Hieronymo Manfredi was a member of a family that had already for more
than two centuries provided distinguished citizens, and especially
physicians, to the city of Bologna.[168] He was born about the year
1430 and was educated at the University of Bologna. Here in 1455 he was
_laureatus_ in Philosophy and Medicine, and here he became professor of
the latter subject in 1463.[169]
During the second half of the fifteenth century, a perfect mania for
the study of astrology infected Italy and penetrated equally into the
Court, the Church, and the Academy. The profession of Medicine was
far from immune, and at the University of Bologna, where a chair of
Astrology had long been established,[170] the study was pursued with
ardour and enthusiasm. Here Manfredi early devoted himself to that
will-o’-the-wisp, the pursuit of which absorbed and sterilized many
of the best intellects of his day. By the year 1469 he was already
regarded as an authority on the vainest of studies,[171] and as the
years went on he seems to have devoted himself to it ever more and
more. The generally credulous character of Manfredi’s astrological
ideas may be gathered from the page of his _Prognosticon ad annum
1479_ which we here reproduce (Fig. 10).
The history of Manfredi’s connexion with the University of Bologna may
be briefly told. He appears for the first time on the professorial
roll in 1462, when we find him giving the ‘extraordinary’ lectures
on Philosophy, a subject then regarded as under especial charge of
the physicians. In 1465 he was conducting the ‘ordinary’ course
in Philosophy, and at the same time giving occasional lectures
on Medicine. In the following year he was called to the chair of
Theoretical Medicine, and in 1469 he helped the Faculty out of a
difficulty by giving lectures on ‘Astronomia’ in place of the aged
professor Giovanni de Fundis. The latter died in 1474, and from
that date onward Manfredi assumed responsibility for the course on
‘Astronomia’. Among the colleagues who joined him were Gabriele
de Gerbi, who became lecturer on Logic in 1476, Filippo Beroaldo,
who became lecturer on Rhetoric and Poetry in 1479, and Alessandro
Achillini, who became lecturer on Logic in 1484.[172]
Such was the regard for Manfredi’s powers of astrological prediction
that to all the University announcements of his course of lectures on
Astronomy is added ‘cum hoc quod faciat iudicium et tachuinum’.[173]
In spite of his proficiency in the science, however, he was unable to
foretell his own death. Giovanni Pico della Mirandola writes of him
thus derisively:
‘quo anno [1493] obiit omnimoda[m] uite incolumitate[m] fuerat
pollicitus Hieronymus manfredus astrologus nostra aetate
singularis: a quo tamen nihil mirandum minus praeuisam aliorum
mortem: qui nec suam ipse praeuiderit: nam cum proxima estate
uita sit functus: in istius tame[n] anni publico uaticinio qui
s[cilicet] ei fuit fatalis: multa & mira sequenti anno dicturum
se non semel pollicebatur. Qui nescio oppignoratam fidem quomodo
reluet: nisi forte de caelo uerius nunc terrena despiciat q[uam] de
terra oli[m] caelestia suspiciebat.’[174]
Manfredi died in 1493 and was buried in the church of Santa Margarita
in Bologna. This church no longer exists, but it contained in the
eighteenth century a tomb bearing the inscription:
HIERON. MANFREDO BONON. PHILOSOPHO AC MEDICO
SVAE AETATIS NEMINI SECVNDO ASTRONOMORVMQVE
CITRA INVIDIAM FACILE PRIMARIO.
POSVIT SVPERSTES IOAN. FILIVS
SVISQVE POSTERIS.
VALE ATQVE ILLVM
VALERE OPTA.[175]
Manfredi left a widow, Anna, who was still living in 1496 with a
household of ten persons in the Via S. Margarita.[176] The houses on
one side of this street backed on the very walls of the buildings
belonging to the ‘University of Medicine’,[177] and we may suppose that
Hieronymo Manfredi had resided here on that account. His surviving son,
Giovanni, lived hard by in the Via S. Antonio di Padoa.
It cannot be said that Manfredi’s printed works suggest great
scientific attainments. All are permeated by the same astrological
obsession. They comprise the following:
(_a_) The _editio princeps_ of Ptolemy’s _Cosmographia_ and _Tabulae
Cosmographiae_, the best-known printed work to which Manfredi’s name is
attached. He was associated in its production with the famous scholar
Filippo Beroaldo, and the finely produced volume was published at
Bologna in 1472 (?),[178] and dedicated to the memory of Pope Alexander
V (died 1410). It is interesting as containing the first printed map of
England (Fig. 9). At the end of the work we read:
‘Accedit mirifica imprimendi tales tabulas ratio. Cuius
inuentoris laus nihil illorum laude inferior. Qui primi litterarum
imprimendarum artem pepererunt in admirationem sui studiosissimum
quemque facillime conuertere potest. Opus utrumque summa adhibita
diligentia duo Astrologiae peritissimi castigaueru[n]t Hieronimus
Mamfredus & Petrus bonus. Nec minus curiose correxerunt summa
eruditione prediti Galeottus Martius & Colla montanus. Extremam
emendationis manum imposuit philippus b[e]roaldus.’
[Illustration: THE FIRST PRINTED MAP OF ENGLAND.