Pietro Pomponazzi

Pietro Pomponazzi (1462–1525) was a leading Aristotelian philosopher of the Renaissance whose work, De incantationibus (On Incantations, 1520), offered a radical naturalistic challenge to the belief in demons and miracles.

Stellar Determinism: Pomponazzi argued that all 'miraculous' events, including the myths of Circe and magical transformations, were not the work of demons but the result of the necessary and impersonal movements of the celestial bodies (the stars).

Materialism: Following his controversial De immortalitate animae, he viewed the human soul as a forma materialis, entirely subject to the laws of nature and stellar causality.

Natural Magic: He redefined magic as a legitimate 'technical' science based on the manipulation of virtus loci (the power of place) and the hidden sympathetic links within the cosmos, effectively 'disenchanting' the supernatural into the natural.