Circe, la «virtus loci», il determinismo nel De incantationibus di Pomponazzi

Abstract

This paper focuses on the threefold ‘physical’ explanation of the homeric myth of Circe, which Pomponazzi’s De incantationibus opposed to Christian demonologists. Pomponazzi aimed to prove that men’s metamorphosis into animals as well as the so-called ‘miracles’ are not the effect of demons’ action, but depend on the movements of the stars. Celestial bodies execute the ‘divine’ (but impersonal) design of eternal preservation of all sublunary species. The hierarchical submission of Nature to universal causality includes also human acts, being man’s soul forma materialis (according to De immortalitate animae). Therefore, determinism was already accepted by Pomponazzi since 1516.