Today | News | Books | Recipes Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History Bookro the heed of thilke fixe Aries above That in the ninthe spere considered is.' Here the eight spheres are the eight inner spheres which revolve round the axis of the zodiac in an easterly direction, whilst the ninth sphere, or _primum mobile_, contained both the theoretical or _fixed_ first point of Aries from which measurements were made, and also the _signs_ of the zodiac as distinct from the _constellations_. But Alnath, being an actual star, viz, [alpha] Arietis[73], was in the _eighth_ sphere; and the distance between its position and that of the first point of Aries at any time afforded a measure of the amount of precession. Mr. Brae rightly remarks that Tyrwhitt's readings in this passage are correct (except that _eighte speres_ should be _eightespere_), and those of Mr. Wright and Dr. Morris (from the Harleian MS.) are incorrect. It may be as well to add that a later refinement was to insert a crystalline sphere, to account for the precession; so that the order stood thus: seven spheres of planets; the eighth, of fixed stars; the ninth, or crystalline; the tenth, or _primum mobile_; and, beyond these, an empyræan or theological heaven, so to speak, due to no astronomical wants, but used to express the place of residence of celestial beings[74]. Hence the passage in Milton, P. L. iii. 481:-- 'They pass the planets seven, and pass the fix'd, And that crystalline sphere whose balance weighs The trepidation talk'd, and that first mov'd.' i.e. They pass the seven planetary spheres; then the sphere of fixed stars; then the crystalline or transparent one, whose swaying motion or libration measures the amount of the precession and nutation so often talked of; and then, the sphere of the _primum mobile_ itself. But Milton clearly himself believed in the Copernican system; see Paradise Lost, viii. 121-140, where the _primum mobile_ is described in the lines-- 'that swift Nocturnal and diurnal rhomb supposed, Invisible else above all stars, the wheel Of day and night.' § 18. 8. _compowned by 2 & 2._ This means that in the _best_ astrolabes, _every_ almicantarath for every degree of latitude was marked; as may be seen in Metius. In others, including the one given by Chaucer to his son, they were marked only for every other degree. See Part II. sect. 5, l. 2. § 19. 7. _cenith_, as here used, has a totally different meaning from that of _senith_, in l. 1 above. The _senith_ in l. 1 is what we still call the _zenith_; but the _cenith_ in l. 7 means the point of the horizon denoting the sun's place in azimuth. Contrary to what one might expect, the _latter_ is the true original meaning, as the word _zenith_ is corrupted from the root of the word which we now spell _azimuth_. The Arabic _as-sant_ is a way or path; _al-samt_, a point of the horizon, and, secondly, an azimuthal circle. The plural of _al-samt_ is _assum[=u]t_, whence _azimuth_. But _zenith_ is a corruption of _semt_, from _samt al-r[=a]s_, the Arabic name of the vertex of heaven (_r[=a]s_ meaning _a head_); and the qualifying _al-r[=a]s_, the most important part of the phrase, has been improperly dropped. So far from the reading _cenith_ being wrong here, it is most entirely right, and may be found (better spelt _cenit_) in the same sense in Messahala. See p. 213, second footnote. For _cenith_, some late copies have _signet_, evidently taken from the Latin word _signum_. They make the same mistake even in l. 12 of section 18. § 21. 4. _sterres fixes_, fixed stars; here the _s_ again appears in a plural adjective of French derivation; see note above, to § 5. 8. In MSS. Ii. 3. 3 and Ii. 1. 13 in the Cambridge University Library, is an interesting list of the 49 stars most usually placed upon the Astrolabe. The stars which are represented by the points of the tongues in Fig. 2 are the same as those in the diagram from which Fig. 2 is copied, the original of which is in MS. A. I have slightly altered the positions of the points of the tongues, to make them somewhat more correct. The following is the list of the stars there shewn; most of their names are written in the MS. Cf. footnote on p. 186. _Within the Zodiac._ In _Aries_, Mirach, or [beta] Andromedæ, shewn by a short tongue above Aries; in _Taurus_, Algol, or [beta] Persei, as marked; in _Libra_, Aliot or Alioth, i.e. [epsilon] Ursæ Majoris (the third horse, next the cart, in Charles's Wain), as marked; also Alramech, Arcturus, or [alpha] Boötis, shewn by the tongue projecting above Libra; in _Scorpio_, Alpheta, Alphecca, or [alpha] Coronæ Borealis, as marked; in _Sagittarius_, Raz Alhagus, or [alpha] Ophiuchi, near Alpheta; in _Capricornus_, Altair or [alpha] Aquilæ and Vega or [alpha] Lyræ, as marked, whilst near Vega is the unmarked Arided, or [alpha] Cygni; and in _Pisces_, Markab or [alpha] Pegasi. _Without the Zodiac._ In _Aries_, under _Oriens_, the slight projection marks [beta] Ceti or Deneb Kaitos, the Whale's Tail, and the next curiously shaped projection (with side-tongues probably referring to other stars) means Batnkaitos, the Whale's Belly, apparently [zeta] Ceti; next come the long tongue for Menkar or [alpha] Ceti, the Whale's Nose; the star Aldebaran or Bull's Eye, [alpha] Tauri; Rigel or [beta] Orionis, Orion's Foot; Alhabor or Sirius, the Dog-star, marked by a rude drawing of a dog's head, the star itself being at the tip of his tongue; then Algomeisa, Procyon, or [alpha] Canis Minoris, marked by a tongue pointing to the left, whilst the long broad tongue pointing upwards is Regulus, Kalbalased, or [alpha] Leonis; the small tongue above the letter I in the border is Alphard or Cor Hydræ. Above _Occidens_, in _Libra_, the first tongue is Algorab or [delta] Corvi, and the next Spica Virginis or Azimech; close to the 8th degree of Scorpio is [alpha] Libræ, and close to the beginning of Sagittarius is a small head, denoting the Scorpion, at the tip of the tongue of which is the bright Kalbalacrab or Antares. The last, a projection below the letter X, is Deneb Algebi or the Goat's Tail, i.e. [delta] Capricorni. 7. That is, the little point at the end of each tongue of metal is technically called the 'centre' of the star, and denotes its exact position. 9. The stars of the North are those to the North of the _zodiac_, not of the _equator_. 12. _Aldeberan_, &c.; the stars Aldebaran ([alpha] Tauri) and Algomeisa ([alpha] Canis Minoris) are called stars of the south, because they are to the south of the ecliptic; but as they are meanwhile (see Fig. 2) also to the north of the equator, they of course rise to the N. of the Eastern point of the horizon. The longitude of stars was always measured along the ecliptic, which is denoted in Fig. 2 by the outermost circle of the metal ring on which the names of the signs are written. In one of the tracts in MS. G (dated A.D. 1486), p. 30, we find 'Aldebaran, in the first gre of ge_min_is (_sic_), of the nature of Mars and Venus'; and 'Algomeisa, canis minor, in the xvij gr_e |