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iCHSTM 2013 Programme • Version 5.3.6, 27 July 2013 • ONLINE (includes late changes)
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The geographical discoveries forced some disciplines to adapt to the new realities. Among the disciplines that underwent a shock and a great change due to the new territories, natural history has been a traditional example. But other traditional disciplines in which cosmographers had an interest experienced a similar process. Astrology, a classical knowledge that was continued to be practiced, studied and taught at several institutions of knowledge in the early modern Hispanic monarchy, including probably the Casa de Contratación, was in a position comparable to that of natural history. It also had to adapt to the new reality, to that new world that had not been taken into account in the ancient descriptions of the astrological nature of places and men. Cosmographers, along with physicians and more or less professional astrologers, tried to fit the new territories in the traditional astrological chorography and establish the astral influences that would determinate meteorological phenomena, health and the general complexion and temperament of the inhabitants of the New Spain. All in the middle of the discussions on renovation needed for disciplines, particularly, in the middle of the debate about astrology. The aim of this paper is to consider the way these cosmographers and physicians adapted their astrological chorographical ideas to the tradition of the discipline.