Abstract

BRAVO LOPEZ, Ulises. The (An)thropology of the Stars: Celestial Sublimity and Sublime Textuality in Astronomica of Manilius. Nova tellus [online]. 2025, vol.43, n.2, pp.75-103.  Epub Sep 26, 2025. ISSN 0185-3058.  https://doi.org/10.19130/iifl.nt.2025.43.2/x001w03a250694.

This article deals with Manilius’ Astronomica as a textual representation of the universe. The poem’s central subject is how the study of the astrology helps human being to know, through observation of the stars and calculation of its movements, the characteristics of their personality or the prediction of certain types of terrestrial and celestial phenomena like comets, eclipses, etc., as well to understand all their causes, the structure of cosmos and the laws that rule it. Manilius believes human being is a miniature representation of the universe, a microcosmos, and his life, therefore, depends on the movements of stars and of the same laws that rule them. Teaching and learning these laws necessarily require observation and knowledge of the sky but also textreading. Through the stylistic and structural analysis of certain passages we will find how Manilius through his poem imitates the functioning of the universe, the relationships and influences of the stars and how he tries to transmit it to his readers.

Keywords : Manilius; Astrology; Poetry; Stoicism; sympátheia.

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