Tommaso Campanella

Tommaso Campanella (1568–1639) was a Dominican friar, philosopher, and poet whose radical synthesis of Hermetic magic, astrology, and political utopianism led to his imprisonment by the Inquisition for 27 years.

The City of the Sun and Astral Magic

Campanella is most famous for The City of the Sun (1602), a utopian text describing a society governed entirely by Hermetic principles. The city is designed as a massive talisman: its walls are painted with all human knowledge, and its citizens govern their lives, marriages, and labor according to precise astrological timing to draw down optimal planetary spiritus. Campanella famously attempted to put his theories into practice, performing a secret anti-eclipse magic ritual with Pope Urban VIII in 1628, sealing a room, lighting specific planetary fires, and drinking distilled liquors to ward off the baleful influence of a solar eclipse.