In their efforts to follow the instructions emanated from the Council of Trent, Sixtus Vth Bull Coeli et Terrae, and the rules established by the commissions of the Roman and the Spanish Indexes of Forbidden Books, Spanish Inquisitors involved in trials for the practice of astrology dealt with not only the reports of experts about the discipline, but also with the testimonies of people of all levels of literacy and social class origins. Previous studies have focused on the scholarly debates held by theologians, astronomers, mathematicians, physicians and natural philosophers on astrology and its practice (Pardo-Tomás 1991, Caro-Baroja 1992, Lanuza-Navarro 2017). The objective of this paper is to put the focus on non-scholar witnesses involved in trials related to the practice of astrology, with the aim of revealing their attitudes towards the discipline and their knowledge of the extent of the prohibitions, as well as the opinions they expressed on crucial aspects of the debate such as free will. It aims to contribute to the study of the circulation of concepts related to the prohibition and persecution of astrology outside scholar circles, among wider audiences, and the strategies members of the popular classes used when confronted with the Inquisitors to present their own and others’ cases.

It is known that throughout the seventeenth century the world system proposed by Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) assumed a preponderant position in the Iberian cosmological debate, affirming itself as the one with the best agreement to empirical evidence. Moreover, the Tychonian model (or variants thereof) did not present the difficulties of apparent contradiction with the scriptures, as the heliocentric proposal of Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) did, since it kept the earth fixed at the centre of the world. However, Tycho as a Lutheran author was targeted by the Inquisition. Passages of various works of the Danish astronomer were included in the Spanish indexes of 1632, 1640 and 1707, although the formal condemnation of the Roman Inquisition never materialized. In the network of the Society of Jesus a seemingly informal censorship also circulated, apparently based on Tridentine determinations, published in 1651 in the influential work of Giambattista Riccioli (1598-1671) Almagestum novum. I will discuss the scope, effects and limitations of the censorship of Tycho's scientific books in Portugal and Spain, through the analysis of several annotated copies, preserved manly in Iberian libraries, with a special attention to books from ancient Jesuit colleges.

After Galileo’s remarkable demonstration of the rugged surface of the moon, several attempts to provide a comprehensive cartography were conducted, culminating with Johannes Hevelius’s lavish Selenographia (1647). By representing each phase of the moon, Hevelius did not only intend to give an accurate description of the satellite, but also to provide a detailed physical explanation of its behaviour. Such a clear purpose contrasts with the Grande Carte de la Lune completed thirty years later in the Royal Academy of Sciences. The project, directed by Giovanni Domenico Cassini, began in the early 1670s, soon after the construction of the Observatory. Once achieved, the map was deemed the most precise ever done, and yet its purpose and application have hitherto remained mysterious. While the print was directly financed by the Surintendance des Bâtiments du Roy, the few scarce copies retained in public collections lack any dedication or legend, suggesting that the project was not deemed as desirable as it may have been at the beginning. Indeed, a few years later, Cassini felt compelled to justify the usefulness of moon-mapping. Through the careful analysis of the fabrication and reception of the Grande Carte de la Lune, I hope to detail the shift from a conception of science closely associated to courtly practices to a more utilitarian view. I will then attempt to discuss how such a shift was partly determined by the economic policy of the Bâtiments du Roy, but also by internal conflicts within the Academy.