John Harvey (1564–1592) was an English astrologer and physician. The third son of John Harvey (died 1593), a prosperous master rope maker and farmer, and his wife Ales (Alice; died 1613), he was baptised at Saffron Walden, Essex, on 13 February 1564.[1]
Harvey was educated at the local grammar school before proceeding to the University of Cambridge. He matriculated pensioner of Queens’ College in June 1578, graduated BA in 1581 and MA in 1584. In 1587 Cambridge granted Harvey a licence to practise medicine, which he did very successfully at King’s Lynn in Norfolk. Harvey was a practitioner of astrological medicineAstrological medicine is based on the notion that if plants or seeds are to be used for medicinal purposes then their planting and collection must be carried out with regard to the positions of the planets and other heavenly bodies, which are at the heart of the disease process. ,[1] summed up in its most extreme form by the rule of thumb “look not at your patient but at his stars”.[2]
Harvey’s first publication was An Astrologicall Addition (1583), a supplement to his brother Richard’s Astrological Discourse on the great conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in 1583. Harvey shared his brother’s conviction that the conjunction was a harbinger of dramatic woes, speculating that it might lead to the appearance of an Antichrist, or new Mahomet, but promising that God would protect the faithful. In 1584 he began publishing a series of almanacs to monitor these developments, but as time went on and no such developments took place, resulting in much ridicule, Harvey became more sceptical about astrological predictions.[1]
In Harvey’s A Discoursive Probleme Concerning Prophesies (1588), he makes a clear distinction between astrological and other predictions.[1] He argues that astrological predictions based on planetary conjunctions suffer from “narrative excess”, and go too far in predicting upcoming disasters:[3]
Personal life
After leaving university Harvey became a tutor in the household of Thomas Meade of Wendon Lofts, near Walden, whose daughter Martha he married, probably in 1583; the couple had two daughters.[1]
Harvey died intestate at King’s Lynn in July 1592, after a short illness. Martha asked Harvey’s brother, Gabriel, to handle the administration on her behalf, and later claimed that he cheated her of everything.[1]