Neoplatonic natural magic was an aristocratic worldview tied to Florentine elite status defenses

Evidence

Neoplatonic natural magic presupposed a hierarchical cosmic structure and assumed that earthly changes were influenced by the celestial heavens and could be produced artificially by the human manipulation of natural objects in which these influences inhered. It originated as an elite aristocratic form of the magical world view in the Florentine Platonic Academy in the late fifteenth century. … The study of Neoplatonic magic was consistent with a conservative interest in the reassertion of status in the hands of the prestigious and powerful class of wealthy Florentine bankers, merchants, and international traders in an economy that had peaked and ceased to expand after the mid-fifteenth century. As increasing competition in foreign markets began to reduce profits, the elite began to exhibit a preference for gentlemanly rather than entrepreneurial lifestyles. They broke away from traditional ascetic restraints and began to indulge in extravagances that asserted an aristocratic status within their society. The Medici academy reflected an increasing tendency in late fifteenth-century Florentine culture for learning to be supported by the private rather than public sector and for education to become exclusive and aristocratic. — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 455

Categorization

• XREF: Social-context-of-cosmology parallels the institutional/historical thread (Milgrom law merchants, Medici banking) and the reader’s law/institutions polyad strand — patronage shaping what counts as legitimate knowledge. — connects to: Genoese and Florentine capital dominated Europe’s backward regions. — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1822; Genoese and Florentine merchants dominated Europe’s backward regions through trade

Broader Connections

• Genoese and Florentine capital dominated Europe’s backward regions. #corroborates (0.80) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1822
• Genoese and Florentine merchants dominated Europe’s backward regions through trade #corroborates (0.75)