The star of the sibyl: Analysis and history of a late medieval illustrated prophecy

Abstract

Misinterpreted and overlooked in its astrological meaning for a long time, the so-called “caricature of the Emperor and the Pope” of the late XVth century is actually a complex stratification of joachimist traditions and at the same time an extraordinary example of how an anonymous and ambiguous engraving imbued with apocalypticism could have left a mark on the history of culture, spreading and adapting across the centuries. I propose here an astronomical and textual analysis, trying to identify the sources of the prophecy and the nature of the star represented on the basis of the earliest german and venetian versions. As a result of the inquiry I trace an evolutionary path strictly connected to the myth of the Tiburtine Sibyl that reveals a complicated and muddy transmission between Bohemia, Venice and Germany and involves personalities such as Johannes Capistranus, Cornelius Gemma and Tycho Brahe. The persistent resurgence of the prophecy at different times and in association to astrology, testifies not only its political role in nationalistic and religious propaganda, but even a symbiotic relationship between cosmologic research and chiliastic concerns at the threshold of the Scientific Revolution.