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  • Morandi's Last Prophecy and the End of Renaissance Politics
  • Thomas Dandelet
Morandi's Last Prophecy and the End of Renaissance Politics. By Brendan Dooley. (Princeton: Princeton University Press. 2002. Pp. xiv, 238. $55.00. ISBN 978-0-691-04864-2.)

In this engaging book, Brendan Dooley brings to life the revealing story of the abbot of the Roman monastery of Santa Prassede, Orazio Morandi. A bibliophile who began collecting books while a university student in Rome in the late-sixteenth century and continued the habit during two decades as a monk in Florence, Morandi had acquired 550 texts by the time he returned to Rome as abbot of Santa Prassede in 1613. With wide-ranging interests in theology, [End Page 827] ancient literature, and astrology, Morandi and the monastery library became the informal center—a salon of sorts—for a notable group of artists and intellectuals in the Rome of Paul V and Urban VIII. The famous, like Bernini and Galileo, came to borrow books from the library, as did well-heeled noble-women such as Donna Anna Colonna, the wife of Urban VIII's nephew. The abbot and his library subsequently constituted an important, if little-known, corner of the vibrant intellectual world of early-seventeenth-century Rome.

Unfortunately for Morandi, his interests in prophecy and astrology went beyond academic interests, and when he was found to have predicted the death of Urban VIII in a chart he cast in 1630, he was arrested and jailed for what was considered a politically provocative and dangerous act and put on trial. He died in jail under mysterious circumstances a few months after his arrest. Poison, naturally, was suspected by contemporaries. With this rich and explosive brew of politics, prophecy, and the intellectual turmoil that marked Rome in the age of Urban VIII and Galileo, Dooley draws on the huge trial record of some 2800 folios as the primary archival foundation for his work. The resulting book is a compelling micro-history hybrid that sheds light on the interwoven worlds of astrology, papal politics, the world of the book, crime and punishment, and the intellectual habits of early modern Rome.

Dooley frames the central body of his text with two largely descriptive chapters on the imprisonment, trial, and interrogation of Morandi. The intervening sixteen chapters—all short, almost self-contained, essays—follow a rough chronology of Morandi's life from the time he was a student and young monk in Florence under the patronage of the Medici through his tenure as abbot of the monastery from 1613–30. Chapter 4, "The Astrologer's Books," presents one of the most important aspects of the work, since it provides a detailed picture of the library and its users, thanks to a catalogue and borrower's list preserved in the archives. This is a jewel for students of the book, reading habits, and the history of astrology and science. Similarly, chapters 9, 10, and 11,"The Harmony of the Universe," "Charting the Firmament," and "The Science of the Stars," are particularly valuable as they demonstrate with good detail how Morandi used his texts, cast charts, and read the heavens. Because of this kind of analysis with such excellent evidence, intellectual historians and especially historians of science and astrology will find this book of much use and importance as an addition to their growing field.

This is not necessarily the case for political historians of Rome, and it is curious that the title of the book gives such prominence to politics. In short, what the text adds to the political history of Rome under Urban VIII is far less compelling and original than the other material, and why and how this episode represents the end of Renaissance politics is far from clear. This criticism notwithstanding, the book nonetheless constitutes a valuable addition to our understanding of the intellectual worlds of early-seventeenth-century Rome. [End Page 828]

Thomas Dandelet
University of California, Berkeley
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