Message #26631

[Bianca]

Works

Cecco d'Ascoli left many works in manuscript, most of which have never been given to the world. The book by which he achieved his renown and which led to his death was the Acerba (from acervus), an encyclopaedic poem, of which in 1546, the date of the last reprint, more than twenty editions had been issued.

 It is unfinished, and consists of four books in sesta rima. The first book treats of Astronomy and meteorology; the second of stellar influences, of physiognomy, and of the vices and virtues; the third of minerals and of the love of animals; while the fourth propounds and solves a number of moral and physical problems. Of a fifth book, on theology, the initial chapter alone was completed.

A man of immense erudition and of great and varied abilities, Cecco, whose knowledge was based on experiment and observation (a fact that of itself is enough to distinguish him from the crowd of savants of that age) had outstripped his contemporaries in many things.                                       

He knew of metallic aerolites and shooting stars; the mystery of the dew was plain to him; fossil plants were accounted for by him through terrain revolutions which had resulted in the formation of mountains; he is even said to have divined the circulation of the blood.                                         

He may be described as one of the Cassandras of the Middle Ages: a prophet who spoke of coming light, but was accused of impiety.

The least faulty of the many editions of the Acerba is that of Venice, dated 1510. The earliest known, which has become excessively rare, is that of Brescia, which has no date, but is ascribed to ca. 1473.
Acerba is the only one of his works to survive.

All of his works were burned with him and all his goods were confiscated, leaving his family destitute.


NO ASTROLOGY BOOKS OR NOTES OF HIS SURVIVED.



The lunar crater Cichus is named after him.