Alternate Names
Ricchus; Ricci; Richius; Ritii
Born (Germany)
Diedpossibly Casale Monferrato, Italy, 1516 or 1517
Riccius was an astronomer/astrologer who converted from Judaism to Christianity. Little is known of his life. He was possibly the brother of Paulus Riccius or Paulus Israelita, humanist, translator, and one of the most famous Christian cabalists of the Renaissance. Augustinus was born in Germany and converted to Christianity in Italy in 1505, when he took his name from his patron, Stefano Ricci.
Augustinus Riccius is said to have followed the lessons of Abraham Zacut first in Salamanca and later in Tunis. He was an astrologer to Guglielmo, IX Marquis of Monferrato, in northwest Italy, where he knew the famous occultist, astrologer, alchemist, and theologian Cornelius Agrippa. Two letters of their correspondence are preserved in a manuscript of the Bibliotheque municipale de Lyon in France.
Riccius is known only for one work on the motion of the eighth sphere, that of the...
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Selected References
Augustini Ritij de motu octaue sphere: opus mathematica atque philosophia plenum, vbi tam antiquorum quam iuniorum errores luce clarissimus demonstrantur: in quo & quamplurima platonicorum & antique magie (quam cabalam hebrei dicunt) dogmata videre licet intellectu suauissima. Nuper in ciuitate Casalis sancti Euasij sub diuo Guielmo Marchione Montisferrati editum. Item eiusdem epistola de astronomie auctoribus ad magnificum dominum Galeottum de Careto dominij illustrissimi & inuictissimi domini Guillielmi Marchionis Montisferratis. Impresssum in oppido Tridini: in edibus domini Ioannis de Ferrarijs alias de Iolitis, 1513 die X Septembris.
Augustini Ricij, De motu octauae sphaerae, opus mathematica, atque philosophia plenum. Vbi tam antiquorum, quam iuniorum errores, luce clarius demonstrantur in quo & quamplurima Platonicorum, & antiquae magiae (quam Cabalam Hebraei dicunt) dogmata videre licet intellectu suauissima. Eiusdem de astronomicae autoribus epistola: imprimebat Lutetiae Simon Colinaeus, 1521, 1521 decimo Calen. Maias [22 IV] (Parisijs, ex aedibus Simon Colinaei, e regione scholae Decretorum sitis).
Delambre, Jean Baptiste Joseph (1819). Histoire de l’astronomie du moyen-âge, Paris, V. Courcier, 377–381.
Ferrero, Bruno (2010). “Il progetto etico-culturale di Guglielmo VIII ed i suoi modelli letterari”, Monferrato Arte e Storia, vol. 22, on pp.112–113.
Pantin, Isabelle (1995). L a poésie du ciel en France dans la seconde moitié du XVIe siècle, Genève, Droz, 442.
Secret, Francois (1985). Les Kabbalistes chrétiens de la Renaissance, 2nd revised edition, Milan, Arche’, 81–82.
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Truffa, G. (2014). Riccius, Augustinus. In: Hockey, T., et al. Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-9917-7_9325
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