Images from the Warburg Iconographic Database
List of the astronomical and astrological material in the database
The section on astronomy and astrology is one of the strong points of the Warburg Institute Photographic Collection. As Aby Warburg and Fritz Saxl recognised, depictions of constellations formed virtually the only uninterrupted iconographical tradition from classical Antiquity through to the Renaissance. With the introduction of Arabic astrology in western Europe in the later Middle Ages, images of the seven planets and other phenomena, such as decans and paranatellonta, were added to this repertoire as well. Saxl in particular collected photographs of astronomical and astrological manuscripts to document this aspect of the heritage of the classical tradition. Because of the importance of the material he gathered, this section of the Photographic Collection has been selected as the first to be digitised systematically.