Il diluvio come metafora dell’ira divina e la critica razionalistica di Agostino Nifo e Gabriel Naudé

This paper examines the use of water as a metaphor in the astrological prediction of Johannes Stöffler (Almanach nova plurimis antis venturis inserviens, 1499) and in the later critical views of astrology by Agostino Nifo (De falsa diluvii prognosticatione, 1519) and Gabriel Naudé (De Augustino Nipho iudicium, 1645). The great flood predicted for 1424 seemed to effectively symbolise divine punishment, in connection with Noah’s first flood: the water that submerges and washes everything became the most graphic representation of God’s wrath and punishment. By recalculating the astronomical data, Nifo shows that only a local flood can be predicted and not a universal one, and urges people not to be overwhelmed by fear. According to Naudé, Nifo takes this position because, like all Peripateticians who read Aristotle correctly, he seeks evidence from a correct observation of the facts; consequently he believes neither in predictive astrology, nor in the flood, nor in ghosts, nor in demons, nor in an immortal soul