Scholarly Writings
With the publication of Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition Yates highlighted the hermeticism within Renaissance culture, and spoke of the interest in mysticism, magic and Gnosticism of Late Antiquity that survived the Middle Ages. Yates suggested that the itinerant Catholic priest Giordano Bruno was executed in 1600 for espousing the Hermetic tradition rather than his affirmation of cosmic acentricity. Her works drew attention to the role played by magic in early modern science and philosophy, before scholars such as Keith Thomas brought this topic into the historiographical mainstream. Thomas references Yates alongside Piyo M. Rattansi for the basic point that hermetic thinking fed into the foundations of modern science, before being dispelled later.
| “ | The seminal studies of Michel Foucault and Frances Yates, even if not fully persuasive in every aspect, have made it impossible for historians ever again to ignore the role of various forms of magical thinking and practice in the Renaissance understanding of the natural world. | ” |
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