists. That was probably the ambiance where he learnt to appreciate esoteric knowledge, the same he tried to celebrate and develop constructing Sabbioneta.

Author

• Laura Madella, Università degli Studi Roma Tre