Prophecy

In the following, “prophecy” will be understood as the claim to deliver a divine message or give access to truth from a supernatural source. In the Renaissance, the potential for divinely sanctioned prophecy was well established in scriptural texts, although whether or not any particular prophecy enjoyed divine sanction was often controversial. Despite being the subject of frequent controversy, prophecy was a phenomenon of wide influence involving political, religious, and intellectual leaders, members of the unlearned and laboring classes, and all levels of society in between. Rather than a unified phenomenon, however, “prophecy” can refer to both the preaching of various visionaries and the circulation of prophetic texts, which were only tenuously connected or connected in unexpected ways. At somewhat further remove are the interpretation of prophetic and apocalyptic passages of scripture and learned and theological discourse about the proper role and hazards of visionaries, prophetic writings, and apocalyptic speculation. Renaissance prophecy differed from both prognostication and apocalypticism, although it often shared elements of each. Prophecy had deep ties to other discourses, but not necessarily to those generally viewed as esoteric or occultist. Renaissance prophecy was inextricable from astrology (see the separate Oxford Bibliographies article Astrology, Alchemy, Magic), but had relatively weak ties to the esoteric arts of magic or alchemy (apart from the notable exceptions of Rupescissa and Paracelsus), as well as dream interpretation, lot-casting, or other forms of popular prognostication. As the texts and visionaries of prior generations continued to circulate or were rediscovered decades or centuries later, and because recycling of motifs was common and the time of original composition is often unknown, periodization remains problematic. It is rarely possible to separate Renaissance prophecy neatly from its medieval antecedents or from more recent counterparts, and there remains an urgent need for research on connections across periods. Much basic work remains to be done in identifying prophetic works, their attestations in manuscript or print, their textual history and cultural context, and relations between them. In short: what is highly salient for one scholar may be of little use to another, while potentially critical sources remain undiscovered.

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