Transcriber’s Notes:
Underscores “_” before and after a word or phrase indicate italics in the original text. Small capitals have been converted to SOLID capitals. Illustrations have been moved so they do not break up paragraphs. Old or antiquated spellings have been preserved. Typographical errors have been silently corrected. The table “TIME REFERENCES IN THE DIVINE COMEDY” on pages 358-366 has been reformatted from horizontal to vertical in order to better fit the 72-column format. Footnotes have been separated out from the main text by the use of lines above and below, made of hyphens.
DANTE AND THE
EARLY ASTRONOMERS
BY M. A. ORR (MRS. JOHN EVERSHED).
Plainness and clearness without shadow of stain, Clearness divine! Ye heavens, whose pure dark regions have no sign Of languor, though so calm, and though so great Are yet untroubled and unpassionate; Who, though so noble, share in the world’s toil, And though so tasked keep free from dust and soil!
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You remain A world above man’s head, to let him see How boundless might his soul’s horizons be, How vast, yet of what clear transparency. MATTHEW ARNOLD.
London GALL AND INGLIS, 31 HENRIETTA ST., W.C. And Edinburgh.
PRINTED AND BOUND BY GALL AND INGLIS, NEWINGTON PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING WORKS, EDINBURGH.
PREFACE.
An observatory on a mountain top is an ideal place in which to write on astronomy and poetry, but it has one drawback: the difficulty of obtaining books on special subjects. My husband’s criticisms and help have been invaluable, and of books on modern astronomy there is no lack; but many others which I have wished to consult I have been unable to procure, and doubtless there are many more which I ought to have read, but of whose existence I am ignorant.
This defect has been partly remedied, however, by Mr. Wicksteed’s great kindness in lending me a number of books on Dante subjects.
I am much indebted to my sister, Miss Orr, who has helped me in preparing these sheets for the press. The index is mainly her work.
Thanks are also due to several members of the staff of this observatory: Mr. Sitarama Aiyar made some calculations, Mr. Nagarajan Aiyar projected the map facing page 295, Mr. Krishna Aiyar prepared photographs of several illustrations, and Mr. Krishnasawmy typed the greater part of the copy for press. Mr. Raymond Beazley, the Trustees of the British Museum, and Messrs Macmillan, have kindly allowed me to reproduce illustrations from their publications.
To all these I offer grateful thanks.
M. A. EVERSHED.
KODAIKANAL OBSERVATORY, SOUTH INDIA. October 1913.
THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO LUCY.
LIST OF PRINCIPAL AUTHORITIES.
Alfraganus, Elementa Astronomica. Arabicè et Latinè, opera Jacobi Golii (Amsterdam, 1669). Angelitti, Sulla Data del Viaggio Dantesco. ” Sull’ Anno della Visione Dantesca. Antonelli, Sulle Dottrine Astronomiche della Divina Commedia (1865). Aratus, The Phainomena. Translation by R. Brown. Aristotle, Four Books on the Heavens. Greek and German, with notes, by C. Prantl. Beazley, Dawn of Modern Geography. Berry, History of Astronomy. Blake, Astronomical Myths, based on Flammarion’s History of the Heavens. Boffito et Melzi Eril, Almanach Dantis Aligherii (1908). Brunetto Latini, Li Livres dou Trésor. (Chabaille, Paris, 1863). Budge, Wallis, Guide to the Babylonian and Assyrian Antiquities, British Museum, 1900. Cantelli, La Conoscenza dei Tempi nel Viaggio Dantesco. Cicero, De Senectute. ” Somnium Scipionis. Cornewall Lewis, Historical Survey of the Astronomy of the Ancients. Coulton, From St. Francis to Dante. Delambre, Histoire de l’Astronomie Ancienne. ” Histoire de l’Astronomie du Moyen Age. Della Valle, Il Senso Geografico-Astronomico della Divina Commedia (1869). Dreyer, Planetary Systems from Thales to Kepler. Epping and Strassmeier, Astronomisches aus Babylon. Gardner, Dante’s Ten Heavens. Gruppe, Die Kosmischen Systeme der Griechen. Ideler, Ursprung und Bedeutung der Sternnamen. Imbriani, Studi Danteschi. King, History of Sumer and Accad. Lockyer, Dawn of Astronomy. Lubin, Dante e gli Astronomi Italiani. Maunder, The Oldest Astronomy. (_Journal of the British Astronomical Association_). Moore, Dante and his Biographers. ” Studies in Dante. 3 vols. ” Time references in the Divina Commedia. Parker, Mrs. Langloh, Australian Fairy Tales. Plato, The Republic. Translation by Jowett. ” The Timaeus. ” ” Plutarch, On the Face in the Moon. Translation by Prickard. Pradeau, Key to the Time-Allusions of Dante. Rashdall, Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages. Ristoro d’Arezzo, Della Composizione del Mondo colle sue Cagioni. (Narducci, Milan, 1864). Scartazzini, A Companion to Dante, translated by Butler. ” La Divina Commedia (edizione minore, with notes). Schaubach, Geschichte der Griechischen Astronomie bis auf Eratosthenes. Schiaparelli, I precursori di Copernico nell’ Antichità. ” I Primordì dell’ Astronomia Babilonese. ” I Progressi dell’ Astronomia Babilonese. ” L’Astronomia nell’ antico Testamento. ” Le Sfere Omocentriche di Eudosso, di Callipo, e di Aristotile. ” Origine del Sistema Planetario Eliocentrico presso i Greci. Temple Classics, Dante, (Divine Comedy, Convivio, Latin Works, with translations and notes). The Panchasiddhântikâ of Varâha Mihira. Translated from the Sanscrit, and edited by Thibaut and M. S. Dvivedi. Toynbee, Paget, Articles on Dante’s Obligations to Alfraganus, Albertus Magnus, Orosius, and Dante’s theories regarding the markings on the Moon (in Romania and _Giornale Storico della Letteratura Italiana_). ” Dante Dictionary. ” The Life of Dante (Oxford Biographies). Tozer, An English Commentary on Dante’s Divina Commedia. Wicksteed, The Early Lives of Dante. Wicksteed and Selfe, Villani’s Chronicle. Witte, Dante-Forschungen.
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All quotations from Dante’s works are taken from Moore’s Tutte le Opere di Dante Alighieri, 3rd edition, Oxford 1894.
Astronomical data are chiefly taken from Young’s Manual of Astronomy, and the Nautical Almanac.
CONTENTS.
PAGE INTRODUCTION 1