Ovanes Akopyan
Prato Centre Workshop Report
I am a third-year PhD student in the Centre for the Study of the Renaissance, at the University of
Warwick. My current project is on controversies on astrology in Renaissance Italy in the late fifteenth and
early sixteenth centuries, with a particular focus on Giovanni Pico della Mirandola’s Disputationes
adversus astrologiam divinatricem and its reception.
In December 2015, I attended the annual postgraduate workshop, organised by Monash University
at the Monash University Prato Center. The workshop presented a wide range of papers on social, political
and intellectual history, and united scholars from various countries, the UK, Canada, Australia, Italy. Most
of the papers were devoted to social history, with special emphasis on gender studies. My Warwick
colleague, Rocco di Dio, presented an intriguing paper on Marsilio Ficino’s zibaldoni (notebooks) and his
close reading of Plotinus’ Enneads and Plato’s Convivium. The last paper of the workshop, which attracted
my particular interest, was on the persecution of Jews in sixteenth-century Italy.
In my paper “Controversies on Astrology in Renaissance Italy (late 15th and early 16th centuries)”,
I focused on the ambiguous status of astrology in Renaissance Italy. My main aim was to explore
astrological views of Marsilio Ficino and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola and Giovanni Pico’s motivation
for a radical change of his attitude towards astrology in the Disputationes adversus astrologiam
divinatricem. In my paper, I showed that Giovanni Pico’s polemic against astrology had had two main lines
of attack: the first develops a ‘historiographic’ criticism of astrology; the second line of attack dealt with
his observation that astrology could not be confirmed by physical data. Finally, I talked about the reception
of the Disputationes after Giovanni Pico’s sudden death in 1494.
As part of the workshop programme, I also participated in a session on the challenges for the early
modern academic historian, run by Jonathan Davies. We discussed various issues, which doctoral students
can face after the completion of their PhD projects, including academic and archival research, post-doctoral
opportunities and current situation in the job market.
My paper was appreciated and received useful feedback from both postgraduate and established
colleagues. I am very happy that I had an opportunity to participate in this postgraduate conference and
present my current doctoral project in a very friendly environment. It also allowed me to broaden my
professional contacts and start properly planning my future academic career. I would like to thank the
Monash University Prato Center, the organizer of the workshop, Professor Peter Howard, Director of the
Monash Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, and especially the Centre for the Study of the
Renaissance for this opportunity to share my research with colleagues.