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Georgius Raguseius and his criticism of astrology. On the 400th anniversary of Raguseius’ death

Croatian philosopher, theologian, and physician Georgius Raguseius (or Raguseus ; ‘Juraj Dubrovčanin’ in his native Croatian, which literally translates to ‘George from Dubrovnik’) was born in Dubrovnik during the Republic of Dubrovnik (today part of Croatia) in the second half of the 16th century. There is no information as to when he left Dubrovnik, but we know that he was schooled in Venice and Padua, receiving his doctoral degrees in philosophy (year unknown), theology (1592), and medicine (1601). From the summer of 1599 to the summer of 1601, he resided in Siena, Pisa, Florence, Rome, and Naples, where he attended university. Upon returning to Padua in the summer of 1601, he first began teaching theology (at the Santa Maria school in Avanzio), then natural philosophy at the Studio Patavino, after being appointed directly by the Doge Grimani to replace Cesare Cremonini, who was promoted to teach in primo loco, as professor at the second Department of Philosophy. Raguseius stayed in Padua until his death in 1622, during which time he regularly taught Aristotelian natural philosophy. For more than twenty years, Raguseius was also active as a doctoral promoter (e.g., in 1602 he was one of the promoters of William Harvey’s doctorate) and engaged in debates with Cremonini. Along with commenting on Aristotelian philosophy, his second focus was astronomy. He published the Astronomico et filosofico discorso sopra l’anno M.D.X.C. calculato al meridian dell’inclita (Astonomical and philosophical essay on the year 1590 calculated in accordance with the inclining meridian) in 1590 and participated in discussions on the appearance of the Great Comet of 1618. In these discussions, quite atypically for a scholastic Aristotelian, Raguseius insisted on the role of the senses and experience in the evaluation of natural events: he praised the use of the telescope for acquiring first-hand experience in order “to resolve all the controversy tormenting the minds of many philosophers”. According to several contemporary sources, Raguseius spent the rest of his life closely connected with the university life in Padua, often participating in vehement discussions even with his closest associates, something which seems to have been a norm of academic etiquette. Raguseius died in Padua on January 13th, 1622, and was buried in the Church of St. Francis, also in Padua.

Georgius Raguseius, philosophy, astrology

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