Paola Zambelli is Professor of History of Philosophy at the University of Florence, Italy.

• Contents: Preface; Part 1 Astrology and Magic as Theories: Theories on astrology and magic (1348-1586) in recent interpretations; Imagination and its power: desire and transitive or psychosomatic imagination; Pietro Pomponazzi's De immortalitate and his clandestine De incantionibus: Aristotelianism, eclecticism or libertinism? Part 2 Birth, Catastrophe, Cycles and Other Astrological Themes: 'Creating worlds and then laying them waste': the cyclical nature of history: notes on historians and on Giovanni Pico della Mirandola; 'The earth was like a sponge and men lived within it': ideas on spontaneous generation of man among Islamic and Latin thinkers. Part 3 Astrologers and Magicians in their Historical Role: Astrologers' theory of history; Many ends for the World: Luca Gaurico, instigator of the debate in Italy and Germany. Part 4 Methodological Notes: Alexandre Koyré and Lucien Lévy-Bruhl: from collective representations to paradigms of scientific thought; From Menocchio to Piero della Francesca: the work of Carlo Ginzburg; From the quaestiones to the essais: on the autonomy and methods of the history of philosophy; Bibliography of Zambelli's writings; Indexes.

'Un certo tipo di storiografia anglo-americana ci ha negli ultimi anni messo in guardia dall’essere presentist in materia di storia; Zambelli ci convince del contrario e ci esorta invece ad un uso sapiente e accorto del senno di poi.' Bruniana and Campanelliana