Cardano's twelve horoscopes [9]

CARDANO'S TWELVE HOROSCOPES

GENITURA IX

 Hieronymi Cardani (1501-1576)

9.William Casanate (5 octobre 1519 - ?) - Besançon

Cassanate (1) was the son of a Spaniard, settled at Besancon in Burgundy. He was fourteen years younger than 
Jerome, having been born at six o’clock in the morning of the 5th of October, 1515, — one is exact in dates 
when there is a horoscope to draw upon for information. Concerning this Cassanate, who has left behind him 
nothing by which he is retained, however slightly, in the memory of scholars or physicians, it would, indeed, be 
difficult to give any particulars, if Cardan had not discussed his character in calculating his nativity. 

 

Guglielmus Casanatus

He was the only survivor of six brothers; a man very careful of his own interests, time-serving, and most happy in the 
atmosphere of courts. He could change opinions as the exigencies of the day required, and profit by political 
confusion. He had a decided taste for the admixture of court business, as a meddler or negotiator, with his professional cares, and in that way may "have rendered him- 
self, by the use of a little tact, very agreeable to the archbishop. He was fond of the external good things 

(1) Cardan spells the name Casanate, but the usual spelling is adopted in the text. There have been several obscure scholars of this name. 

Another physician practising at the same time  was William Cassanate, a Spanish physician, who had been trained at 
Besangon, in Burgundy, and who is mentioned as the physician of the  Archbishop of St. Andrews. 

In the year 1551, Cassanate was settled in practice in Edinburgh. He was then thirty-six years old and had been attached for four years to the household of 
John Hamilton, Archbishop of St. Andrews.^ His patron, the Archbishop, was a prominent actor in some of the most important 
scenes connected with the troubled political history surrounding Mary, Queen of Scots. Mary was at this 
time nine years old. The Archbishop's brother, James Hamilton, Earl of Arran, was next heir to the throne and Regent of Scotland. The 
Earl of Arran had succeeded in getting the Scottish Parliament to agree to a Treaty with England, arranged in 1543, by which Mary should be married 
to Edward, the son of Henry VIII, when she was eleven years old. 

[Jerome Cardan. The life of Girolamo Cardano, of Milan, physician, Morley Henry, 1823] 

 The Scottish barons, however, had declared against this alliance with England, and, as a result of the contention of these two parties, the south 
of Scotland had been virtually destroyed in two invasions of 1544 and 1547 by the Earl of Hertford. The party in favour of an alliance with England 
was headed by the Earl of Arran, backed by his brother, Archbishop Hamilton, while the party in favour of an alliance with 
France was headed by the Queen-Mother, Mary of Lorraine, backed by Cardinal Beaton.  In addition to his own ecclesiastical affairs, John Hamilton practically 
had to manage all that was difficult in the affairs of Scotland from about 1546, when Cardinal Beaton was put to death. He speaks of himself 
indeed as being too busy almost to breathe, his health failed from month to month, and at the end of the year 1551, after he had finished his 
celebrated " Catechism," attacks of asthma, which recurred every eight days and lasted for twenty-four hours, had made him very thin and brought him 
nearly to the point of death. Looking around for medical advice, he was counselled by his physician, Cassanate, to seek the help of Jerome Cardan, the 
famous physician of Milan. 

 
Malheureusement,  Morley a mal lu la date : ce n'est pas en 1515 mais en 1519 que Cassanate est né. Je n'ai pu me procurer
la date de son décès. Le thème est caractérisé par :

• l'AS en Balance, le Soleil étant sur le point de se lever ; Saturne est à l'IC ;

  Arcturus et Spica sont en conjonction apparente avec l'AS et Alphecca avec Mars 

  

  En 1579, on trouve en orbe deux directions compatibles avec un événement notable : D Lune conj. Saturne et 

  D Saturne // Lune. J'opte donc pour cette année.