Today | News | Books | Recipes Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History BookS, the latitude 39° S, and places the star in Cancer. It is also plainly described in the same table as being 'in ore canis', so that it is difficult to resist the conclusion of the identity of Alhabor and Sirius. Mr. Brae, following later copies that have different readings of the numbers employed, identifies Alhabor with Rigel or [beta] Orionis. This is impossible, from the fact that Rigel and Alhabor _both_ occur in the diagrams and tables; see, for instance, Fig. 2. It is true that Rigel was sometimes called _Algebar_, but _Alhabor_ stands rather for the Arabic _Al-'ab[=u]r_. The Arabic name for the constellation Canis Major was _Al-kalb al-akbar_, 'greater dog,' as distinguished from _Al-kalb al-asghar_, or 'lesser dog'; and the star [alpha] Canis Majoris was called _Al-shi'ra al-'ab[=u]r_, the former of which terms represented the Greek [Greek: seirios] (_Sirius_), whilst from the latter (_al-'ab[=u]r_) we have our _Alhabor_. See Ideler, Über den Ursprung und die Bedeutung der Sternnamen, pp. 237, 256. § 4. 'The houses [in astrology] have different powers. The strongest of all these is the first, which contains the part of the heaven about to rise: this is called the _ascendant_; and the point of the ecliptic which is just rising is called the horoscope.'--English Encyclopædia; art. Astrology. 21. In the English Cyclopædia, art. Astrology, a quotation is given from an astrological work, in reply to the question whether the 'querent' should succeed as a cattle-dealer. It contains some words very similar to Chaucer's. 'If the lord of the sixth be in quartile, or in opposition to the dispositor of the part of Fortune, or the Moon, the querent cannot thrive by dealing in small cattle. The same if the lord of the sixth be afflicted either by Saturn, Mars, or the Dragon's Tail; or be found either retrograde, combust, cadent, or peregrine. [See l. 33.] The Dragon's Tail and Mars shew much loss therein by knaves and thieves, and ill bargains, &c.; and Saturn denotes much damage by the rot or murrain.' The evil influence of the Dragon's Tail is treated of in the last chapter of 'Hermetis Philosophi de revolutionibus nativitatum', fol. Basileæ; n.d. 32. 'May seen the ascendant.' Cf. 'Cum dominator ascendens viderit, res quæ occulta est secundum ascendentis naturam erit; quod si non videt, illud erit secundum naturam loci in quo ipse est dominator'; Cl. Ptolemæi _Centiloquium_; sect. 90. 33. _combust_, said of a planet when its light is quenched by being too near the sun. Tyrwhitt, in his Glossary, says that it is used when the planet is not more than 8½ degrees distant from the sun. Cf. Troilus, iii. 717, and the note. 40. _Face._ See note to Part I. sect. 21. l. 50 (p. 359). The late copies are very incorrect hereabouts. § 6. 9. Mr. Brae well calls attention here to the absurd errors in the printed copies. Thynne has 'in the 320 signe,' and Speght 'in the xxiii signe.' The signs of the zodiac are only twelve, and the one opposite to the 1st is the 7th. § 8. I see no reason for supposing this proposition to be an interpolation, as Mr. Brae suggests. Though similar to § 11, it is not identical with it. Moreover, it occurs in Messahala. § 9. 2. _the chapitre beforn_, i.e. a previous chapter, viz. in sect. 6. The expression supplies no argument for altering the order of the 'conclusions.' 4. _same manere_, i.e. a like manner. The 'vulgar night' clearly means that the quantity of the 'crepuscules' must be _subtracted_ from the 'arch of the night.' § 13. 5. _cours_, course; _heyest cours_, highest point of the path. Late copies have _lyne_; for which Mr. Brae suggested _degre_. § 14. 6. _but 2 degrees_. Suppose the sun's midday altitude is 49°, in latitude 52°. Then the co-latitude is 38°, and the sun's declination 11° North. This corresponds nearly (roughly speaking) to the 1st degrees of Taurus and Virgo. Which is right can 'lightly' be known by the time of year, for the sun cannot be in Virgo if the month be April. Compare sect. 15. § 17. This conclusion, as pointed out in the footnote, is not correct in theory, but can be made nearly so in practice, by taking the two altitudes _very near_ the meridian. This is directly implied in the words 'passeth any-thing the sowth westward,' i.e. passes _ever so little_ westward of the south line; cf. note below to 38. 10. Consequently, the first observation must also be taken very near the meridian. 25. _site_, situation. Late copies, _sight_. This proves that the word _site_ is Chaucerian, and clears up the reading in Ho. Fame, 1114. § 18. Instead of reckoning a star's right ascension by referring it to the equator, it was reckoned by observing the degree of the zodiac which southed along with it. This is expressed in the first 'Table of fixed stars' in MS. Camb. Univ. Lib. Ii. 3. 3 (fol. 70, back) by the phrase 'cum gradibus, quibus celum mediant'; the other co-ordinate of position was the star's declination from the equator, as in the modern method. The ancients also used the co-ordinates of longitude and latitude of a star, the longitude being reckoned along the ecliptic, and the latitude along great circles through the poles of the ecliptic; as appears from the second Table in the same MS. § 19. 6. _equinoxial._ This, as explained in the footnote, should be 'ecliptik'; but I can find no MS. authority for the alteration, though the correction is practically made in l. 13. § 22. 13. _place._ Late copies and old editions, _planet_; absurdly. Latitudes of several places are given in old Latin MSS. They are frequently incorrect. § 23. 3. The star A is shewn by the numbers to be the Pole-star, and is obviously the one to be observed in order to find the altitude of the Pole. What the star F is, is of no consequence. The numbers used in other copies are different, and much less satisfactory. That the star A is the Pole-star or some star near the pole in this 'conclusion' is rendered probable also by the wording of the next 'conclusion'; which extends the working of it to the case of any other star, provided it be a star that never sets. § 25. 19. When Chaucer says that the latitude of Oxford is 'certain minutes less,' he probably means no more than that the latitude of Oxford was 51 degrees and 50 minutes, as in the text. For I suspect the original reading of the passage made the sun's altitude 38 degrees only, and the latitude 52 degrees; indeed, the passage stands so in MSS. C and P, both good authorities. But he added the statement that the latitude of Oxford was less than 52 degrees. It is probable that, on second thoughts, he put in the number of _minutes_, and forgot to strike out the clause 'I sey nat this,' &c., which was no longer necessary. Minutes were seldom reckoned otherwise than by _tens_; 'a few minutes less than 50' (say 47) is a refinement to which the ancients seldom attained. Hence the amount of 10 minutes is vaguely spoken of in l. 31 as 'odde Minutes.' Minutes were clearl |