Morandi's Last Prophecy and the End of Renaissance Politics

One year before Galileo''s, another trial was the talk of Rome. The city''s most notorious astrologer--Orazio Morandi, abbot of the monastery of Santa Prassede--was brought before the governor''s court on charges of possessing prohibited books, fortune telling, and political chicanery. His most serious crime was to have predicted the death of Pope Urban VIII and allowed news of this to spread as f...