Jean-Baptiste Morin (1583-1656): Astrology and the New Science in the 17th Century

This international workshop brings together almost everyone currently working on one of the most overlooked intellectuals of 17th-century France: the mathematician-astrologer Jean-Baptiste Morin (1583-1656). In spite of his extraordinary astrological productions, such as the posthumously published Astrologia Gallica (1661), and in spite of his social proximity and intellectual conversancy with the more well-known representatives of a new philosophy and science (e.g. Descartes, Gassendi), historians have found it exceedingly difficult to write Morin into the story of 17th-century scientific culture. Whenever historians have mentioned him at all, they seem to have done so in either of two ways. Either Morin is mentioned despite his astrology, or he comes forth as a tragic character, fast marginalized due to his astrological interests and (supposed) psychological idiosyncracies. This workshop seeks to change this perception by breaking new ground in the study of Morin’s relation to French philosophical and scientific culture of the second quarter of the 17th century.

Venue: The Royal Academies for Science and the Arts of Belgium

Date and time: Thursday 19 January 2023, 8:30 am-5.30 pm