How to Self-Fashion as a Physician-Astrologer in Early Modern Italy : Tommaso Zefiriele Bovio (1521-1609) and the Great Comet of 1577

The Great Comet of 1577 ignited widespread public debate, playing a key role in the reconfiguration of the celestial map, as conceived by early modern astronomers. Tommaso Zefiriele Bovio (1521-1609), a physician-astrologer from Verona, seized this moment to establish himself in the Italian cultural scene. In 1578, he published his Trattato in response to Annibale Raimondo's Discorso and Giacomo Marzari's Discorso intorno alla cometa apparsa il mese di novembre, l'anno 1577. He then released his Dichiaratione, countering the so-called Falabacchio, written under a pseudonym by his rival Raimondo, who later composed the Dialogo Astrologico. Pedro et Bertoli. Focusing on these texts, alongside Bovio's other “ego-documents” – three medical treatises, the Teatro dell'Infinito manuscript, and the previously unknown testament of Tommaso – this study examines the self-fashioning strategies he employed and the motivations behindthem. [Publisher's text]

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