Eschatology, Divination, and Gassendi’s Encounter with Spanish-Netherlandish Natural Philosophy (1629)

Abstract

Scholars have tended to focus on Gassendi’s relations with the mathematical, natural-philosophical, and erudite interlocutors he encountered in the Republic. This sits uneasily with the fact that Gassendi’s time in the Spanish Netherlands was about three times as long as his stay in the Republic (i.e., six weeks vs. two weeks). Drawing on the deep engagement with eschatology and divination of Gassendi’s close friend Govaert Wendelen (1580–1667) in the period between 1626 and 1632, this paper raises two questions. First, which natural-philosophical culture did Gassendi encounter in the Spanish Netherlands? Second, which similarities and divergences between Gassendi and his interlocutors does this encounter allow us to discern more clearly?