On the Comet of the Year 1618. A New Spectacle of the World, in Two Books of Paradoxology
Creator: Erycius Puteanus | Date: 1619 | Notes: Original title: De cometa anni 1618. Novo mundi spectaculo, libri duo. Paradoxologia A learned Latin treatise in two books, cast as a paradoxology, written in response to the great comet of 1618. It argues against the common view that comets are fiery sublunary exhalations and ominous portents, presenting the comet instead as a benign celestial light or star-like body derived from the Sun. The work also turns from natural philosophy to moral exhortation, insisting that the true prodigies to fear are not in the heavens but in human vice, injustice, and impiety. 👉 <a href="https://tryleo.ai/collections/exlatinis/a-citizen-of-heaven-erycius-puteanus-and-the-word-he-would-not-use">Read our introductory primer, full report, and finding guide here</a> 📜 <a href="https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_DOGvehgu3UoC">View the original file on Internet Archive</a> This text was transcribed and translated as part of the ExLatinis project—an effort by Leo to make English translations of every published text in Latin in early modern Europe (between 1450 and 1750) available to the public for free online.
- Title
- On the Comet of the Year 1618. A New Spectacle of the World, in Two Books of Paradoxology
- Creator
- Erycius Puteanus
- Date
- 1619
- Notes
- Original title: De cometa anni 1618. Novo mundi spectaculo, libri duo. Paradoxologia A learned Latin treatise in two books, cast as a paradoxology, written in response to the great comet of 1618. It argues against the common view that comets are fiery sublunary exhalations and ominous portents, presenting the comet instead as a benign celestial light or star-like body derived from the Sun. The work also turns from natural philosophy to moral exhortation, insisting that the true prodigies to fear are not in the heavens but in human vice, injustice, and impiety. 👉 <a href="https://tryleo.ai/collections/exlatinis/a-citizen-of-heaven-erycius-puteanus-and-the-word-he-would-not-use">Read our introductory primer, full report, and finding guide here</a> 📜 <a href="https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_DOGvehgu3UoC">View the original file on Internet Archive</a> This text was transcribed and translated as part of the ExLatinis project—an effort by Leo to make English translations of every published text in Latin in early modern Europe (between 1450 and 1750) available to the public for free online.
Document notes
Original title: De cometa anni 1618. Novo mundi spectaculo, libri duo. Paradoxologia A learned Latin treatise in two books, cast as a paradoxology, written in response to the great comet of 1618. It argues against the common view that comets are fiery sublunary exhalations and ominous portents, presenting the comet instead as a benign celestial light or star-like body derived from the Sun. The work also turns from natural philosophy to moral exhortation, insisting that the true prodigies to fear are not in the heavens but in human vice, injustice, and impiety. 👉 Read our introductory primer, full report, and finding guide here 📜 View the original file on Internet Archive This text was transcribed and translated as part of the ExLatinis project—an effort by Leo to make English translations of every published text in Latin in early modern Europe (between 1450 and 1750) available to the public for free online.
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Eryci Pvteani DE COMETA ANNI 8. 19C. XVIII. Nouo Mundi Spectaculo, LIBRI DVO. PARADOXOLOGIA. COLONIAE Sumptibus Conradi Butgeni Anno MDCXIX. Biblioteca Nap. Romana Vittorio Emanuele.
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Eric Puteanus On The Comet of the Year 1618. A New Spectacle of the World, Two Books. Paradoxology. Cologne At the expense of Conrad Butgen In the year 1619. Biblioteca Nap. Romana Vittorio Emanuele.
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SER. mis POTENTISSIMISQ. PRINCIPIBVS ALBERTO ET ISABELLAE CLARÆ EVGENIÆ, AVSTRIACIS, BURGVNDICIS, BELGICIS. SERENISSIMI PRINCIPES: OMETEN SPECTA RE, SATIS MIHI NON FVIT, NISI ET SCRIBEREM: SCRIP- PSI AVTEM: DVM SPECTAVI. VTINAM, QVEM- ADMODVM ABOPINIONEVL- GIRECEDERE AVSVSSVM, ITA SERENITATI VESTRAE PARADOX A PLACEANT, FIDV- CIA ALIQVA STILI ADOR- A 2 NA-
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To the most Serene and most powerful Princes Albert and Isabella Clara Eugenia, of Austria, Burgundy, and the Belgians. Most Serene Princes: It was not enough for me merely to look upon Ometen, unless I also wrote about it; and I wrote while I looked. Would that, just as I have dared to depart from the opinion of the crowd, so too the paradoxes may please Your Serenity, with some confidence in the style to ad... A 2 NA-
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4 NATA! QVODENIM ALII INCENDIVM, EGO LVMEM; QVOD ALII PRODIGIVM, EGO SIDVS ESSE OSTENDI, ET SALVTIS VELVT PIGNVS. AN DICAM? HERCULIS SECVTVLABORES MONSTRA OPPVGNAVI. INCENDIVM VERO PRODIGIVM QVE QVIA AD PRINCIPES REFERREPLERIQVE SOLENT; LYMEN EGO MEIS SIDVS QVE OFFERO: SED LYMEN BONIS, SIDVS FELICIBVS; ILLVD LAETVM, HOCFAVSTVM; QVIPPE ACAELO! GNOSCITE O BONI, FAVETEFELICES: EXEMPLVM POPVLARE OFFICIOSO SEQVORRITV; ERROREM IMITAT ONE CORR GO. CAETERVMS GRATI SERENITATI VESTRAE HI LIBELLI, NON M NVS INCUNDVM DEINCEPS ERIT SPECTARE COMETEN, QVAM LEGERE: MIHI QVOQVE, NON MNVS SCRIBERE, QVAM
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Born! For what others call a fire, I have shown to be light; what others call a prodigy, I have shown to be a star, and as it were a pledge of safety. Or shall I say more? Following the labors of Hercules, I have attacked monsters. A fire, indeed, is a prodigy, and for that reason most people are accustomed to report it to princes; I offer to mine a light and a star: but a light for the good, a star for the fortunate; that one joyful, this one auspicious; for indeed it is from heaven! Recognize, O good men; favor, you fortunate ones: I follow the popular example with dutiful custom; I imitate error. In the meantime, these little books are grateful to your serenity; hereafter it will be no less pleasing to look at a comet than to read it: for me too, it will be no less to write than...
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5 QVAM SPECTARE. LOVANII, IN ARCEVESTRA, A GRAVI LANGVEN S MORBODICTAVI, IDEOQVE BREVIS. III. NON. MARTIAS, 0 . 10 C. XIX. SERENITATI VESTRAE ÆTERNVM DEVOTVS ERYCIVS PVTEANVS BAMELRODIVS. A iij Ad
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5 How to behold. Louvain, in your fortress, from a severe languishing disease I dictated, and therefore brief. 3 Non. March, 0. 10. C. XIX. To your Serenity eternally devoted Erycius Puteanus Bamelrodius. A iij Ad
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AD CL ARISS. ET AMPLISS. V. E. PVTEANVM PROFESSOREM, HISTORIOGRAPHVM, ET CONSILIARIVM Sereniss. PRINCIPVM, DE COMETA scribentem, EPIGRAMMA. M Onstrosâ Fatale Comâ dum territat Astrum, Intrepidus spectas: hoc, PV. TEANE, nouum est. Imò doces solâ metui nouitate Cometam: Crede mihi, magis est hoc, PVTEANE, nouum. PHILIPPVS ALBERTVS VELASCVS, Marchionis BELVEDERII Filius. ELEN.
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To the most illustrious and most distinguished V. E. Puteanus, professor, historiographer, and counselor of serene princes, writing about the comet, an epigram. When the star frightens with a monstrous fatal tail, you gaze unafraid: this, Puteanus, is new. Indeed, you teach that a comet should be feared only because it is novel: believe me, this is more new, Puteanus. PHILIPPUS ALBERTUS VELASCUS, son of the Marquis of BELVEDERE. ELEN.
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ELENCHVS PARADOXORVM LIBRI PRIMI. Paradoxum I. A Vspicium operis. Omnem ab ignorantiâ metum esse: Cometen ignorari. Paradoxum II. Frustra timeri autem, cùm in totâ naturâ prodigia sint. Nouitatem, admirationis caussam esse, admirationem timoris. Paradoxum III. Scriptionis partes. Dei, Naturæ, Cometæ Conditio. Hanc inuestigari magis, quam sciri. Paradoxum IV. Veterum opiniones de naturâ & substantiâ Cometæ: alijs aeream, alijs ætheream placuisse, nonnullis mixtam. Paradoxum V. Nostra breuiter sententia expressa, & æui. A 4
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INDEX OF THE PARADOXES BOOK THE FIRST. Paradox I. At the outset of the work. That all fear arises from ignorance: that a comet is unknown. Paradox II. That, moreover, it is feared in vain, since in all nature there are prodigies. Novelty, the cause of admiration, and admiration of fear. Paradox III. The parts of the writing. The condition of God, Nature, and the Comet. This is to be investigated rather than known. Paradox IV. The opinions of the ancients concerning the nature and substance of the Comet: to some it has seemed aerial, to others aetherial, to some mixed. Paradox V. Our opinion briefly expressed, and that of the age. A 4
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qui obseruationibus confirmata. Sene- cæ raticinium. Paradoxum vi. Cælestem Cometam esse Nomine, & Motu illius ostensum Decælo, item- que Cometâ opinationes nouæ. Paradoxum vii. Cælestem Cometam esse, Morâ decla- ratum, & Parallaxi. Paradoxum viii. Cælestem Cometam esse, Formâ demon- stratum. Paradoxum ix. Argumentum à Lumine, Magnitudine, Colore. LIBRI SECVNDI Paradoxum I. E Rasse Scriptores, aut vulgi sensu lo- cutos, qui Cometas Fatales cen- suêre. Lætum Luminis omen esse; tri- ste, Caliginis. Paradoxum 1 1 De Bello fùse disputatum: id è Cometâ non
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confirmed by observations. Seneca's reasoning. Paradox VI. That the comet is celestial, shown by its name and motion from the sky, and likewise by new opinions about the comet. Paradox VII. That the comet is celestial, declared by delay and by parallax. Paradox VIII. That the comet is celestial, demonstrated by form. Paradox IX. An argument from light, magnitude, and color. BOOK THE SECOND Paradox I. Of rare writers, or those who spoke according to the sense of the crowd, who judged comets to be fatal. A bright light is a happy omen; a dim one, a sad omen. Paradox II. War has been discussed at length: that from a comet not
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non portendi. Belli occasione; carissima Patriamea VENLONA. Serenissimus Principibus commendata. Paradoxum III. De Pestilentia: huius nec Caussam, nec signum Cometam esse. Paradoxum IV. De Fame, alijsque malis: hæc quo- cunque referas, perperam ad Come- tam referri. Paradoxum V. Vanas & fallentes Interpretum minas esse, quæ in Reges, & Regna diri- guntur. Paradoxum V. Artes, scientiæ, & ingenia formidine ac infortunio liberata. Prognostarum vaticina deliria esse. Insignis Seruij de Cometâ locus. Paradoxum VII. Cometam à nonnullis olim faustum ac propitium habitum. De nostro amæ- na quædam obseruatio. A.S. PA-
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not portending. Occasion of war; my dearest fatherland, VENLONA. Recommended to the most serene princes. Paradox III. On Pestilence: that neither its cause nor its sign is a comet. Paradox IV. On Famine, and other evils: however you may refer these, it is wrongly referred to the comet. Paradox V. That the threats of interpreters, directed against kings and kingdoms, are vain and deceptive. Paradox V. That arts, sciences, and talents are freed from fear and misfortune. That the prognosticators’ prophetic ravings are madness. An outstanding passage of Servius on the comet. Paradox VII. That a comet was once by some held to be fortunate and favorable. A certain pleasant observation about our comet. A.S. PA-
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10 Paradoxum vii. Felicitatis præsagium, ad Pontificem, Imperatorem, Regem Catholicum, & Serenissimos Principes nostros relatum. Paradoxum ix. Conclusio, & argumenti excusatio. Non sidera, sed scelera prodigia esse: sceleratis portendi, quicquid timendum est. * * * * * * * * * * * * NVNCVACAT AVDACES AD CAELVM TOLLEREVVLTVS. E R Y
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10 Paradox VII. A presage of happiness, referred to the Pontiff, the Emperor, the Catholic King, & our Most Serene Princes. Paradox IX. Conclusion, & excuse for the argument. Not stars, but crimes are prodigies: whatever is to be feared is foretold to the wicked. * * * * * * * * * * * * NOW IT IS TIME FOR THE BOLD TO LIFT THEIR FACES TO HEAVEN. E R Y
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ErycIpveant DE COMETA ANNI 80. 19C. XVIII: Nouo Mundi Spectaculo, LIBRI PRIMVS. Paradoxum I. Auspicium operis. Omnem ab ignorantiâ metum esse: Cometen ignorari. ERRERI humanum est: quo vno potissimum signo discimus, pleramque rerum naturam ignorari. Quod si mortales scirent omnia, iam nihil timerent, nunc vero à tanta felicitate remoti, quoties opinione fluctuant, in metum dilabuntur. Siquid terra noui, siquid cælum ostendit, cujus occulta causa sit, noua ærumnas aiunt, & calamitates A 6 denun
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ErycI pveant On the Comet In the Year 80. 19C. XVIII: A New Spectacle of the World, Book the First. Paradox I. The preface to the work. That all fear arises from ignorance: that comets are not understood. To err is human; and by this one sign above all we learn that we are ignorant of the nature of most things. For if mortals knew everything, they would now fear nothing; but as it is, removed from such happiness, whenever they are tossed about by opinion, they fall into fear. If the earth shows something new, if the sky shows something whose hidden cause is not known, they say new troubles and calamities are being announced. A 6 denun
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12 E. PVT. DE COMETA denunciar. Vnusquisque quod non intelligit, portentum clamar, & celestis iræ signum. Vnde in remedium quoque Sapientia venit, olim culta; quæ postquam inuestigare abditas coepit rerum caussas, oculos quasi humano generi dedit. Vulgus tamen omni æuo formidare maluit, quam scrutari: quicquid non caperet, extimescere. Sic quidem paucis & horroris mater ignorantia est; quæ imaginem velut noctis habet. Tenebræ enim metum incutiunt, quia tenebræ sunt; claro die nemo spectra lemuresve timet. Omninò quicquid in obscuro est, percellere solet; adeoque ipsa ignorantia obscura est & in superstitionem trepidas mentes rapit. Astrologos, Hariolos, Augures, & furentes omnes accuso, qui, vt opinionem scientiâ velent.
Transcription: Translated (English)
12. On the comet. To denounce. Each person what he does not understand, cries a portent, and a sign of heavenly wrath. Hence also Wisdom came as a remedy, once revered; after she began to investigate the hidden causes of things, she gave, as it were, eyes to the human race. Yet the common people in every age have preferred to fear rather than to inquire; whatever they could not grasp, they dreaded. Thus, for the few, ignorance is truly the mother of horror; it bears the likeness of night. For darkness strikes fear because it is darkness; in broad daylight no one fears ghosts or spectres. Whatever is in darkness is accustomed to alarm; and so ignorance itself is dark and draws fearful minds into superstition. I accuse astrologers, soothsayers, augurs, and all the madmen, who, in order to cloak opinion with knowledge.
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LIB.I. PARADOX 11. velent, dogmata sua fatalibus minis onerant. Præcipue Osten- torum interpretes, & Prognos- tæ. Dei consilia inuadunt; qua- si etiam facilius, Prouidentiæ, quam Naturæ arcana referare. Transcendunt scientiæ fines & in ijs quæ non intelligunt, inge- niosi sunt: propterea quia non intelligunt. Hic igitur morbus primum terras tenuit, & quic- quid ignorari necessum fuit, ad ostenta venit. Non alia cæli con- ditio: quicquid contemplantium solertiam vicit, pro miraculo habitum. Huius generis v[er]nus præcipue Cometa est, insoliti fulgoris schema, in tam vario astrorum coetu, sparsis velut ra- dijs emicans. Cometa est, ille nouus, ille nuperus, ille omnium sermone agitatus: quem exami- nare, quantum licet, constitui: non vt scire plus velle videar, si curio-
Transcription: Translated (English)
LIB.I. PARADOX 11. Those who favor them burden their doctrines with fatal threats. Especially the interpreters of portents, and prognosticators. They invade the counsels of God, as though they could unravel the secrets of Providence even more easily than those of Nature. They transcend the bounds of science, and are ingenious in things they do not understand: precisely because they do not understand them. Thus this disease first held the earth in its grip, and whatever had necessarily to be unknown came to be treated as an omen. The condition of the heavens was no different: whatever defeated the skill of observers was taken for a miracle. Of this kind the true example is especially the comet, an unusual pattern of brightness in so varied a gathering of stars, shining forth as it were with scattered rays. The comet is that new one, that recent one, the one stirred by everyone's talk: which I have resolved to examine, as far as is allowed; not so that I may seem to want to know more, if I am curio-
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14. E. PVT. DE COMETA curiosior ero sed vt minus metuere si non omnia ignorabo. Non desunt, inquit Seneca, lib. vii. Natur. Quæst. qui terreant, qui significationes eius graues prædicent: sci[enti]scitantur, & cognoscere volunt, prodigium sit, ansidus. Sed oblecro, quos terrent? ignaros: & cur terrent? quia ipsi ignari. Grauis etiam significatio partim ab ignoratione caussæ est, partim à nouitate, quam vnam admirari solemus. Caussaru[m] enim ignoratio, vt est apud Ciceronem, lib. ii de Diuinat. in re noua mirationem facit: eadem ignoratio si in rebus visitatis est, non miramur. PARADOXVM II. Frustratimeri autem, cum in tot a natura prodigia sint. Nouitatem, admirationis caussam esse: admirationem, timoris C: amant igitur omnes, prodigium natum esse: poenam sce-
Transcription: Translated (English)
14. E. PVT. OF A COMET I shall be more curious, but less afraid if I do not know everything. There are not lacking, says Seneca, lib. vii. Natur. Quæst., those who frighten, who proclaim its grave signs: they inquire, and wish to know whether the prodigy is an object of dread. But I ask, whom do they terrify? the ignorant; and why do they terrify? because they themselves are ignorant. A grave signification also arises partly from ignorance of the cause, partly from novelty, which alone we are accustomed to admire. For ignorance of causes, as in Cicero, lib. ii de Diuinat., in a new matter produces wonder: the same ignorance if it is in familiar things, we do not wonder at them. PARADOX II. But we are frustrated, when there are so many prodigies in nature. Novelty is the cause of admiration: admiration, of fear. C: therefore all things love that a prodigy has been born: punishment sce-
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LIB. I. PARADOX II. 15 sceleribus, & velut flagellum divinitus imminere. De sceleribus non vani sunt. Quicquid in cælo est, terret; quicquid lucer, ad probitatem, pietatem, sanctitatem vocat: Ideo Sol illustrat omnia, vt ad numen omnes assurgant, caussam, & principium omnium Ideo sæuo cælum mugitu boat, & vibratis fulmen ignibus excutitur, vt regi mundum maiori potestate cernerent, summo imperio cuncta coercei. Ad rem Poeta princeps, lib. v. --- Ante genitor, cùm fulmina torques, Nequicquam horremus, cæcique in nubibus ignes Terrificant animos, & inania murmuramiscent? Admiranda hæc: naturæ tamen legem & ordinem sequuntur, semel à Deo, causâ vniuersi, constituta. Sequuntur Comeræ, vano
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LIB. I. PARADOX II. 15 by crimes, and as it were a scourge divinely hanging over them. They are not idle in respect of crimes. Whatever is in the heavens terrifies; whatever shines calls to probity, piety, holiness. Therefore the Sun illuminates all things, so that all may rise toward the divine, the cause and beginning of all. Therefore the sky roars with savage thunder, and with flashing flames lightning is hurled forth, so that they might see the world ruled by a greater power, and all things restrained by supreme command. To the point, the chief poet, book V. --- When, Father, you hurl your bolts, Do we tremble in vain, and the fires in the clouds, though hidden, frighten our minds, and the empty murmuring resound? These things are admirable; yet they follow the law and order of nature, established once by God, the cause of the universe. They follow Comeræ, in vain
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16 E. PVT. DE COMETA vano licet terrore passum tradu- cti, & prodigioso omine infames; quia non omnibus annis, aut lustris nascuntur. Sed ita feres habet: quicquid infrequens, oculos animosque hominum trahit & occupat. Tum sciscitamur, tum inquirimus nostri & naturæ solliciti: quippe quamdiu solitam mundus faciem seruat, & statas vices obit, magnitudinem rerum familiaritas abscondit: liquid mutatur, aut prætermorem incurrit, passim omnes, tanquam atoniti hærent Miraculorum omnium compendium Solem puto: hic tamen quia quoridie lucet, spectatorem vix habet: quoties deficit, renebrisque obducitur, obseruari incipit. Luna eriam, tam varium formâ sidus, & vel maculis suis pulchra: tamen negligitur, quamdiu pulchra: laborans autem, terræ-
Transcription: Translated (English)
16. On the comet though they are ordinarily passed over in fear, and made notorious by a prodigious omen; because they are not born every year, or every lustrum. But such is human nature: whatever is uncommon draws and captures men's eyes and minds. Then we inquire, then we investigate, anxious about ourselves and nature; for so long as the world preserves its customary appearance, and performs its fixed cycles, familiarity conceals the greatness of things: when anything changes, or meets with some extraordinary novelty, everyone everywhere, as if astonished, stands fixed. The sum of all wonders I take to be the Sun: yet because it shines every day, it scarcely has an observer; whenever it fails, and is covered with darkness, it begins to be watched. The Moon too, though so variable a star in form, and beautiful even with its spots: yet it is neglected so long as it is fair; but when it is troubled, the earth-
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LIB. I. PARADOX. II 17 terræque vmbrâ velut persona- ta, trahit oculos, & Endymiones inuenit. Ad summam: quamdiu ordo seruatur, cæci sumus: si- quid præter consuetudinem se ostentat, oculos aperimus, Adeò naturale est, magis noua, vt cum Phi- losopho dicam, lib. VII. Natur. Quæst. quam magna admirari. Hæc omnia, quæ quoridie in cælo vi- demus, magna sunt: Cometam lucere, id vero nouum. Ergo nemo non scire quid sit cupit, & oblitus aliorum de adventitio quærit ignarus, vtru[m] debeat mirari, antimere. Sed profe- cto & miratur, & timet. Miratur Quid sit, Vbi sit, Quomodo sit: timet, quicquid fallax persuasio ominosum facit, Persequor sin- gula, & de Ostento audeo Pa- radoxa depromere: quæ, quem- admodum ab opinione multo- rum aliena erunt, ita veritati ma- xime accedent. PA-
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LIB. I. PARADOX. II 17 earth and sky, like a masked figure, draws the eyes and finds Endymions. In short: as long as order is preserved, we are blind; if anything shows itself contrary to custom, we open our eyes. So natural is it to admire what is new, that, as I may say with the philosopher, lib. VII. Natur. Quæst., one wonders more at great things than at admirable ones. All those things that we see every day in the sky are great: a comet shining is indeed something new. Therefore no one does not wish to know what it is, and, forgetting the rest, asks about the newcomer, ignorant whether he ought to wonder at it or fear it. But indeed he both wonders and fears. He wonders what it is, where it is, how it is; he fears whatever deceitful persuasion makes ominous. I pursue each point, and I dare to set forth Paradoxes on the portent: paradoxes which, although they will be far from the opinion of many, will nevertheless come very close to the truth. PA-
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18 E. PV T. DE COMETA PARADOXVM III. Scriptonis partes. Dei, Naturæ, Come- tæ conditio. Hanc inuestigari magis, quam sciri Hærere circa vocabulum non constitui, in progressu explicandum. Hoc nunc satis, dici: sed ad omnes tamen formas referri. Latini stellam vel fidus Crini- tum appellant. Rem igitur ag- gredior, dicturus præcipue Quid sit, & Vbi sit Cometa: vt ègemi- no hoc velut fonte omnis argu- menti copia educta dilatetur, & Diuinatio euanescat. Ignem es- se, & in aere incendi, à plerisq; hactenus creditum: stellam es- se, & in cælo lucere, plures ab antiquissimo æuo statuerunt. In Aere quomodo Fiat, Moveatur, Desinat, inuenit Aristoteles, & ingeniosè tradidit: quomodo vero in cælo, diuinare hucusque magis
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18 E. PV T. OF THE COMET PARADOX III. The parts of the writing. The condition of God, Nature, and the Comet. That this should be investigated rather than known. I have not resolved to linger over the word, to be explained in the course of the work. It is enough to say this now; yet it is to be referred to all its forms. The Latins call it a star or a hairy star. I therefore approach the matter, intending chiefly to say what a Comet is, and where it is: so that from this twofold as it were source all abundance of argument may be drawn forth and expanded, and divination may vanish away. That it is fire, and kindled in the air, has hitherto been believed by many; that it is a star, and shines in the sky, has been maintained by more from the most ancient age. How it comes to be in the air, how it is moved, how it ceases, Aristotle discovered and ingeniously set forth: but how it is in the heavens, hitherto to divine, rather
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LIB. I. PARADOX. III. 19 magis licuit, quam statuere. Etenim si stella est, vel fuit semper, vel noua certe origine coepit. Et quæ hæc tam occulta natura est? Occulta, non repudianda. Iubeat Deus, & noua sidera, imo noui cælorum crbes exsurgent. Ita enim totam hanc mundi machinam condidit; vt augere & ornare etiam possit: nisi exhaustant potentiæ vires, vnius operismolitione, credas: quod fine scelere nemo arbitretur: Opus quod videmus, finitum, limitatum, & ipsa sua magnitudine paruum est: Numen quod credimus colimusque, infinitum, æternum, omnesque terminos ignorans. Vnde si comparatio instituitur, tamdiu auge- ri opus potest, quamdiu Auctor hoc ipsum superat, nunquam tamen opere æquandus. Quicquid accedet, finitum erit; infinitus ille,
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LIB. I. PARADOX. III. 19 It was more allowable than to determine. For if it is a star, either it has always been so, or it certainly began from a new origin. And what is this nature so hidden? Hidden, not to be rejected. Let God command it, and new stars, nay, new spheres of the heavens will rise up. For thus He fashioned this whole machinery of the world; so that He can also increase and adorn it: unless you believe that, through the destruction of power, the force of a single work has been exhausted; which no one, without wickedness, should suppose: the work that we see is finite, limited, and by its very size small: the Deity that we believe in and worship is infinite, eternal, and ignorant of all bounds. Whence, if a comparison is made, the work can be increased as long as the Maker surpasses this very thing; yet it can never be equaled in the work. Whatever is added will be finite; He is infinite,
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20 E. PVT. DE COMETA ille, à quo accedet. Minus is pos- set, si crescere opus non posset. Quod si mundo quoque capi de- beret & includi, iam infinitos conderet: hostamen rursus om- nes excederet, quia nullo loco aut limite potest circumscribi. In suo vero domicilio, quod cæ- lum appellamus, maiori poten- tiâ præsens est, qui vbique est; Numen suum nouis sideribus, si opus, ostensurus; iram signis. Verumenimverò semel natura completa est, ideoque Deo con- stituta, vt perfectionem suam haberet. Andicam? nostro er- rore fit, vt admittere incremen- tum videatur. Sæpe etiam quæ miramur, non quia non fue- runt, sed quia latuerunt, prodi- gia sunt: prodigia, quia ex oc- culto prodeunt, siue producun- tur. In coelo autem nasci nouum fidus, quam condi, facilius dixe- rim,
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20 E. PVT. OF A COMET that to which it will come. It could be less, if it could not need to grow. But if it also had to be contained and enclosed in the world, it would already create countless things; yet again it would surpass all, because it can be circumscribed by no place or boundary. But in its own dwelling, which we call heaven, he who is everywhere is present with greater power; showing his divinity through new stars, if need be; his wrath through signs. But in truth nature was once completed, and therefore established by God, so that it might have its perfection. Shall I say it? Through our error it happens that it seems to admit increase. Often also the things we wonder at are prodigies, not because they were not there, but because they were hidden: prodigies, because they come forth from concealment, or are brought forth. But in heaven I would more easily say that a new star is born than that it is made,
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LIB. I. PARADOX. III. 21 rim. Agnosco Deum, neque ministram Naturam excludo. Hæc quocumque se extendit, morem Auctori suo gerit: terræ, cæli- que potens, cuncta sibi obnoxia trahit, generando, corrumpendo, transformando. Quid mirum igitur, in superis illis æthereitque plagis aliquid noui esse? vbique est. Ac sanè, videtur ipse Deus insolito interdum splendore ad astra vocare mortalium oculos, continuâ velut siderum familiaritate in terram & terrena conversos. Homines enim, quia quotidie cælum vident, non vident: vile est, quod quotiescumque velis cernere, in conspectum venit. Cometa verò, vt dixi, rarus est, ideoque omnium vultus in cælum erigit. Alij Ignem, ego innoxium malo Lumen appellare. Ignem illi, & in aere, tanquam propiorem, & sic faci-
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LIB. I. PARADOX. III. 21 I acknowledge God, and I do not exclude Nature as His minister. Wherever she extends herself, she follows the will of her Author: powerful over earth and heaven, she draws all things subject to her, by generating, corrupting, and transforming. Why then should there be anything surprising in those upper and ethereal regions? She is everywhere. And indeed, it seems that God Himself, by an unusual brightness at times, calls the eyes of mortals to the stars, eyes which through continual familiarity with the heavens have turned toward the earth and earthly things. For men, because they see the sky every day, do not see it: what is common, and may be seen whenever one wishes, comes to view as something cheap. A comet, however, as I said, is rare, and therefore lifts the gaze of all to heaven. Some call it Fire; I prefer to call it harmless Light. To them, Fire, and in the air, as if nearer, and thus faci-
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22 E.PVT. DE COMETA faciliorem caussam habeat: Lumen ego, & in cælo: quod fortassis fuisse semper, ex interualllo apparere quis putet. Subnasci verò, & occulto quodam Naturæ modo, mea iam quidem opinio est. Raritas, ipsailla raritas facit, vt & de Conditione tanti prodigij, & de Loco controuersia sit, à tot iam læculis agitata. Sic nondum sciri potuit, Quid esset; & malum tamen sæuumque definiuerunt: nondum, Vbi esset; & vbi noceret, constitutum est. PARADOXVM IV. Veterum opiniones de natura & subst[anti]a Cometæ: alijs aeream, alijs ætheream placuisse, nonnullis mixtam. Aristoteles, & tota Peripaticorum secta terrena origine in aere incendi Cometam voluit, & æradumia . . . . . . . . esse: Exhalationem siccam & calidam: quæ
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22 E.PVT. DE COMETA it may have an easier explanation: Light I, and in the sky: which perhaps may be thought to have always existed, appearing only at intervals. But to arise from below, and in some hidden manner of Nature, is indeed now my opinion. Rarity, that very rarity, makes it so that there is controversy both about the condition of so great a prodigy and about the place, a controversy now agitated for so many ages. Thus it could not yet be known what it was; and yet they defined it as evil and cruel: not yet, where it was; and where it did harm, has it been established. PARADOX IV. The opinions of the ancients concerning the nature and subst[ance] of the Comet: some thought it aerial, some ethereal, and some mixed. Aristotle, and the whole sect of the Peripatetics, wanted the comet to be of earthly origin, ignited in the air, and æradumia . . . . . . . . to be: a dry and hot exhalation: which
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LIB.I. PARADOX.IV. 23 quæ è terra spiraculis in altum protracta, paulatim compingitur, radiisque siderum perculsa inflammatur, pendulum velut à primo igni incendium spargens. Stoici Cometas, referente Seneca, lib.vii.Natur. Quæst. sicut faces, sicut tubas, trabesque, & alia ostenta cæli, denso aere creari. At vero sublimiori & diuiniori dogmate Democritus olim & Anaxagoras, item Pythagorei: & ante hos Chaldæi in cælo, & numero stellarum errantium hanc quoque stellam, etsi non eodem modo omnes collocarunt. Democritus & Anaxagoras, esse σύμφασιν των πλαντων αστρων: Co apparitionem stellarum Errantium. Pythagorei: Esse planetas, sed nonnisi post longa interualla apparere, parumque à Sole digredi. Videndus Aristoteles lib.1. Meteor. cap. vi. De his, Pythagoreis inquam, Plinius libro II. cap.
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LIB. I. PARADOX. IV. 23 which, drawn up from the earth by openings into the air, is gradually compacted, and, struck by the rays of the stars, is kindled, scattering fire like a hanging conflagration from the first flame. The Stoics, as Seneca relates, lib. vii. Natur. Quæst., say that comets, like torches, like trumpets, beams, and other signs of the sky, are formed in thick air. But by a more sublime and divine doctrine Democritus formerly, and Anaxagoras, likewise the Pythagoreans; and before these the Chaldeans, in the heavens and in the number of the wandering stars, placed this star also, though not all in the same way. Democritus and Anaxagoras: that it is a σύμφασις των πλαντων αστρων: the appearance together of the wandering stars. The Pythagoreans: that they are planets, but that they appear only after long intervals, and depart but little from the Sun. Aristotle should be consulted, lib. 1. Meteor. cap. vi. Concerning these, I say, the Pythagoreans, Pliny in book II. cap.
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cap. xxv. Sunt qui & hæc sidera per peiua esse credant, suoque ambitu ire, sed nonnisi relicta à Solecerni. Chaldæi verò, vt est apud Scobæum in Eclogis Physicis, Vltra Planetas alias stellas esse aliquadoremotas, & sic occultas, aliquando conspicuas, cùm ad inferiores partes descendu[n]t. Vocari autem Cometas ab ijs, qui nesciunt stellas esse. Abscondi deinde, non extingui, cùm in suam regionem, ætherisque profundum referuntur, piscium instar, qui quandiu in summâ natant aquâ cerni possunt vt se demittunt, oculos effuguunt. Ipse, vt omnes d. cam, diuinæ magis quam humanæ mentis & conditionis Seneca, tam facile à Stoicis suisabijt, quam absurdum putauit, adeo pulchrum spectaculum aeri consecrare. Ait igitur, lib. VII. Natur. Quæst. Cometas æternos esse, & sortis eiusdem cuius cætera sidera, etiamsi faciem illis non habeant similem. Item: Non exi- stimo
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Chap. xxv. There are those who believe that these stars too are perpetual, and go in their own circuit, but are not seen except when left by the Sun. The Chaldeans, however, as is found in Scobaeus in the Physical Eclogues, say that beyond the planets there are other stars somewhat remote, and thus hidden, sometimes visible, when they descend toward the lower regions. They are called comets by those who do not know that they are stars. Then, when they are hidden and not extinguished, as they are carried back into their own region and the depth of the ether, like fish, which, as long as they swim in the upper water, can be seen, but when they dip down, escape the eye. Seneca himself, as all say, a man of a mind and character more divine than human, departed so easily from his Stoics, that he thought it absurd to consecrate so beautiful a spectacle to the air. He says, therefore, in book VII of the Natural Questions, that comets are eternal, and of the same sort as the other stars, though they do not have a similar appearance. Likewise: I do not think
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LIB. I. PARADOX. VI. 25 Aimo Cometen subitaneum ignem, sed inter æterna opera naturæ. Rationes quoque ipse dilatat. Seruium miror, qui Virgilij illud, lib x. Cometæ Sanguinei lugubre rubent, ex- plicans, contra quàm Seneca, refert, Cometas à Stoicis inter stellas censeri, & vltratrigintaduas nu- merari. A Stoicis? fortassis à Chal- dæis, vel Pythagoreis. E cælo & aere miscuerunt dogma suum. Hippocrates Chius, & Discipu- lus eius Æschylus, apud Aristo- telem lib.1. Meteor. cap, v. Ca- lestem sideris globum esse, aeream ver- comam. Fabularum conditores, vt & hos adiungam, non p[er] tue- runt sine Cometâ ingeniosi es- se; nec consecrare lepidissimum figmentum, nisi in cælum eve- herent. Antoninus Liberalis è Nicandro; & Corinnâ refert, Meriocham & Menippam Orionis fili- as, vt Aoniâ peste liberarent, seipsas im- mola- B
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LIB. I. PARADOX. VI. 25 Indeed, a comet is a sudden fire, but among the eternal works of nature. He also expands the reasons himself. I marvel at Servius, who, explaining that passage of Virgil, lib. x. “Comets, blood-red, gleam with mournful redness,” contrary to what Seneca reports, says that comets were counted by the Stoics among the stars, and numbered beyond thirty-two. By the Stoics? Perhaps by the Chaldeans or the Pythagoreans. They mixed their doctrine from heaven and air. Hippocrates of Chios, and his disciple Aeschylus, according to Aristotle, lib. 1. Meteor. cap. v., held that the celestial globe is a star, and its airy hair. The authors of fables, too, and I may add these as well, would not have thought themselves ingenious without a comet; nor would they consecrate their prettiest fiction unless they lifted it up into heaven. Antoninus Liberalis, from Nicander and Corinna, reports that Meriocha and Menippa, daughters of Orion, in order to free Aonia from pestilence, sacrificed themselves...
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26 E. PVT. DE COMETA molauisse: conuersa àPlutone & Proserpinâ in stellas cadauera:has in cælum translatas, Cometasque appellari. Seruius in librumx. Æneidos, Stellam Crinitam à Poetis Electram dici, in astra receptam, cum, flagrante Troiâ, capillum laceraret. Crines stellam fecere: dolorem Electra crimi- bus testata est. AEui nostri opi- niones aere quoque & cælo d- uisę sunt. Pro aere Philosophi plerique, & sic pro Aristorele: pro cælo Mathematici nonnul- li, sed præcipui steterunt, Inter Philosophos & Mathematicum se ostendit CORNELVS GEM- MA, verè Gemma, imo dignus, qui è Gemmâ nasceretur, Vrbis & Academiæ huius lumen atq; or- namentum. PARADOXVM V. Nostra breuiter sententia expressa, & æui observationibus confirmata. Se- necæ vaticinium. Me
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26. PVT. OF A COMET said to have fainted: their bodies, changed by Pluto and Proserpina into stars, were carried up into the sky, and are called Comets. Servius, in book x of the Aeneid, says that the star with flowing hair is called by the poets Electra, received into the stars when, at the burning of Troy, she tore her hair. Her hair made the star: Electra testified her grief by her locks. The opinions of our age have also been divided between air and heaven. Most of the philosophers stood for air, and so for Aristotle; some mathematicians for heaven, but the chief among them stood firm. Among philosophers and mathematicians CORNELIUS GEMMA made himself known, truly a Gemma, indeed worthy to be born from a Gem, the light and ornament of this City and Academy. PARADOX V. Our opinion briefly stated, and confirmed by the observations of the age. Seneca’s prophecy. Me
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LIB. I. PARADOX. V. 27 MEnunc igitur si quis interroget, liberè, & sapientiæ fiduciâ, in cælum vsque feram suffragium, & inter æterna naturæ opera prodigum non æternâ referam: inter aduerso pugnantia sidera mundo, Quæ cælum terramq[ue] inter volitantia pendent. Etenim expensis, & examinatis omnibus, in eam venire sententiam audeo, vt statuam, Come- tam cæli ciuem esse, Solis sobolem, ætheris partem & partum; corpore stellam, lumine facem, motu errorem: corpore suo, lumine non suo, motu suo & non suo. Nasci dixerim; quia denasci video, sed cum nullo cæli damno, sine vll portento. Ne dirum aut sævum putes, lucere, non ardere cogita: prorsus naturali caussâ vt ornamentum, non vt incendium agi. planetarum splen- B2
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LIB. I. PARADOX. V. 27 Now therefore if anyone should ask me, with freedom and with confidence in wisdom, I would carry my vote up to heaven itself, and among the eternal works of nature I would not reckon the comet as eternal: amid the stars contending against one another in the world, those which, wandering between heaven and earth, hang suspended. For when all things have been weighed and examined, I dare come to this opinion, and declare that a Comet is a citizen of heaven, the offspring of the Sun, a part and product of the ether; a star in body, a torch in light, an errant in motion: by its own body, by a light not its own, by a motion both its own and not its own. I should say that it is born; for I see it un-born again, yet with no harm to heaven, without any portent. Do not think it ominous or cruel: consider that it shines, not burns; altogether moved by a natural cause as an ornament, not as a conflagration. The splendor of the planets B2
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splendor quia familiarior est, sæpiusque in oculos incurrit, neminitimetur; sed an quoque noceat incertum est. Iunge Cometam, benignum credes: satis familiarem, si intelliges. Ad rem Sextus Empiricus, lib. 1 Pyr- thon. Hypotyp Sol multò certè ma- iorem obstupefaciendi vim habet, quàm Stella crinita. sed quoniam Solem cre- brò videmus, rarò autem Stellam crini- tam: Stella hæc ita nos attonitos reddit, vt eâ portendi etiam aliquid à Dijs pute- mus: at Sol non item. Quod si imagine- mur Solem rarò apparentem, rarò occi- dentem, & vbi simul omnia illustrârit, repente omnibus rursus tenebras inducê tem, reperiemus in hac re, vnde vehe- menter obstupefiamus. Sanè vt Co- metam esse Planetam credas, & in æthere versari, admirandis observationibus suis præstantis- simi nostrorum temporum Ma- thematici effecerunt. Horum in-
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splendor because it is more familiar, and more often strikes the eyes, let no one fear; but whether it also harms is uncertain. Add a Comet, you will believe it benign: sufficiently familiar, if you understand. To the point Sextus Empiricus, lib. 1 Pyr- rhon. Hypotyp. The Sun certainly has a much greater power of causing astonishment than a hairy Star. But since we often see the Sun, but rarely the hairy Star: this Star thus makes us stunned, that we think something is even portended by the Gods through it: but the Sun not so. But if we were to ima- gine the Sun appearing rarely, setting rarely, and when it has at once made everything bright, suddenly again bringing darkness upon all, we should find in this matter something by which we are greatly astonished. Indeed, if you believe a Comet to be a Planet, and to move in the ether, the most outstanding Mathematicians of our times have achieved this by their admirable observations. Of these in-
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LIB.I.PARADOX.V. 29 industriam, an scientiam magis mirer, dubium est. Namque industriâ consecuti sunt, quod lo- lertissimæ Antiquitatis scientiâ maius fuit; scientiâ quod omnis æui industriam fugit. Ergòverum iam Senecæ vaticinium, lib. vir. Natur. Quæst. Veniet tempus, quo ista quæ nunc latent, in lucem dies extrahat, & longioris æui diligentia. Ad inquisitionem tantorum, ætas vna non sufficit, vt toto calo vacet. Mox: Veniet tempus, quo posteri nostri tam aperta nos nescisse mirentur. Denique: Erit qui demo[n]stret aliquando, in quibus Cometæ partibus errent, cur tà seducti à cæteris eant, quanti, qualesq[ue] sint. Certè demonstrauit non v[er]nus; & inter alios tamen quasi v[er]nus, TYCHO BRACHAVS, ille astronomiæ oculus, & RVDOLPHO Cæsari nuper carus. Demonstrauit, inqua[m], Come- tenan. co. IC. LXXVII. non inaeriâ, sed cælesti regione exstutisse. B 3 PA-
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LIB. I. PARADOX. V. 29 I am in doubt whether I should admire their industry or their learning more. For by industry they achieved what was greater than the learning of the most skilled Antiquity; by learning, that which the industry of every age has escaped. Therefore Seneca’s prophecy is now true, book 7 of the Natural Questions. There will come a time when those things which now lie hidden day will bring to light, and the diligence of a longer age. For the investigation of such matters, one age is not enough, if it should be free for the whole heaven. Soon after: There will come a time when our descendants will wonder that we did not know things so plain. Finally: There will be one who will at some time demonstrate in which parts the Comets wander, why, being thus drawn away from the others, they go, and how many and what kind they are. Certainly it was demonstrated, not by one true man alone; and among others, as if by a true man, TYCHO BRACHAVS, that eye of astronomy, and lately dear to RVDOLPHO Caesar. He demonstrated, I say, that the comet of the year 1577 did not exist in the air, but in the celestial region. B 3 PA-
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E. PV T. DE COMETA PARRDOXVM VI, Cælestem Cometam esse, Nomine, Motu illius ostensum. De cælo, item- que Cometâ opinationes nouæ. DE Nostro dico, & argumenta è materiæ viteribus duco: a Nomine, & Motu: à Morâ, & Parallaxi: à Forma, Lumine, Magnitudine, Colore. Argumenta hæc erunt: & simul vniuersam Sideris naturam aperient. Nomen mihiomen est: ætherem, De ique domum indicat, Græco & Latino loquendi vsu. Græcoquidem d , Latino, Stella, siue Sidus Crinitum appellatur. A'sq[ue] autem Stella, Sidus, ubi, nisi in cælo? In Motu plus momenti est: hic geminus, quemadmodum & Planetarum. Nam primum mun di semitam nouus Cometa secutus est, & dici noctisque circulum quo-
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E. P. T. OF THE COMET PARADOX VI, That it is a celestial comet, as its name, its motion, has shown. New opinions about the sky and also about comets. I speak of our own, and draw arguments from the matter itself: from the name, and from the motion: from the delay, and the parallax: from the shape, light, magnitude, and color. These arguments will also reveal the whole nature of the star. Its name is my first argument: it indicates the heavens, and the dwelling of God, in Greek and Latin usage. In Greek, indeed, in Latin, it is called a star, or a hairy star. But where is a star, a constellation, except in the sky? In motion there is more importance: here it is twofold, as with the planets. For first the new comet followed the path of the world, and is called the circle of night and day ...
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LIB. 1. PARADOX. VI. 31 quotidie absoluit. Deinde, suum quoque iter diuerso nisu, equali ac dimenso spatio explicuit, Et vbi igitur, nisi in cælo? Diuerso nisu, & versus Boream: quemadmodum in aliud aliudque mundi latus conuerti a ij solent: nec im vno nasci. Æquali etiam ac dimenso spatio, etsi sub finem tardiore. Nam quam diu maxime viguit, celer fuit, & tres quotidię partes confecit. Talis ille quem Nicephorus Gregoras describit, lib. x i. in Septentriones, & pari celeritate progressum. imò non talis. Nam vesperi apparuit, & ortum à Persei pedibus ducens, polum præterijt, ac deinde Vrsam minorem, & spiras Draconis, dexterum etiam Herculis pedem attigit, indeque Coronam Ariadnes, sinistramque Ophiuchis manum percurrens, euanuit. Sed noster tandem, tanquam lassus, lenti- or visus, vix duas quotidie partes metiens. Visus est, non suit B 4 fal-
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LIB. 1. PARADOX. VI. 31 he completes every day. Then, with a different impulse, he also carried out his own course, over an equal and measured space. And where then, unless in the sky? With a different impulse, and toward the North; just as things are accustomed to turn to one and another side of the world, and not to be born in one and the same place. Also over an equal and measured space, though toward the end more slowly. For so long as he was at his strongest, he was swift, and covered three parts of the day. Such was the one described by Nicephorus Gregoras, in book xi, moving toward the North, and advancing with equal speed. Indeed not such. For in the evening he appeared, and, beginning from the feet of Perseus, he passed the pole, and then the Little Bear, and the coils of Draco; he also touched the right foot of Hercules, and from there, traversing the Crown of Ariadne and the left hand of Ophiuchus, he vanished. But our own star at last, as though weary, seemed slower, scarcely measuring two parts of the day daily. It seemed so, not that it was actually so B 4 fal-
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32 E. PVT. DE COMETA fallente oculos semitâ, quæ in altum, & suo quodam flexu, quemadmodum dicam, conver- tebatur. Nunc vniuersum hunc motum quemadmodum ex Ar- ce hac Louaniensi, Musarum mearum sede, obseruaui, desi- gno. V. Kal. Decembris, horâ v. post mediam noctem, in signo Libræ, citra Æquinoctialem pri- mose spectandum præbuit, & moueri in Septentrionem coe- pit, medius inter Virginem, & Serpentem Permeauithinc Bo- oten, relictio ad sinistram Arctu- ro. Postquam vero circa Eidus Decembris, ad læuum imagi- nis huius brachium pervenisset; Maiori iam Vrsæ imminens; li- bratâ velut lineâ, duas extremæ caudæ stellas excepit, & occide- renobis desijt: sic quidem dein- ceps & Matutinus, & Vesperti- nus; Orientalis, & Occidentalis; Luci-
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32 E. COMET OF THE RIGHT HAND appearing dimly to the eyes, which in the height, and by a certain bend of its own, as I may say, was turning. Now I set down this whole motion as I observed it from this tower of Louvain, the seat of my Muses. On the 5th day before the Kalends of December, at the 5th hour after midnight, in the sign of Libra, it first presented itself to be seen on this side of the Equinoctial, and began to move toward the North, passing midway between Virgo and Serpens; thence it crossed Bootes, leaving Arcturus to the left. But after, about the Ides of December, it had come to the left arm of this figure; now looming over the Greater Bear; as if on a balanced line, it received the two stars of the extreme tail, and then ceased to set for us: thus thereafter both Morning- star and Evening-star; Eastern and Western; Light-
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LIB.I.PARADOX.VI. 33 Lucifer, & Hesperus; totius, vt sic dicam, iam noctis fidus. Bru- mæ die manum Arctophylacis occupans, extremam Vrsæ stellam, sed radijs iam multum con- tractis ac dilutis æquauit, ad re- liquas duas oblique porrectus. Pacis adhuc diebus servavit cursum, & magis magisque im- minui coepit, Donec in exiguum moriens vanesceret ignem. Hæc cum ita sint, peculiares à naturâ gyros constitutos Come- tis censeo, peruiosque esse: in aere ne concipi quidem aut de- signari posse. Omnia hic fortui- ta, incerta, & verè palantij sunt. Impelli ignem videas & pro- gredi, non quò ordo, aut lex viæ, sed quo casus pabulumque, aut etiam ventus si ille huc ascendit, trahunt. Ratiocinantem Sene- cam audiamus, lib. vi. Natural. B 5 Quæst;
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LIB.I.PARADOX.VI. 33 Lucifer, and Hesperus; the faithful one, as I may so say, of the whole night. Taking on the day of the winter solstice the office of the Bear-keeper, and equalling the outermost star of the Bear, but with its rays already very much contracted and faded, it was extended obliquely toward the other two. It kept its course during the days of peace, and began more and more to diminish, Until, dying away, it vanished into a tiny flame. Since these things are so, I judge that comets have particular circuits established by nature, and that they are passable: in the air they cannot even be conceived or outlined. Here everything is accidental, uncertain, and truly wandering. You would see the fire being driven on and advancing, not where order or the law of its path leads, but where chance and its fuel, or even the wind if it has risen up there, draw it. Let us hear Seneca reasoning, book vi. of the Natural Questions. B 5 Quæst;
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34 E. PVT. DE COMETA Quæst. Quomodo potest in aere aliquid idem diu permanere, cùm ipse aer nunquam idem maneat? Fluit semper, & breuis illi quies est. Intra exiguum momentum in alium, quàm in quo fuerat, statum vertitur. Nunc pluuius, nunc serenus, nunc inter vtrumque varius: nubèsque illi familiarissimæ, in quascoit, & ex quibus soluitur, modò congregantur, modò digeruntur, nunquam immotæ iacent. Fieri non potest, ut ignis certus in corpore vago sedeat, & ita pertinaciter hæreat, quam quem natura, ne vnquam excuteretur aptauit. Deinde si alimento suo hæreret, semper descenderet. Eò enim crassior aer est, quò terris propior: nunquam Cometes in innumisque demittitur, neq[ue] appropinquat Solo. Etiamnum ignis, aut it quò illum natura sua ducit, id est sursum: aut eò quò trahit materia cui adhæsit, & quam depascitur. Peripatetici nihilominus vialicuius sideris rapi volunt Cometam, & in aere coeli legem esse. Sed profectò vo-
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34 E. PRIVATE OF A COMET Question. How can something remain the same in the air for a long time, when the air itself never remains the same? It is always flowing, and its rest is brief. Within a tiny moment it turns into another state than the one in which it had been. Now rainy, now clear, now varying between the two; and the clouds, most familiar to it, in which it is woven, and from which it is dissolved, are now gathered together, now dispersed, never lying unmoved. It cannot be that a fixed fire sits in a shifting body, and clings so stubbornly as one which nature has fitted never to be shaken out. Then, if it were attached to its own nourishment, it would always descend. For the air is thicker the nearer it is to the earth: a comet is never brought down into the depths, nor does it approach the ground. Nor indeed does fire either go whither its nature leads it, that is, upward; or whither the matter to which it has adhered and which it feeds upon draws it. Nevertheless the Peripatetics want the comet to be carried along by some star’s force, and to be a law in the air of heaven. But truly...
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LIB. I. PARADOX. VI. 35 volunt, quod maximè dubium, aut etiam difficile est. Etenim alia sideris alia aeris natura est, & loco sciuncta. Aer fugax, fluxus, leuis: fidus certum, perrenne, constans. Ad summam: aut in cælo Cometa est, aut nulla aer leuitate fluctuat. Ergo motus ille cælestis est: & quia motus, ipse quoque Cometa. In cælo vero aliquid nasci, aut denasci posse, tam facile credo, quam mundum Deo inferiorem esse. Multa fortasse in supremo illo domicilio mutantur, quæ nos latent: multa, existunt, quæ ne inesse quidem arbitramur: multa denique aliter, quam apparent, collocata sunt: quæ si oculis metiamur, fallant. Ecce, sublimem & infinitum stellarum chorum quo ties suspicio, fateri cogor, aliú pro fecto esse ordine, aliú videri: imo esseordine nullu videri. Nave se imago insinuat, alibi frequetia, alibi rari-
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LIB. I. PARADOX. VI. 35 They want what is most doubtful, or even difficult. For the nature of the stars is different from the nature of the air, and distinct from its place. The air is fleeting, fluid, light; the heavens are firm, fixed, perpetual, constant. In sum: either a comet is in the sky, or the air is not stirred by any lightness. Therefore that motion is celestial; and because it is motion, it too is a comet. Indeed, I believe as easily that something can be born or die in heaven as that the world is beneath God. Many things perhaps are changed in that highest dwelling, which are hidden from us; many exist which we do not even suppose to be there; many, in the end, are placed otherwise than they appear, which, if we measure them by the eyes, would deceive us. Behold, whenever I behold that lofty and infinite chorus of the stars, I am forced to confess that there is certainly one order in fact, another in appearance: nay, that there is no order visible at all. The image suggests itself of a ship, now in one place crowded, now in another sparse-
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36. E. PVT. DE COMETA raritas est; quasi & felicitate suâ alibi exuberet cælum .alibi sterilitate deficiat. Quid? Quemadmodum in viâ Lacteâ Sporades sunt: ita sparsa & confusa vbi- quesidera videntur; casu magis, quam prouidentia condita. Frustra quidem cætera naturæ membra in venustatem digesta sunt, nisi & illa cæli. Summo ordine summa quidem machina digna fuit illa immensa, illa æterna, illa diuina. In horto flores, in pomario arbores, in moenibusturres, in monili gemmas lege quadam & arte distingui solent: infra flores, arbores, turres, gemmas, cur stellas habeamus? Frustra in cælo commendes lumen, si ordinem desideres. Suspicor igitur, non in superficie hærere ac lucere tam admirandos ignes, sed alium atquealium in profundissimo spa- tio,
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36. On the comet rarity is such; as if with its own felicity the sky were abundant elsewhere, while in another place it failed through barrenness. What then? Just as in the Milky Way there are the Pleiades, so the stars seem scattered and confused everywhere; established more by chance than by providence. Indeed the other members of nature are arranged into beauty in vain, unless those of the heaven also are. The greatest machine was surely worthy of the highest order, that immense one, that eternal one, that divine one. In the garden, flowers; in the orchard, trees; in the walls, towers; in a necklace, gems are usually distinguished by a certain law and art: below flowers, trees, towers, gems, why should we have stars? In heaven it is in vain to praise light, if you desire order. I suspect, therefore, that they do not cling to the surface and shine, those so admirable fires, but one and another in the deepest space,
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LIB.I.PARADOX.VI. 37. tio locum occupare. quosdam humiliores, quosdam sublimiores esse; omnes summo & ad- mirando ordine distare: sed ordine, qui oculos nostros fugit. Quod si vel ex orbe Lunæ, vel ex alia mundi parte fas homini cælum contueri, nouus omnino & ignotus adspectus esset: perijssent imagines, quibus fabularum audacia stellas occupauit. Quisquis nauiaut curru fertur, hanc in turribus, domibus, arboribus varietatem circumquaque deprehendit. Visa fallunt, & nostrum sequi motum videntur; nunc separari, nunc coniungi, prout aut eandem ab oculo educetam lineam aut diversas subeunt. Ergò in rebus omnibus suspiciunt omnes quicquid aut insolitum, aut mutatum deprehendunt: naturam quoquererum quia ingenio humano maiorem B 7 vin-
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to occupy a place. Some are lower, some higher; all differ by the highest and most admirable order: but by an order that escapes our eyes. And if, either from the orbit of the Moon, or from some other part of the world, it were lawful for a man to behold the heavens, it would be altogether a new and unknown sight: the images would have perished, by which the boldness of fables has taken possession of the stars. Whoever is carried by ship or by chariot discovers this variety all around in towers, houses, and trees. Appearances deceive, and seem to follow our motion; now to separate, now to unite, as they either pass along the same line extended from the eye or enter upon different ones. Therefore in all things all men marvel at whatever they discover to be either unusual or changed: and because the nature of things is greater than the human mind,
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58 E.PVT.DE COMETA vinci prodigio clam[en]t. Sed quid? nouum in cælo fidus fulgere posse, superiori sæculo Cassiopea ostedit: imò verò pleraq[ue], aliter se habere, quam ab Aristotele prodita sunt, sensu tædem exploratum est. Hactenus quis opinatus, Lunæ varietate in Venere esse? Quis circa Saturnum minutos Planetas ludere? Quis misceri cursus, liquidaque cælorum natura[m] expandi? Abeo à comuni dogmate, & credere iam incipio, Solos circa terram Solem Lunamque volui, circa Solem reliquos Planetas: sed Mercurium Venerèque citra terra[m] & contractioribus circulis: Martem, Iouem, Saturnum, circa, ampliusque extensis. Credere incipio, vario Cometas omnes tramite Planetarum cursibus inerrare: sed intra Martis limites, qui primus ambitu suo & Venerem, & terram includit. Ergo nonnulos quoque Soli proximos ferri,
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58 E.PVT.DE COMETA they cry out in wonder. But what? That a new star could shine in the sky, Cassiopeia showed in the previous century; indeed, it has long since been proven by the senses that many things are otherwise than Aristotle reported. Until now, who would have supposed that Venus had the variability of the Moon? Who that small planets play around Saturn? Who that courses are mingled, and the liquid nature of the heavens expanded? I depart from the common doctrine, and I now begin to believe that only the Sun, the Moon, and the Earth are concerned in one way, and the other planets around the Sun: but Mercury and Venus on this side of the Earth, and in narrower circles; Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, around it, and in more extended ones. I begin to believe that all comets wander by various paths through the courses of the planets: but within the limits of Mars, which in its orbit first encloses both Venus and the Earth. Therefore some are also carried close to the Sun,
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LIB I. PARADOX. VI. 39 fontisque sui iubare abscondi. Ad rem Seneca, li. v 1. Natural. Quæst. & citatus Senecæ Posidonius: Multos Cometas non videmus, quod ob- scurantur Solis radijs: quo deficiente, quendam Cometen apparuisse, quem Sol vicinus obtexerat, Posidonius tradit. Sæpe autem, cum occidit Sol, sparsi ignes non procul ab eo videntur. Videlicet ipsa Stella Sole persunditur (id est, globus Cometæ,) & ideo adspici non potest. Cometæ autem (id est, Cometarum faces) Solis radios effugiunt. Similiter Arrianus apud Stobæum in Eclogis Physicis. H[uius] d[e]n d[e]n πλησίον ηλιο ξωνδάντες πομπτηδιοιμεν Εφηθησαν άφανηδηναι πριν τὴν γενεσιν αυτον κατασηναι εμφανεῖς, οι δὲ εκλειποντος ηλίον Εξεφανησαν. Ia[m] verò & propè Solem constituti Cometæ, alij euanuerunt, priusqua[m] conspicui fient: alij, deficiente Sole, apparuerunt. Cur vero nô totoliberoq[ue] vagari æthere Cometas pute, caussa hæc est: quia circa Solem, citra terram cos
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LIB I. PARADOX. VI. 39 to be hidden in the radiance of its own fountain. To the point, Seneca, book 5, chap. 1 of the Natural Questions. And the Posidonius cited by Seneca: We do not see many comets, because they are obscured by the rays of the Sun: when it is absent, he reports that a comet appeared, which the neighboring Sun had covered. Often also, when the Sun sets, scattered fires are seen not far from it. Clearly the star itself is suffused by the Sun (that is, the body of the comet), and therefore cannot be seen. But comets (that is, the torches of comets) evade the rays of the Sun. Likewise Arrian in Stobaeus, in the Physical Extracts. H[uius] d[e]n d[e]n πλησίον ηλιο ξωνδάντες πομπτηδιοιμεν Εφηθησαν άφανηδηναι πριν τὴν γενεσιν αυτον κατασηναι εμφανεῖς, οι δὲ εκλειποντος ηλίον Εξεφανησαν. Ia[m] verò & propè Solem constituti Cometæ, alij euanuerunt, priusqua[m] conspicui fient: alij, deficiente Sole, apparuerunt. But why comets are thought not to wander through the whole free ether, this is the reason: because around the Sun, below the earth, cos
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40 E. PV T. DE COMETA eos moueri, observationis necessitas suadet. Huc refero illud ab Aristotele traditum, maleque à Plinio translatum; Euanescere Cometas, priusquam ex hemisphærio nostro migrent. Verba Aristotelis sunt, lib. 1. Meteor. cap. VI. A "παντες οι καλ" ἐμαῖς ὑμμετων ἀνευδύσεως ἑφαίδησαι Quotquot te[m]pestatenostra visi, sine occasu euanuerūt. Plinj ista: Sed Cometes nî quam in occasurâ parte cælest. Enarrare, quoties fuerit, omnino superuacaneum est. Excusent viri Docti crescentem sub stilo opinionis audaciam: quid omninomente concepi, patefactum magis eo. Quid? Totum illud quod cælo stellato subest ætheris spatium, & planetas continuat. vnum, simplex, fluidum, videri non orbibus sed cursibus duntaxat, siue ambagibus Errantium siderum distinctum Non igitur Ho-
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40. E. PV T. OF THE COMET the stars are moved, the necessity of observation suggests. I refer here to that which was handed down by Aristotle, and badly translated by Pliny: that comets vanish before they pass out of our hemisphere. Aristotle’s words are, book 1 of the Meteorologica, chapter VI. “All those which have been seen in our region have disappeared without setting.” Pliny says this: “But to recount how often a comet has appeared in the part of the heavens where it is setting would be altogether superfluous.” Learned men should excuse the growing boldness of an opinion under my pen: what I have conceived in my mind has been made more clear by this. What? That whole space of ether which lies beneath the starry heaven and connects the planets: one, simple, fluid, seen not by circles but only by the courses, or rather the winding paths, of the wandering stars. Therefore not Ho-
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LIB. I. PARADOX. V. 41 Homerum hîc audio, qui ὑφανον πολύχαλκον, & σιδήρεν appellat: non alios, qui summa & splendentia illa templa compingunt burât, solidant, tanquam are fusa. Magnorum sanè Virorum, diuersumque sentientium calculos collegit Clarissimus THOMAS FIENVS, Medicorum nostri temporis egregium decus & liberrimâ de hoc ipso Cometâ Dissertatione cæli Liquorem explicuit. Inter alios (non enim possum quin exauro gemmam eligam) eleganter, breuiter, verè D. Basilius sublimem naturam, λεπτήν, ἐσεὶ καπνον esse dixit, tenuem, tanquam fumum. Omnia dixit, verumque dogma non minus pinxit, quám expressit, Si quis distinctiorem etiam imaginem desideret, ab Origene petam: Sidera suis motibus agi: nec selus in cælo esse, quam animantia in terra, pisces in aquâ, volu- cres
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LIB. I. PARADOX. V. 41 I hear Homer here, who calls it a woven brazen, and iron: not others, who join together with burat those lofty and shining temples, and make them solid, as though cast from bronze. The judgments of great men, differing in opinion, Thomas FIENUS, the most distinguished ornament of our physicians in this age, has collected, and in a very free Dissertation on this very Comet has explained the liquor of the sky. Among others (for I cannot but choose a gem from gold) Master Basil elegantly, briefly, truly said the sublime nature, λεπτήν, ἐσεὶ καπνον to be, thin, as though smoke. He said everything, and painted the true doctrine no less than he expressed it. If anyone should desire a more distinct image as well, I shall ask it from Origen: the stars are moved by their own motions; nor is there only one life in heaven, any more than there are living creatures on earth, fish in the water, birds
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42 E. PVT. DE COMETA cresinaere. Me profecto præter auctoritatem inconcussa ratio in nouam istam, imò antiquam opinionem trahit. Obseruant enim hodie Mathematici, Venerem Lunæ vt dixi, vultu, esse: modò curvari in cornua, modò æquâ portione diuidi modò in orb. sinuari ac prorsus velut Triuiam esse. Vnde hæc varietas, [e]n[im] si & supra Solem (cui semper proxima,) & infra, & iuxta collocetur? nisi per liquidum, etsi breue, cæli spatium erret? Infra, cum nouu[m] nouâ luce vultum auspicatur: iuxta cum dimidiatum ostendit: supra, cum plenu[m]. In Lunaquidem alia ratio est, hæc enim quia longissime, & in oppositam ætheris partem à Sole digreditur, & ad Solem redit, alio ac diuerso quam Venus situ aliquando inter nos & Solem media est, & appellatur: aliquando obliqua, æquata iam luce
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42 E. PVT. DE COMETA cresinaere. I am indeed drawn, apart from authority, by an unshaken reason into this new, or rather ancient, opinion. For mathematicians today observe, as I said, that Venus has the face of the Moon: now curving into horns, now divided into equal portions, now rounded into a disk, now bent in and altogether, as it were, to be Triviam. Whence comes this variety, if she is placed both above the Sun (to which she is always nearest), and below, and beside it? unless she wanders through the liquid, though brief, expanse of the sky? Below, when she begins with a new face in new light; beside, when she shows half; above, when full. In the Moon, indeed, the reason is different, for since she departs from the Sun at the farthest distance, and toward the opposite part of the ether, and returns to the Sun, she is at times in a position different from and unlike Venus, lying between us and the Sun and being called so; at times slanting, the light now equalized
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LIB. I. / PARADOX. VI. 43. luce & vmbra, & διχοτομος aliquando inter Solem & se nos medios destituens, & άυφικνυτος, donec prorsus, opposita Soli pleno orbe πανσεληνος fulget. Quod igitur ad Sidera hæc attinet, aio in liquido spatio solida & vaga esse, certa tamen & ordinata lege ferri: sed alia maiora esse, & inde ab origine rerum conspicua, minora alia, occulta, tecta, & nunc demum vitri miraculo detecta. Ecce quo ingenium tantummodo ibat, aciesque mentis, nunc oculis peruenitur: vt nesciam, cælum ad nos demissum sit, an nos ad cælum sublati, adeoque sublimati. Cernere igitur, senescente iam propè mundo, diuinam & secretam ab elementis regionem coepimus; notare & distinguere, quæ oculos tot seculorum fugerunt. Ne omnia recenseam; corpora quæ-
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BOOK I. / PARADOX VI. 43. in light and shadow, and sometimes διχοτομος, between the Sun and itself, leaving us in the middle, and ἀύφικνυτος, until, directly opposite the Sun, with its full orb, πανσέληνος, it shines. Therefore, as for these stars, I say that in the liquid expanse there are solid and wandering bodies, yet all are carried by a certain and ordered law: but some are greater, and from the very origin of things conspicuous; others smaller, hidden, concealed, and only now discovered by the miracle of glass. Behold whither the mind alone was going, and the eye of the mind: now it is reached by the eyes; so that I do not know whether heaven has been brought down to us, or we have been lifted up to heaven, and thus exalted. Therefore to behold, now that the world is growing old, we have begun to perceive the divine and secret region separated from the elements; to note and distinguish what has escaped the eyes for so many ages. Not to recount everything; bodies which-
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44 E. PVt. DE COMETA quædam, nec vnius magnitudinis, circa Solem errantia, & quod mirandum in viciniâ tantæ lucis obscura. Luna quodammodo talis, sed qua Solis expers. Hæc cernimus, inquam, notamus distinguimus; verum beneficio eiusdem lucis, & quorires ex adversum jubari collocantur: alia, & his similia credimus, per alias quoque cæli partes sparsa, rapi mundano, & suo singula motu cieri. Cogita sidera esse, sed imperfecta, sed luce cassa, sidera non sidera. Cogita nasci in æthere, & denasci: quædam autè peculiari forte purgari, pellucida reddi & illuminari. Breuiter: conuerti in Cometas, vt cum luce deinde intereant. Itaq[ue] splendorem à Sole accipiunt hæc corpora, hæc prodigia: & hactenus velut sidera sunt: transmittunt deinde siue Comæ, sive Barbæ iubar; & à sideribus distinguuntur. Trans-
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44 E. Of Comets certain things, and not of one magnitude, wandering around the Sun, and what is marvelous, in the vicinity of so great a light dark. In a certain way the Moon is such, but one devoid of the Sun. These we see, I say, note, distinguish; yet by the benefit of the same light, and the rays opposed to us are placed: others, and things like these we believe to be scattered through other parts also of the sky, to be carried by the world, and each to be stirred by its own motion. Think that they are stars, but imperfect, but lacking light, stars that are not stars. Think them to be born in the ether, and to die away: some perhaps to be purified by some special process, to be made translucent and illuminated. Briefly: to be changed into Comets, so that with their light they afterward perish. Therefore these bodies, these prodigies, receive brightness from the Sun: and up to this point they are as it were stars: then they send forth, whether as Comae or as Barbae, a radiance; and they are distinguished from stars. Trans-
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LIB. I. PARADOX. VI. 45 Transmittunt; quemadmodum globi aliqui siue vitrei. siue crystallini siue glaciales solent, radijs Solis perfusi: imò quemadmodum aqua solet vase vitreo, crystallino, glaciali conclusa: in his enim similitudinem aliquâ Cometę videas. Non difficulter etia[n] statuo, densiorem ætheris parte corporibus istis adhærere. imò circumfundi, in quam emissi per Cometam radij, resplendeant, sicuti in nube, fumo, pulverefieri, Sole splendente, solet. Densior autem ille æther, vel conglobatæ iam materiæ reliquiæ sunt, quæ in eandem compingi massam, ac densari non potuerunt, vel certè affluxus, trahente ipsiorem naturâ liquorem, quotiescumque nouum aliquod sideris miraculum generatur. Omnium hæc certe rerum indoles est stimulari, & moueri ad perfe- ctionem
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BOOK I. PARADOX VI. 45 They transmit; just as certain globes, whether of glass or crystal or ice, are wont to do when drenched with the rays of the Sun: indeed, just as water enclosed in a glass, crystal, or ice vessel behaves; for in these one may see some resemblance to a comet. Nor do I find it difficult to establish that a denser part of the ether adheres to these bodies; indeed, that it flows around them, in which the rays sent forth through the comet may be reflected, just as is wont to happen in a cloud, smoke, or dust, when the Sun shines. But that denser ether, or those remnants of matter already gathered together, are either the remains of a substance which could not be compressed and thickened into the same mass, or certainly an influx, the liquid itself being drawn by nature, whenever some new marvel of a star is generated. Certainly the nature of all these things is to be stirred up and moved toward perfection
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46 E. PVt. DE COMETA ctionem. Sic in gemmam, in fru- ticem, in arborem telluris succi ve- niunt, & mutantur. Perfectior au- emglobi quam liquidi diffusi- que ætheris forma est: quemad- modum gemmam, fruticem, ar- borem rudi terræ præferas. Co- meta igitur excipit lumen Solis; per Cometam Æther, sed crassior: siqvid vltra splendoris est, oculos nostros fugit. Et cur esset? hære- renequit, imó cum reliquo cælilu- mine confusum est. Prorsus ter- minat densior materia radios & velut definit; vt si quid interdum plenam formam non habeat, de- fectu materiæ facem excipientis id fieri necessum sit. Vndequod à Clarissimo Optimoque Viro Io- ANNE STORMIO, Medico, & Matheseos in Academia hâc no- strâ Professore, curiose obserua- tum est, extremam hanc dextro latere Barbam imminutam, & ve- lut
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46 E. PVt. DE COMETA action. Thus they come to be and are changed into a gem, into a shrub, into a tree, of the juices of the earth. A more perfect form is that of a globe than that of the diffused and fluid ether; just as you would prefer a gem, a shrub, or a tree to raw earth. A comet, therefore, receives the light of the Sun; through the Comet, Ether, but thicker: whatever there is beyond brightness escapes our eyes. And why should it not? It cannot remain fixed there; rather, it is mixed with the rest of the light of the heavens. More dense matter plainly cuts off the rays and, as it were, sets a boundary; so that if anything at times does not have a complete form, it is necessary that this should happen from a defect of matter receiving the torch. Whence, too, what was curiously observed by the most illustrious and excellent man IOANNES STORMIUS, physician and professor of mathematics in this our Academy, namely that this beard on the right side was diminished, and as it were
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LIB. I. PARADOX. VI. 47 lut recisam fuisse, difficile non puto. Quicquid id fuit materiæ adhærenti malo, quam globo imputare A globo enim totum magis affici latus, quam lateris angulus debuit: materia vel hanc vel aliam definire luminis formâ potuit. Quid si tamen fieri Cometen statuas è globo iam deficiente? quasi nihil ille aliud sit quâ dissolutio eiusmodi corporis; quod cum rarescit, materiamque circumfundit recipiat solem; tam que admirandum luminis spectaculum exhibeat? Globus enim quâdiu densus compactusque, vel recusare videtur lumen, vel tenue admodum recipere, & vix à reliquo cælo distinctum: carefactus illustrari incipit, & mox à diffusso vt sic dicam, liquore suo criniri vidias. Totum
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I do not think it difficult to say that it was cut off. Whatever that matter was that clung to it, it was better to ascribe it to the body than to the globe. For from the globe the whole ought to be affected more by the side than by the angle of the side; matter could determine this or some other form by the shape of the light. But what if, however, you suppose a comet to be formed from a globe already failing, as though it were nothing other than the dissolution of such a body; which, when it becomes rarefied and spreads the matter around it, receives the sun, and presents so marvelous a spectacle of light? For as long as the globe is dense and compact, it seems either to reject light, or to receive only a very dim one, scarcely distinguishable from the rest of the sky; when it becomes loosened, it begins to shine, and soon, if I may say so, you see it adorned with the hairs of its own diffused substance. Totum
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48. E.PVT. DE COMETA. Totum hoc vero quod dixi lumen & sideris & profectæ facis, à Solevelut fonte promanare, paulopost ostendam: non exiguum opinionibuic pondus adiecturus. Interim basis ac fundamentum istud, quod dixi: Quippe & nata aliquando & denata sunt. Si quis obnoxium mutationi cælum miratur, vouuersam mirabor naturam esse Terram omissis iam alijs videamus. Homines & bruta, arbores & stirpes, vrbes & ædes oriuntur, & pereunt; imò vt pereant. Sed quantilla hæc si tanqua[m] membra orbis censeantur? Manent interim regiones & maria, montes & flumina, passimque, tanquam non mutetur, moles heret. In cælo quidni ad eundem modum varietas ludat? Cogita minuta multa, & pænè infinita, partim generari, partim corrupi quotidie, sed humanis oculis nequa-
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48. E.PVT. OF THE COMET. But I shall shortly show that all this light, both of the star and of the streaming torch, proceeds from the Sun as from a source: a point that will add no small weight to the arguments. Meanwhile this basis and foundation, which I stated: for things both are born and at one time die. If anyone marvels at the sky’s being subject to change, I shall marvel that Earth is a wholly reversed nature, and leaving the others now let us look at these things. Men and beasts, trees and plants, cities and houses arise, and perish; indeed, in order that they may perish. But how small are these things if they are counted as though members of the world? Meanwhile regions and seas remain, mountains and rivers, and everywhere, as though nothing were changed, the mass holds together. Why should not variety play in the sky in the same way? Consider the many minute things, and almost infinite ones, partly generated, partly corrupted each day, but to human eyes in no way
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LIB.I.PARADOX.VI. nequaquam comprehendi. Minuta? Imò & magna quædam: rarius tamen, quia magna sunt. Quid igitur? non ideo aut cælum esse cælum desinit: aut astra, astra. Omnino licet mutetur terra, mundus tamen mundus est: mundi enim pars quædam à Deo constituta Sic licet mutetur cælum per manere tamen mundus potest: pars enim & mundi cælum est. Semel effero: Machinam hanc totam quâcernimus, & quâ no[n] cernimus, væum corpus esse, & in Aetherem, atque Elementa diuidi: partes igitur quædam elementa sunt, nec à toto naturâ suâ diuersæ: vt nec totum à partibus. Rerum quidem species aliæ aliæquæ passim: res eædem tamen, si materiam spectes, è quâ formantur. Sed mutari cælum, non pauci olim, hodieque sibi persuaserunt: eas quim in cælo conditiones esse, C quæ
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LIB. I. PARADOX. VI. cannot in any way be comprehended. Small? Nay, rather certain great things; yet more rarely, because they are great. What then? It does not therefore cease to be heaven, or the heavens to be the heavens; nor the stars, stars. In no way, though the earth be changed, does the world nevertheless cease to be the world: for it is a certain part of the world appointed by God. So, though the heaven be changed, the world can nevertheless remain: for heaven is also a part of the world. I say it once for all: this whole machine, which we behold and which we do not behold, is one body, and is divided into Ether and the Elements: therefore certain parts are elements, and are not by their nature different from the whole, any more than the whole is from the parts. Indeed the kinds of things are here and there various; yet the things are the same, if you consider the matter out of which they are formed. But that the heaven is changed, many long ago, and even today, have persuaded themselves: those conditions in the heaven being, C which
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50 E. PVT. DE COMETA quæ mutationem admittunt. Primo, Raritatem, & Densitatem: illam orbium, hanc stellarum: stellas autem orbis partes esse. Secundo Lumen, & Caliginem: illud in Sole, hanc in Lunâ, cum laborat; illud in stellis, Planetisque, hanc in corporibus, quæ tanquam Planetæ errant. Tertio, Motum, & Quietem: illum in totâ machinâ; hanc in cardinibus siue polis. Quod ad Aristotelem in re non verâ ingeniosus, imo admirandus fuit: imo quia mutationi cælum exemit, à cælo exulare Cometen voluit. PARADOXVM VII. Cælestem Cometam esse, Morâ declaratum, & Parallaxi. Sed Motus me abduxit longius: figo pedem, Temporisque Spatium quo durauit Come- tes
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50 E. PVT. DE COMETA which admit of change. First, Rarity and Density: the former in the spheres, the latter in the stars; and the stars are parts of the spheres. Second Light and Darkness: the former in the Sun, the latter in the Moon, when it labors; the former in the stars and Planets, the latter in bodies which, as it were, wander like Planets. Third, Motion and Rest: the former in the whole machine; the latter in the hinges or poles. In this matter, as regards Aristotle, he was ingenious in a matter not true, indeed admirable; indeed, because he excluded change from the heavens, he wished the Comet to be banished from heaven. PARADOX VII. That the Comet is celestial, proved by its Delay, and by Parallax. But Motion has carried me farther: I set my foot down, and the Time-space during which the Comet endured
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tes, pariter ad examen voco: ortum, inquam, & occasum. Oriri coepit, & conspicuus esse, v. Kal. Decembris: occidere, & abscondi, præcipiti iam mense & anno: quæ triginta circiter dierum mora fuit: parua quidem, si alia in Comam vibrata sidera considerem: longior certè, quam vt per aerem trahi potuerit. Nam quæcumque sub cælo phasmata sunt, & propter violentiam ignis deflagrant citò, semel accensa; & propter inopiam alimenti subito deficiunt. An lentam dicent flammam, & viscosâ atque compactâ materiâ impeditam? Sed flamma est, ingens est, amplius, que potest, quam quicquid ingeniose Peripatetici compingunt, & obijciunt. Obseruat Plinius, lib. 11. ca. xxv. Breuisimum, quo cernuntur Cometa spatium, septem dierum annotatum esse; longissimum, octoginta. C 2 Et
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I call them likewise to the test: the rising, I say, and the setting. It began to rise and be conspicuous on the fifth day before the Kalends of December; to set and be hidden, in this very late month and year: which was a delay of about thirty days: indeed a short one, if I consider other stars flickered into Coma; certainly longer than it could have been drawn through the air. For whatever phantasms are under the sky, by reason of the violence of the fire they quickly burn away, once kindled; and by reason of lack of nourishment they suddenly fail. Or will they say it is a sluggish flame, hindered by viscous and compact matter? But it is flame, it is vast, greater than can be contained by whatever the Peripatetics ingeniously devise and object. Pliny observes, book 11, ch. xxv, that the shortest interval in which Comets are seen was noted as seven days; the longest, eighty. C 2 And
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52 E. PVT. DE COMETA Et ponejgitur, produci breuissimo spatio incendium: quæ pigritia longissimo sufficiet? Non frustra Poeta-Astronomus, Peripatecis addictus lib.1. Et quia non solidum est corpus, sed rara vagantur Principia aurarum, volucriq[ue] si- millima fumo: In breue viuit opus. Sed nec Plinio allentior, octoginta dierum spatium longissimum esse: Senecæ magis, qui, li. vi. Natur. quæst. Cometen sex continuis mensibus à se visum scribit. nisi Pliniani numeri litterâ Centenariâ augendi sint, ex sententia & calculo Mureti. c e. nim l x x x. diebus sex menses absoluuuntur. In Nicephoro Gregorâ, lib. iv. Cometam leges à Solstitio ad equinoctium Autumnale sine diebus c 111 spectatum, qui Tauri signo hæreret, & ibidem euanesceret: cùm interea tempo- ris
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52 E. PRIVATE. ON THE COMET And it is put forward that a fire is produced in a very brief space: what slowness will suffice for the longest time? Not without reason the Poet-Astronomer, devoted to the Peripatetics, book 1. And because the body is not solid, but the principles of the breezes wander sparse, and very like to winged smoke: In a short time the work lives. But neither is Pliny more lenient, that a span of eighty days is the longest: rather Seneca, who, in book vi of the Natural Questions, writes that he saw a comet for six continuous months. unless Pliny's numbers are to be increased by the centenary letter, according to the opinion and calculation of Muretus. c e. for l x x x. days make six months complete. In Nicephorus Gregoras, book iv, a comet is read to have been observed from the Solstice to the autumnal equinox for c 111 days, which held fast in the sign of Taurus, and vanished there; while meanwhile the tempo-
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LIB. I. PARADOX VI. 35 ris Sol Cancrum, Leonem, Virgi nem percurrisset. Alium Martinus polonus narrat tribus durasse mea sibus, miræ & inusitatæ magni- tudinis, anno . CCLXIV. Cæ- lum igitur, non aerem Cometę oc- cupant, moramque in celo tra- hunt, nunc breuiorem, nunc lon- giorem, prout aut viâ, aut motu distinguuntur, aut lumen reti- nent. In subsidium stabiliendæ ma- gis causæ parallaxin examino & Astronomorum ingenior. Pa- rallaxis differentia aspectus est, quo siderum situs inter se colla- tus, alia alijs altiora distinguit. Hæc quomaior rem quam inve- stigamus, humiliorem; quominor, sublimiorem notat. Exempli causâ: Scil interdum, & interdiu (hæc varietas cæli est) tumidæ in- teriectu nubis condinobis solet, Arx & oppidum in imagine no- ctis destitui: Eodem sæpe intuitu, C; nec
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LIB. I. PARADOX VI. 35 unless the Sun had traversed Cancer, Leo, Virgo. Martinus Polonus likewise reports one that lasted three months, of wonderful and unusual magnitude, in the year CCLXIV. Comets therefore occupy the heavens, not the air, and they draw their delay in the sky, now shorter, now longer, according as they are distinguished either by their path or by their motion, or else retain their light. In support, to establish the cause more firmly, I examine parallax and the skill of astronomers. Parallax is a difference in aspect, by which the positions of the stars, compared with one another, distinguish some as higher than others. The greater this is, the more lowly does it mark the thing we are investigating; the smaller it is, the more lofty. For example: the sky is sometimes, and by day as well (this is a variation of the heavens), usually made to seem by the interposition of a swollen cloud that our fortress and town are deprived of the appearance of night. At the same glance, often, C; nor
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LIB. I. PARADOX. VIII. 55 tuo notari discrimen potuit: notari autem debuit, si in aere sidus constitisset. PARADOXVM VIII. Cælestem Cometam esse, Forma demonstratum. AD Formam nunc venio, quam variari Aristoteles cenlet, ὑπως αν τὸ αναδωμικωνον τίχοι ἔσχιματισμένον, ἔὰν μὲν γὰρ πᾶντη Κομήτης, ἔὰν δὲπι μὴνος, παλεῖτας πωγωνίας: Prout educta exhalatio imaginem ceperit: si namq[ue] vndique similis fuerit, Cometes appellatur, si oblonga, Pogonias. Tetum ecce vel à Coma vel à Barba discrimen est: quod eousque tamen diducunt nonnulli & dispertiuntur, vt ipsa quoque nominum varietate terreant. Quicquid propemedum aer peccat, & æter ostedit, in appellationem Cometæ adoptatur. Talis Acôtias, Xiphias, Disceus, Pithete, C 4 Ce-
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LIB. I. PARADOX. VIII. 55 your distinction could have been noted: but it ought to have been noted, if a star had stood in the air. PARADOX VIII. That a comet is celestial, demonstrated by its form. I now come to the form, which Aristotle says is varied, so that it is shaped according to its rising: for if it is in every part alike, it is called a Comet; but if elongated, a Pogonias. Look there, then: the distinction lies either in the hair or in the beard; yet some carry this so far and so divide it up that they even frighten us by the very variety of the names. Whatever the air does near the middle, and whatever the ether displays, is adopted into the name of comet. Such are Acôtias, Xiphias, Disceus, Pithete, C 4 Ce-
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46 E. PV T. DE COMETA Ceratias, Lampas, siue Lampadias, Hippoes Candidus, siue Argenteus, Hircus, & si qui alij, Hæc ordine nomina à Plinio explicata sunt, quem repræsento, lib. 1. cap. xxv. Acontia iaculi modo vibrantur, ocyssimo significatu. Easdem breuiores, & in mucronem fastigiatas Xiphias vocauêre, quæ sunt omnium pallidissimæ, & quodam gladij nitore, ac sine vllis radijs: Quos Disceus suo nominis similis, colore autem electri, raros è margine emittit. Titbetes doliorum cernitur figurâ, in concauo fumida lucis. Ceratias cornu speciem habet. Lampades ardentes imitantur faces: Hippoes equinas iubas, celerrimi motus, atque in orbem circa se euntes. Fit & Candidus Cometes argenteo crine, ita refulgens, vt vix contueri liceat, specieque humanâ Dei effigiem in se ostendens. Fiunt & Hirci, villorum specie, & iubâ aliquâ circumdati. Semel adhuc tubæ effigies mutata in hastam est. Si quis
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46 E. PV T. OF A COMET Ceratias, Lampas, or Lampadias, Hippoes, Candidus, or Argenteus, Hircus, and if there are any others, These names are explained by Pliny in order, whom I am reproducing, bk. 1, ch. xxv. Acontia are hurled like a dart, with the swiftest meaning. The same shorter, and tapering to a point, they called Xiphias, which are of all the pallidest, and with a kind of sword-like shine, and without any rays: which Disceus, similar to his own name, but in color like amber, emits sparsely from the edge. Titbetes is seen in the form of a barrel, smoky in the hollow of the light. Ceratias has the appearance of a horn. Lampades imitate blazing torches: Hippoes, horse-like manes, with very swift motion, and going round in a circle about themselves. There is also a Candidus Comet, with a silver mane, shining so brightly that it is scarcely possible to look at it, and showing in itself the image of a deity in human form. There are also Hirci, surrounded by the appearance of hairs, and by some kind of mane. Once again the shape of a trumpet has been changed into a spear. If anyone
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LIB. I. PARADOX. VIII. 57 quis Poetam æstimet, iungat Manilium, Astronomum simul habiturus. Sed Philosophus in hac Cometarum descriptione, Barbâ & Comâ contentus fuit Comam in Manilio depictam videas, lib.1. Flamma comas imitata volat, tenuisq[ue] capillus Diffusos radijs ardetibus explicat ignes Item Barbam: Et globus ardentis sequitur sub imagine barba. Idem hic carminis color ad alias deinde species & appellationes se extendit. Diffusus quoque Plinius est, lib.11. cap.15. verumtamen in descriptione præcipuè cometæ & Pogoniæ accuratus: Cometas Græcivocant, nostri Crinitas, horrentes crine sanguineo, & comarum modo in vertice hispidas. Idem Pogonias, quibus inferiore ex parte in speciem barba longa promittitur uiba. Seneca tertium genus adijcit: li. v.11. Natur. Quæst. Quamuis C S
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LIB. I. PARADOX. VIII. 57 Whoever would judge the Poet aright, let him join him with Manilius; he will then have the Astronomer as well. But the Philosopher, in this description of Comets, was content with Beard and Hair; you may see the Hair pictured in Manilius, book 1. Flame, imitating hair, flies forth, and thin Locks Display the diffused fires, glowing with rays. Likewise the Beard: And a globe of flame follows under the likeness of a beard. The same color of verse then extends itself to other kinds and names as well. Pliny also is diffuse, book 11. chap. 15; yet in the description especially of the comet and of Pogonia, he is accurate: the Greeks call them Comets; our people, Long-haired ones, bristling with blood-red hair, and shaggy like hair on the crown. The same are called Pogonias, in which from the lower part a long beard is let down in the likeness of a mane. Seneca adds a third kind: book 5. 11. Natural Questions. Although C S
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18 E. PV T. DE COMETA Quauiis Græci discrimina fecerint eoru[m], quibus iu morem barba flamma dependet, & eorum qui vndique circa se velut comam spargunt, & eorum quibus fusus quidem est ignis, sed in verticem tendens: tamen omnes isti eiusdem notæ sunt, Cometæque rectè dicuntur. An eiusdem tamen omnes notæ? non opinor, mox dicturus. Cometas omnes vocari, scriptoru[m] auctoritate manifestum est. Iterum Seneca, ex Epigenis sententiâ, non agnoscit nisi Cometam, & Pogoniam: Duo Cometarum genera sunt: alij ardorem vndique effundunt, nec locum muta[n]t: alij in vnam partem ignem vagum in modum comæ porrigunt, & stellas prætermeant. Diuisio ad rem facit: doctrina abit. Etenim non minus Cometam, quam Pogoniam moueri, ex Historijs notum est Quemadmodum vero omnis etia[m] Pogonias Cometaest, ita vterq[ue] Stellæ nomen sortitur. Omniuo Stel-
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18 E. PVT. OF COMET Whatever distinctions the Greeks have made among those whose beard hangs down like flame, and those who scatter their hair all around them, as it were a mane, and those whose fire is indeed spread out, but tending toward the vertex: yet all these are of the same kind, and are rightly called comets. An are they all of the same kind? I do not think so; I shall soon say why. That all are called comets is evident from the authority of writers. Again Seneca, following the opinion of Epigenes, recognizes only Cometa and Pogonia: There are two kinds of comets: some pour out their burning on all sides, and do not change place; others extend the wandering fire in the manner of hair in one direction, and pass by the stars. The division serves the point: the doctrine departs. For indeed it is no less known from histories that Pogonia, than Cometa, is moved. And just as every Pogonia is also a comet, so each one receives the name of star. Altogether Stel-
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LIB.I.PARADOX.VIII 59 Stella Cometa est: sparsis in orbem radijs, velut capillis lucet. Et Stella Pogonias; globo, velut facie constat promisso lumine, velut barbâ. Tolle comam, barbâmque, facies tamen erit; tolle radios, luminisque syrma, stellam tamen nominabo. Sanè contendit Seneca à siderum conditione remouenda hæc spectacula non esse: licet illa rotunda sint, hæc porrecta. Quis enim tibi concedet, inquit, lib. VII. Natur. Quest. Cometas longos esse? quorum natura quidem, vt cæterorum siderum, globus est: cæterum fulgor exteditur: quemadmodum Sol radios suos longè lateq[ue] dimittit, cæterum ipsi alia est forma, alia ei quod ex ipso fuit, lumini: sic Cometarum corpus ipsum corrotundatur, splendor autem longior, quàm cæterorum siderum apparet. Quare? inquis. Dic tu mihi prius, quare Luna dissimillum Sol lumê accipiat, cum accipiat à Sole? C 6 quare
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LIB. I. PARADOX. VIII 59 A comet is a star: with rays scattered around in a circle, it shines like hair. And the star Pogonias, with a globe, as it were, has the appearance of a face, with its extended light, as it were a beard. Remove the hair and the beard, and yet there will be a face; remove the rays and the trailing light, and I shall still call it a star. Indeed, Seneca argues that these spectacles are not to be removed from the condition of the stars: though those are round, these are stretched out. For who, he says, in book VII of the Natur. Quest., will grant to you that comets are long? Their nature, indeed, like that of the other stars, is a globe; but the brightness extends out: just as the Sun sends forth its rays far and wide, yet it has one form itself, and another form belongs to the light that comes from it; so the body of comets itself is round, but the splendor appears longer than that of the other stars. Why? you ask. Tell me first why the Moon receives a light unlike the Sun, although it receives it from the Sun? C 6 why
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60 E.PVT.DE COMETA. quare modo rubeat, modò palleat? quæ- re liuidus illi & ater color sit, cùm à conspectu Solis excluditur? Dic mihi quare omnes stellæ inter se dissimilem habeant aliquatenus faciem, diuersis- simam Soli? Quomodo nihil prohibet, ista fidera esse, quamuis similia nô sint: ita nihil prohibet, Cometas æternos esse, & sortis eiusdem, cuius cætera, et- iamsi faciem illis non habent similem. PARADOXVM IX. Argumentum à Lunine, Magnitudine, Colore. Hæc quidem siue Comæ, si- ue Barbæ imago, non flam- ma, non ignis est; sedlumen. Esse enim in cælo lumen potest, flamma non potest; nisi picto, sermone vtamur. Aristotelici rarioris docent materiæ deflu- xum esse & incendij modo ter- minari. Sed quis hic modu? For- chus
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60 E.PVT. OF THE COMET. why does it now turn red, now grow pale? why is that lurid and black color seen in it, when it is shut out from the sight of the Sun? Tell me why all the stars have in some measure a different appearance among themselves, and one altogether different from the Sun? Just as nothing prevents those stars from being, although they are not alike: so nothing prevents Comets from being eternal, and of the same kind as the others, although they do not have a similar appearance. PARADOX IX. Argument from the Light, Magnitude, and Color. This, whether the image of hair or of a beard, is not flame, not fire; but light. For in the heavens there can be light, but not flame; unless we use figurative language. The Aristotelians teach that it is a flowing down of rarer matter and is terminated in the manner of a conflagration. But what is this mode? Forchus
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LIB.I.PARADOX.V. 61 tuitus, & prorsus sine modo. Si materiæ placet, si aeri, si casui, circa globum suum somitemque incendium ludens, nunc indextrum ibit latus, nunc in sinistrum, nunc aliter torquebitur, at vero Cometæ hanc inconstantiam non admittunt. Totius iam sæculi consensu scimus, promissos à globo radios, quacunque coeli constitutione, eâdem omnino lineâ à Sole tanquam ab origine auerti. Hic etiam noster, tanquam , eodem quotidie situ conuolutus est, & in antorem lucis faciem direxit, facem retrò spargens. Res mihi quoque digna examine visa, & curiosâ inspectione explorata. Etenim quotiescunque Cometam lustraui, quæsiui Solem, & quam dico luminis necessitatem deprehendi. Quid? Historiam inspexi veterem, & exemplis (quantum quidem exprimitur)
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LIB. I. PARADOX. V. 61 guarded, and altogether without measure. If it pleases matter, if air, if chance, around its own globe and its smoking fire playing, now to the right side it will go, now to the left, now it will be twisted otherwise; but Comets do not admit this inconstancy. By the consensus of the whole age we know that the rays promised from the globe, whatever the state of the heavens, are turned back from the Sun as from their source along one and the same line. Here also ours, as if revolved every day in the same position, and turned its face toward the source of light, casting a torch backward. A matter that also seemed to me worthy of examination, and explored by careful inspection. For as often as I observed the Comet, I sought the Sun, and what necessity of light, as I say, I discovered. What? I examined ancient history, and with examples (so far as indeed it is expressed)
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E. PVT. DE COMETA primitur) obseruatiomea confirmata est. Attamen facem nobis anni xc. 10. L x x vii. Brahæus explicans, Venerem Soli subst tuit & à molliori origine robustiores illos radios fuisse. Alij iudicent: non longo itinere a Sole Venus deflectit. Quicquid sit, cælessi luce globus Cometæ illustratur. Penetratjubar, & vim quodammodo fractam transfundit. Sic vsu obseruamus, progredi vim luminis, sed hebetatam, quotiescumque corpore pellucido excepta, nec retinetur tota, nec transmittitur. Exemplum, vt volunt, etiam à Sole est, qui si in flammam incidat, radios adumbrabit. Cometes autem, nec materiam tam raram habet, vt permeare splendor Solis absque impedimento possit; nectam densam, vt exceptum jubar reflectat. Hoc enim Lunæ, illud stellis convenit. side- ris
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E. PRIVATE OF THE COMET (primitur) my observation has been confirmed. However, there is for us a torch of the years 90, 10, L x x vii. Brahe, explaining this, set Venus before the Sun and that those stronger rays were from a gentler origin. Let others judge: Venus does not deviate from the Sun by a long journey. Whatever the case may be, the globe of the comet is illuminated by heavenly light. It penetrates the beam, and in a manner transmits its force, as if broken. Thus we commonly observe that the force of light advances, but weakened, whenever it is received by a transparent body, and is neither wholly retained nor wholly transmitted. An example, as they say, is also from the Sun, which, if it falls into flame, will cast its rays into shadow. The comet, however, has neither matter so rare that the brightness of the Sun could pass through it without hindrance, nor so dense that it should reflect the received beam. For the one suits the Moon, the other the stars. of the stars
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LIB. I. PARADOX IX. 63 ris nostri media natura est: vmbrâ magis luminis, quam lumen emittit; lumen, tanquam vmbram. Ad vos redeo, qui Aerij estis, in aere Cometas conditis, imò incenditis. Obsecro flammæ naturam obliti estis, an Cometæ? In altum flammam natura ducit & erigit, adeoque Cleanthes, quia flammas esse stellas voluit, fecit Kæroëdeis: deinde leuior rariorque Cometæ pars barbam facit, sic quidem maximè subleuari apta, deprimi nescia. Verum, enimverò quicquid in radios extensum hic videmus, obliquum est & in transversum porrigitur; imò inclinato nonnunquam lumine descendit. Quia enim infra originem sua in aliquando iacet, & ex alto illustratur; pendulum quoque iubrhabet, infra Solem autem, Vene- rem-
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The middle nature of our star is: it emits more shadow than light; light, as it were, like a shadow. I return to you, who are Aerii, who place comets in the air, indeed set them on fire. I ask: have you forgotten the nature of flame, or of comets? Nature drives and raises flame upward, and so Cleanthes, because he wished them to be stars, made Kæroëdeis; then the lighter and rarer part of the comet makes the beard, being indeed most fit to be lifted up, and unable to sink. But, truly, whatever we see here extended into rays is oblique and stretches crosswise; indeed, with the light inclined, it sometimes descends. For because it lies below its source at times, and is illuminated from above, it also has a hanging motion; but below the Sun, Vener-
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64 E. PVT. DE COMETA remque progredi, rursumque tra[n]scendere, ratio cursum antea insinuata, docet. De Lumine imoface sic quidem satis; quâ mirantur aliqui, non rectam interdum, sed in cornu quodamodo inflexam conspici tanquam à naturæ ratione, Solisq; origine alienam, Addo imo repeto: Comete radios, Cometæ vmbram videri, verum tenuiter illustratam: vmbrãautem à quadrato corpore aut rotundo nonnisi rectam diffundi. An dignus vindice hic nodus? Fallunt nos oculi, vagiq, sensus, Oppressaratione, mentiuntur. Res enim alioqui plana, vt Opticis placet, curvæ imaginem subit, quotiescunque inæquali librata aspectu, in obliquum inclinat. Sanè quia diverso spatio gemina extremitatum puncta ab oculis remouentur, species imponit, & inflexum repræsen- tat
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64 E. PVT. DE COMETA and the matter to move forward, and then again to cross over, the reasoning about the course previously indicated teaches. Concerning light in the face of it, this much indeed is enough; at which some marvel, that it is seen sometimes not straight, but bent in a kind of horn, as though alien to the order of nature and to the origin of the Sun. I add, indeed I repeat: the rays of a comet are seen, the shadow of a comet, but only very faintly illuminated; but a shadow from a square body or a round one is diffused only in a straight line. Is this knot worthy of a defender? Our eyes deceive us, and our wandering senses, oppressed by reason, lie. For a thing otherwise plain, as Optics allows, takes on the image of a curve whenever, weighed unevenly by the aspect, it inclines obliquely. Certainly, because at a different distance the two end points are removed from the eyes, the appearance imposes itself, and represents the bent form.
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LIB. PARADOX IX. 65 tat, quod directa siue linea, siue superficie extenditur. Eadem in Cometis impostura est, eadem præstigæ: quippe quando extre mi & desinentis radij viciniores nobis, quam ipse globus sideris obliquari videntur. Viciniores autem, quia superior loco Planeta est, qui transmisso per Cometam lumine radios efficit. In nostro igitur exigua etiam, non tamen con- tinua curuatura quædam notata fuit: haud dubie ab eadem causa, si quid aliud, proficisci à formâ cor- poris, siue globi potuit. Quineti- am intergenera, & nomina Come- tarum vt diximus, Ceratias cense- tur, cornuspeciem habens (Plinijverba sunt lib. 11. cap. x x v.) qualis fuit, cum Græcia apud Salamina depugnauit. Magnitudinem inuestigare, otio- sum negotium est Cogitemus ra- dios esse: sed longe maiores, qui sine impedimento à Sole emittun- tur
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LIB. PARADOX IX. 65 that, which is extended either in a straight line or over a surface. The same imposture is in comets, the same delusion: for the ends and the vanishing rays seem nearer to us than the globe of the star itself. They seem nearer, because the planet is in a higher position, which, having transmitted light through the comet, produces the rays. In our case, therefore, even a slight, though not continuous, curvature was observed; there is no doubt that this, if anything else, could have proceeded from the form of the body, or of the globe. Moreover, among the kinds and names of comets, as we have said, one is reckoned the Ceratias, having the appearance of a horn (these are Pliny’s words, book 11, chapter xxv.), such as it was when Greece fought at Salamis. To investigate its size is an idle task. Let us suppose the rays to be there: but much larger are those which are emitted from the Sun without obstruction.
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E.PV T.DE COMETA tur. Hic non partem coeli, sed quicquid cælo continetur, occupat nullo clausus termino, nisi quem vniuersa rerum natura habet. De Cometâ tamen quæris? cum longissimus fuit, hemisphærijsemissem, aut paullo amplius occupauit: contraxior, paulatim, quò vicinior Septemtrioni factus. Sed tota varietas ab ipso Globo. Hic sideribus fixis maior, inter Planetas maiestatem quandam vultus seruauit. Vt scias idem corporis, vmbraque lumen fuisse, languescente globo, fax imminuta est, languescente face, globus. Tandem nudus, & in tenebras suas relapsus, aut esse, aut videri desijt. Dicet aliquis: si à Sole hoc lumen, cur Solis Colorem non exhibet? imo cur rubet? cur pallet? cur liuet? E Senecâ respon-
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On the Comet It occupies not a part of the heavens, but whatever is contained in the heavens, enclosed by no boundary except that which the whole nature of things possesses. But do you ask about the comet? When it was at its longest, it occupied half of the hemisphere, or a little more; as it drew nearer to the north, it gradually contracted. But the whole variation came from the globe itself. Here, greater than the fixed stars, it preserved among the planets a certain majesty of appearance. That you may know that it was the same body and the same light, when the globe grew faint, the torch was diminished; when the torch grew faint, the globe. At last, stripped bare and fallen back into its own darkness, it ceased either to be or to be seen. Someone will say: if this light came from the sun, why does it not display the color of the sun? Indeed, why is it red? why pale? why livid? Seneca replies:
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LIB. I. PARADOX IX. 61 sponsum repeto, lib. VII. Natural. Quæst. Dic tu mihi prius, inquit, quare Luna dissimillimum Soli lumen accipiat, cùm accipiat à Sole? Quare modò rubeat? modò palleat? Quare liuidus illi & ater color sit, cùm à conspectu Solis excluditur? Dic mihi quare omnes stellæ inter se dissimilem habeant aliquatenus faciem, diuersissimam Soli? Quotidiana ista omnia, nec satis adhuc explorata sunt: rara & insolita cur curiosonimis examine vexamus? Et tamen, si Dis placet, à Lumine, & Magnitudine, imo à Colore tam incerto Diuinatio quoque sumitur: quasi sanguineus Bellum, Liuidus Tabem, Pallidus Famen significet: cum bello verò, tabe, fame, Mortem Regum Principumque. Meliora Deus! non tam veri, quam audaces Harioli erunt. Etenim si res tota ad calculum veniet, aut feuerio-
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LIB. I. PARADOX IX. 61 I seek back the betrothed, lib. VII. Natural Questions. Tell me first, he said, why the Moon receives a light utterly unlike the Sun, though it receives it from the Sun? Why now does it redden? now grow pale? Why is there a livid and dark color in it, when it is excluded from the sight of the Sun? Tell me why all the stars have in some measure an unlike aspect among themselves, most unlike the Sun? These are everyday matters, and not yet sufficiently investigated: why do we harass rare and unusual things with too curious an examination? And yet, if the Gods favor it, from Light, and Magnitude, indeed from so uncertain a Color, Divination also is taken: as though a blood-red color should signify War, a livid color Consumption, a pale color Hunger: while war, consumption, hunger signify the Death of kings and princes. Better things, O God! The soothsayers will be not so much truthful as bold. For if the whole matter comes to the reckoning, either fever-
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E. PVT. DE COMETA. feueriori acumine dispungetur cedent tristia omnia, læta succedent: maiori cultu quam metu cælum intuebimur. Fiat; accingamur. Quia enim quid sit Cometa, Vbi sit, & Quomodo sit, ostendi; nunc An, & Quid significet, disputare constitui, vt qui hactenus occupauit hominum mentes terror, proscriba- tur. Ery-
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E. PVT. OF THE COMET. it will be handled with keener acumen. All sad things will yield, and joyful things will follow: with greater reverence than fear we shall look upon the heavens. So be it; let us proceed. For since I have shown what a Comet is, where it is, and how it is, I have now resolved to discuss whether, and what, it signifies, so that that terror which has hitherto occupied men’s minds may be banished. Ery-
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Eryci Pvteani DE COMETA Anni 80. 13C. XVIII. Nouo Mundi Spectaculo, LIBER SECVNDVS PARADOXVM I. Errasse Scriptores, aut vulgi sensu locu- ios, qui Cometas Fatales censuêre. Læum Luminis omenesse: triste, Caliginis. Escio profecto quo consentu in tristissi- nam opinionem i- cum sit. Quæ Ad- miranda sunt, per- versa tristitiæ dulcedo Timenda fecit. Ne vulgum accusem, Viri olim prudentiâ & doctrinâ Cla- ri, errorem suum professi, dira omnia
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Erycius Puteanus On the Comet of the year 80. 13C. XVIII. A New Spectacle of the World, Book the Second Paradox I. That the writers, or the common people in their usual manner, were mistaken, who judged comets to be fatal. An evil omen of light: sad, of darkness. I certainly do not know by what agreement I come to the most sad opinion, since it is so. What is wonderful has, by a perverse sweetness of sadness, been made dreadful. So that I may not accuse the common people, men once famous for prudence and learning, having confessed their error, all terrible things
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70 E. P V T. DE COMETA omnia & infausta à Cometis deriuarunt. An philisophos dicam? sapere se putarunt, si terrerent. Facili â ad alios deinde metus iuit, & quisque minas tantum non religione confirmauit. Ergo & Oneirocritæ vanissima subtilitate infest esse coeperunt. Quid stultius? etiam somniari Come- ten pro malorum prodigio habitum, quasi latis in somnio videre, quicquid in cælo timendum esset; noceretque diuinitus siue Comæ siue Barbæ phasma, etiam cum non esset. Artemidori verba sunt, lib. 11. cap. xxxviii. Παρίλιοι δὲ και δοξίδες, καὶ στελας, κ[αὶ] οι λεγόμενοι κομήται ἀστερες, κ[αὶ] οι πινγωνίας, τὰ ἀυτὰ σημαί νδσιν, οἰα και οι ὑπερ ἀτρα ὑραθέντες εἰώθατι ποιεῖν. Parelij quidem, & trabes, & iubar, & stellæ quæ Crinitæ appellantur, item quæ Barbæ, eadem significant, quæ in acrè conspectæ, solent facere. Poetæ passim non alijs mi-
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70 E. P V T. On the Comet All inauspicious things were derived from comets. Shall I say philosophers? They thought themselves wise if they terrified people. It easily passed from there to others’ fears, and each man confirmed threats by religion no less. So the Oneirocritæ also began to be attacked with very vain subtlety. What could be more foolish? Even to dream of a comet was held to be an omen of evils, as if in sleep one could see whatever in heaven ought to be feared; and a divine harm would come from a specter, whether of a lock of hair or of a beard, even when it was not there. These are Artemidorus’s words, book II, chapter xxxviii. “Παρήλιοι δὲ καὶ δοξίδες, καὶ στελας, κ[αὶ] οἱ λεγόμενοι κομήται ἀστέρες, κ[αὶ] οἱ πινγωνίας, τὰ αὐτὰ σημαίνουσιν, οἷα καὶ οἱ ὑπὲρ ἄτρα ὑραθέντες εἰώθασι ποιεῖν.” Parhelia indeed, and beams, and a radiance, and the stars called comets, likewise those of the form of a beard, signify the same things which such appearances in the air are wont to do. Poets everywhere not by other means...
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LIB. II. PARADOX. 1. 71 nis vaticinia sua implent. Hinc Virgil. Dirum appellat: --Nec diri toties arsêre Cometæ. Et Sanguineum: -- Cometæ Sanguinei lugubre rubent. Lucanus Timendum: -- Crinemque timendi Sideris, & terris mutantem Regna Cometen. Silius Ferali Crine: -- Rubescentes ferali crine Cometas. Alijaliter. Homerus , Por- tentum, sive Monstrum: Hν νάυτησι τέρας, [μὴ] δρατῶν ἐυρεῖ λαῶν. Λαμπρὸν, τοῦ δὲ τε πολλοὶ ἀπὸ σπινθήρειντα. Naubus & nautis Monstrum, castris- que timendum, Luce micans variâ, radianti crine co- ruscum. Sed & grauior alibi sic auctori- tas peccat. Ciceronis, lib. 11. De Nat. Deorum: Stellæ, quas Græci Cometas, nostri Crinitas vocant, nuper bello
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LIB. II. PARADOX. 1. 71 when their prophecies are fulfilled. Hence Virgil calls it “dreadful”: --Nec diri toties arsêre Cometæ. And “blood-red”: -- Cometæ Sanguinei lugubre rubent. Lucan, “fearful”: -- Crinemque timendi Sideris, & terris mutantem Regna Cometen. Silius, “with feral hair”: -- Rubescentes ferali crine Cometas. Likewise. Homer, “portent,” or “monster”: Hν νάυτησι τέρας, [μὴ] δρατῶν ἐυρεῖ λαῶν. Λαμπρὸν, τοῦ δὲ τε πολλοὶ ἀπὸ σπινθήρειντα. A monster for ships and sailors, and to be feared by the camps, shining with various light, flashing with radiant hair. But even elsewhere authority itself errs more seriously. Cicero, book II. De Nat. Deorum: “Stars, which the Greeks call Comets, our people call Crinitas,” lately in the war
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E.PV T. DE COMETA bello Octauiano, magnarum fuerunt calamitatum prænunciæ. Item Senecæ lib. vi. Natural. Quæst Cometæ cruenti quidam, minacas, qui omen post se futuri sanguinis ferunt. Quid dicam? Oneirocritæ vani sunt. Poetas furor excusat & mysterium Carminis, quod aut fideis circumduci vaticinijs debet, aut Carmen esse desinit. Cicero Seneca, & si- qui alij, non suo, sed vulgi ore, ac sensu loquuntur. Historici passim vulgo tribuunt quæ de Cometis dici solent. Aliud video telum, è lacrarum Litterarum armamentario depromptum. Lucæxxi. Et erunt signa in Sole, & Lunâ, & Stellis. Telum, non telum. Etenim Cometas hoc loci designari, adhuc non video. Erunt signa sed noua sed horrenda, & à Naturæ lege atque consuetudine aliena, Arescentibus bominibus prætimore, & exspectatione, quæ superuenient vniuerso orbi. Nam
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E.PV T. ON THE COMET In the war of Octavian, they were the forerunners of great calamities. Likewise in Seneca, book VI of the Natural Questions, comets are said to be some bloody, threatening things, which bear after them an omen of future bloodshed. What shall I say? The oneirocrits are vain. Poetry is excused by frenzy and the mystery of verse, which must either be surrounded by faithful prophecies, or else cease to be poetry. Cicero, Seneca, and others speak not in their own voice, but in that of the people, and their sense. Historians everywhere attribute to the common people the things that are usually said about comets. I see another weapon, drawn from the armory of Holy Scripture. Luke xxi: And there shall be signs in the Sun, and in the Moon, and in the Stars. A weapon, not a weapon. For I do not yet see that comets are designated here. There shall be signs, but new signs, fearful ones, and alien to the law and custom of nature, men fainting with fear and expectation, which shall come upon the whole world. For
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LIB. II. PARADOX. II. 73 Nam virtutes cælorum mouebuntur. Quæ igitur signa? Alijs Evangelistis expressa: Matth. xxiv. Marc. xiii. Sol obscurabitur, & Luna non dabit lumen suum, & stellæ cadent de . Ecce non accendentur noua sidera, sed quæ lucent in caliginem non naturalem ibunt. Accedat Isaiæ suffragium, cap. xiii. Stellæ cæli, & splendor earum non expandet lumen suum: obtenebratus est Sol in ortu suo, & Luna non splendebit lumine suo. Regerere audeo, & cum Vate Ieremiâ clamare, cap. x. Iuxta vias gentium nolite discere, & à signis cæli nolite metuere, quæ timent gentes: quia leges populorum vanæ sunt. De tanto igitur miraculo benignius sacra Scriptura; imo benignius ipsa Antiquorum maiestas iudicauit. Hinc quidem, qui post Iulij cædem Cometes apparuit, sacratus ab Augusto fuit, & in tem- D
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LIB. II. PARADOX. II. 73 For the powers of the heavens shall be moved. What then are the signs? Expressly stated by the other Evangelists: Matthew xxiv. Mark xiii. The sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from the . Behold, new stars shall not be kindled, but those that shine shall go into an unnatural darkness. Let the testimony of Isaiah be added, chapter xiii. The stars of heaven, and the brightness of them, shall not shed forth their light: the sun shall be darkened in his rising, and the moon shall not shine with her light. I dare to reply, and with the prophet Jeremiah to cry out, chapter x. According to the ways of the nations, do not learn, and from the signs of heaven do not be afraid, which the nations fear: because the laws of the peoples are vain. Concerning so great a wonder, sacred Scripture judged more kindly; indeed more kindly did the majesty of the ancients itself judge. Hence, indeed, the comet that appeared after the slaughter of Julius was consecrated by Augustus, and in tem- D
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LIB. II. PARADOX. I. 7 ruerunt: quorum v[er]nus (Senecæ verba sunt l. vii. Natural. Quæst.) Cometis detraxit infamiam. non frusta infamiam vocat. Nam profecto omni sustinuit æuo innoxium fidus quicquid pronus in super- stitionem metus peccat: cumque ornamentum cæli esset malorum omnium velut . audijt. Ne accusemus lumen; rebus lętis assignatum est. Iterum; ne accusemus lumen; præeunte velut natura, gaudium omne igni, flamma, face, celebratur. Persarum olim Religiononne sacrum ignem habuit? Apud Romanos, quæ Vestalium cura, nisi vt perennem Imperij flammam custodirent? Scilicet, profanum in Cælo noxiumque censebimus, quod intera curiosa pietas consecrauit: Cur vero præcipue Cometæ molesti simus? quæcunque videmus & admiramur, summi D 2 Numinis
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LIB. II. PARADOX. I. 7 ruined: whose true meaning (these are Seneca’s words, bk. vii. Natural Questions) has taken away the disgrace from comets. He does not call it disgrace in vain. For certainly through every age it has remained harmless and faithful, whatever fear, inclined to superstition, sins against it: and since it was the ornament of the sky, he heard as if all evils had been attributed to it. Let us not accuse the light; it has been assigned to joyful things. Again, let us not accuse the light; as if nature went before it, every joy is celebrated by fire, flame, and torch. Did not the ancient religion of the Persians have a sacred fire? Among the Romans, what was the charge of the Vestals, except to guard the everlasting flame of the Empire? Surely we shall judge as profane in the heavens and harmful what pious curiosity in the meantime has consecrated. But why should we be especially troubled by comets? Whatever we see and admire, the supreme Deity’s
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LIB II. PARADOX. II. 77 ligo lucem; variari hæc humana discimus, in omni vitæ statu læta tristibus, tristia lætis succedere. Imò discimus, continuis naturæ miraculis humanos moneri animos, ne vel nimiâ sed dilatent fiduciâ, vel terrore comprimantur. Nunc quæ assignari Cometis solent mala inspicio, & amolior. PARADOXVM II. De Bello fusè disputatum: id à Cometâ non portendi. Belli occasione, carissima Patria mea VENLONA Serenissimis Principibus commendata. ANTE omnia, monente, & minante Manilio, lib. . Sæui bella canunt ignes, subitosq[ue] tumultus, Et clandestinis surgentia fraudibus arma. Ita est: Bella, horrida bella clamant omnes, si Cometes affulserit, vocem velut à cælo deriuantes. Clamant, D 3
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LIB II. PARADOX. II. 77 I gather light; we learn that these human things are variable, that in every condition of life joyful things yield to sad ones, and sad things to joyful ones. Indeed, we learn, by the continual miracles of nature, that human minds are admonished not to be overconfident, nor to be oppressed by terror. Now I examine and remove the evils commonly assigned to Comets. PARADOXVM II. War has been fully discussed: that it is not portended by a Comet. On the occasion of war, my dearest Fatherland, VENLONA, commended to the most Serene Princes. ABOVE ALL, as Manilius warns and threatens, lib. . Fierce wars, and sudden tumults, and arms arising from hidden frauds, are sung by the fires. So it is: “Wars, dreadful wars,” all cry out, if a Comet should shine forth, as though deriving the voice from heaven. They cry out, D 3
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78 E. PVT. DE COMETA mant, inquam, & ingemiscunt, Cædem populis, Flammam agris vrbibulque portendi. Cur cædem? an quia sanguinis colore sidus horret, aut feriali rubet crine? at hoc nostrum pallidum magis, aut luteum aut subfuscum est, & pigro velut lumine. Siquid tamen sanguinis sub initium fuit, mox elanguit, postquam è longinquo magis lumen Solis venit. Repeto, cur cædem? an quia crudele aliquod sidus vires infudit? sed tatum adhuc Astrologis non damus. Ergo cur Flammam? an quia multo fumo radij videntur commisceri? scilicet Flammafumo proxima est. Sed rollefumum, rolle flammam: in Cometa nonnisi lumen est. Nequid hîc peculiare putes: vbique incendij colorem materia variat, nunc puro liquidoque igni, nunc impedito, nec sincero. Et ab igni incendium, si fatale
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78 E. OF THE COMET darken, I say, and groan, as if they foretold slaughter to peoples and flame to fields and cities. Why slaughter? Is it because the star bristles with the color of blood, or glows with a funeral-red mane? But this one of ours is more pale, or yellow, or darkish, and as it were with sluggish light. If there was any blood at the beginning, it soon faded away, after the light of the Sun came more from afar. I repeat, why slaughter? Is it because some cruel star has infused its powers? But that we do not yet grant to the astrologers. Why, then, flame? Is it because the rays seem to be mixed with much smoke? Certainly flame is near to smoke. But take away the smoke, take away the flame: in a comet there is nothing but light. Do not think anything special is here: everywhere the color of a blaze is varied by the material, now with pure and liquid fire, now with it hindered and not pure. And from fire comes conflagration, if fatal
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LIB. II. PARADOX. II. 79 fatale voles, remouebo. Subiectam cælo regionem videmus vario & modo, & loco ardere: sed nullam in terrâ exusionem sequi. Videmus cauo velut hiatu Chalmara, vasto & rotundo ignis dolio Pythias ardentes inquam minas; sed naturali necessitate excusari. Nunc adeste pauidi, audite: vt indulgeam terris ærumnam, subscriptum timori vestro eo. Bella, & bellorum ærumnas canant, aut non canant ignes; bella ingruunt, sine quibus genus humanum numquam fuit, numquam erit. Tolle Cometam: in se tamen mutuo mortales sæuient, & mitissimum quod possident nomen violabunt. Hactenus enim vt sanguinem funderent, cruentum coeli signum non exspectârunt. Collidi bello, tam propemodum humanum est, quam Martiale: quo furore passim D 4 ruunt
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LIB. II. PARADOX. II. 79 If you desire the fatal sign, I will remove it. We see the region beneath the sky burn in various ways and in different places; yet we see no conflagration follow on earth. We see, as through a hollow opening, Chalmara, a vast and round fire-vat, and the blazing, as I say, threats of Pythias; yet they are excused by natural necessity. Now come, you fearful ones, listen: so that I may grant the earth its troubles, I have set this down in answer to your fear. Let fires sing, or not sing, of wars and the hardships of war; wars are upon us, without which the human race never has been, and never will be. Remove the comet: yet mortals will still rage against one another, and will violate the gentlest name they possess. For up to now, in order to shed blood, they have not waited for a blood-red sign in the sky. To be struck down by war is as much a human thing as a martial one; in what madness they rush everywhere
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30 F. PVT. DE COMETA ruunt populi & quasi ad feritatem nati, ob caussas non caussas perire malunt quam non pugnare. Sic & crudelitas in gloriam olim versa: hausisse sanguinem, de cus fuit: quasi per stragem, & cædem virtus inclaresceret. Quæ virtus? dira foeda, & ab omni humanitate aliena. Si licet dicere, malueru[n]t aliquæ gentes sine patriâ qua[m] sine hoste viuere: sine Lare, qua[m] sine Marte. Aliquæ, ta[m]quam pace & felicitate ignaux, bellum semper, iure, siue iniuria, prouocarunt. Tantum partim ab ambitione, partim ab auaritia malum fuit, aut ab assueta violentiæ naturâ. Barbaros minus tamen accuso: ideo Barbari sunt Græci & Romani imprimis reprehensione digni: quia meliori vitæ cultu mitescere potuerunt. Asiatici admiratione: quia luxu mollitieque diffuentes, toties arma induerint. Græci
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30 F. PVT. DE COMETA rushing crowds, and, as if born to savagery, for reasons that are no reasons they prefer to perish rather than not fight. Thus even cruelty once turned into glory: to have drunk blood was a distinction; as though through slaughter and massacre virtue grew famous. What virtue? A dreadful one, ugly, and alien to all humanity. If it may be said, some peoples would rather live without a homeland than without an enemy; without a hearth than without Mars. Some, as though idle in peace and happiness, always provoked war, right or wrong. So much evil came partly from ambition, partly from greed, or from a nature accustomed to violence. Yet I blame the barbarians less: therefore the barbarians are Greeks and Romans especially deserving of reproach: because with a better way of life they could have grown mild. The Asiatics are deserving of admiration: because, overflowing with luxury and softness, they so often took up arms. Greeks
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LIB. II. PARADOX. II. 81 Græci igitur quando vnquam quieti? continuis collisi bellis, non terram modo suam, sed & mare crudelitate impleuerunt. Vt infelicissimi essent, tantum Co- meræ deerant. Romani vero non Vrbe, non Italiâ contenti, Orbi terrarum graues fuere. Petroni- us: Siqua foret tellus, quæ fuluum mitteret aurum, Hostis erat, fatisq[ue] intristia bella pa- ratis Quærebantur opes. Lassus tandem alieno eruore victor populus, ciuili se alpersit, muruoque scelere, quantum mi- nari cælum potuisset, ausus est. Vnius Vrbis fatum, Orbis putes. Nam & Europa & Africa, & A- sia vnius populi iugum ferre coactæ sunt. Quicquid legimus, cædes & ruinæ sunt, & sine ferijs futor. Ita me Deus, vnius Martis D 5 nu-
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LIB. II. PARADOX. II. 81 The Greeks, then, when were they ever at peace? Driven together in continual wars, they filled not only their own land, but even the sea, with cruelty. That they might be most unhappy, nothing was lacking but Cimmeria. The Romans, however, not content with the City, not with Italy, were burdensome to the whole world. Petronius: If there were any land that sent forth yellow gold, It was an enemy, and with sad wars made ready by fate Riches were sought. At last the victorious people, weary with the blood of others, stained itself with civil blood, and by mutual crime dared as much as heaven itself could have threatened. You would think it the fate of one City, of the whole World. For both Europe and Africa, and Asia, were forced to bear the yoke of one people. Whatever we read is slaughter and ruin, and without holidays for the future. So help me God, of one Mars D 5 nu-
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82. E. PV T. DE COMETA numen omniu[m] religione cultum putes, cum hominibus coepisse bella, ac durare. Verumenimvero Septentrionem nostrum magis miror, & nationes sub frigidis astris continua rabie incédi, quippe Annalium nostrorum memoria vbique funesta est. Si qua etiam ex interuallo quies, si quod otium, ad maiorem quasi cladem fuit. Hic igitur cælo fidem ardent habeo; ipsa tulit bellum, natura per ignes, pacem quidem his aliquotannis aut pacis bona intelligere, sub optimis Serenissimisque Principibus, Belgæ coeperunt: sed an rursus fastidire? Quid dicam? interdum & felicitas ipsa molesta est. Quod si etiam posita semel placebunt arma, calamitates publicas non Sideri, sed hosti imputabimus, bellionera tam strenue laturi. quâ ibenter quieuimus. Vt sic loquar, mei
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82. E. P V T. OF THE COMET You might think that a power worshipped by all religions began with mankind’s wars and continues still. Yet indeed I more admire our Northern lands, and the nations beneath the cold stars, to be driven on by constant fury; for the memory of our Annals is everywhere full of calamity. If there has ever also been a pause from time to time, if there has been any rest, it has been, as it were, for a greater disaster. Here then I have confidence in the heavens that burn; nature itself has brought war through the flames, peace indeed; and for some years now the Belgians have begun to understand the blessings of peace under the best and most serene Princes. But can they once more grow weary of it? What am I to say? Even happiness itself is sometimes troublesome. And if the arms once laid aside shall be pleasing, we shall impute the public calamities not to the Star, but to the enemy, and shall bear the war so readily, since by it we have gladly rested. So to speak, my
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LIB. II. PARADOX. ii. 83 mei me imprimis Ciues, mea me, in quâ natus & educatus sum VENLONA monet. Opulchrum situ, pulchrius fide & constantia, oppidum! sed non satis ornatum nisi & tutum sit. Hei! deficit, & patet quâ oppugnari olim solet, ab amne nuper, tanquam nouo, perenni tamen hoste deformatu. Instaurari damna posse pericula arceri: egregio coeptum moli- mine munimentum ostendit. Coeptum vtinam feliciter, & ex voto mox absoluendum! Quia animos vrbis vires no[n] sequuntur, — Pendent opera interrupta, minæque Ingentes murorum. Vos succurrite Serenissimi Potentissimique Principes, & iuuate in vna vbe Prouincia tota nunietur Sic adiuti & propugnaculi muro cincti Ciues, quem sæpius pectoribus regulerunt hollem, deinceps non ti- mebunt
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LIB. II. PARADOX. ii. 83 my fellow citizens especially, my own city, in which I was born and brought up, VENLONA reminds me. A city handsome in situation, more beautiful in loyalty and constancy, but not adorned sufficiently unless it is also safe. Alas! it lacks this, and lies open where it has customarily been attacked, by the river recently, as though by a new, yet perpetual enemy, disfigured. That losses may be repaired, dangers may be warded off: the work begun in excellent fashion shows a fortification. Would that the undertaking had a happy outcome, and soon be completed as desired! Because the strength of the city does not match its spirit, — Works interrupted hang suspended, and the great threats of the walls. You, most serene and most powerful Princes, come to the rescue, and help that in one voice the whole Province may be announced. Thus aided, and with the citizens enclosed by a wall of defense, whom often the summons has driven with their hearts, henceforth they will not fear
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14 E. PVT. DE COMETA mebunt: sic quoque, si bellum ingruat, discrimen vrgeat, stare, pugnare, imo mori pro patriâ, & Principibus, suave erit. Interim hoc iam exploratum est, nostram pacem alieno bello constare; nostrum bellum alienâ pace, Ecce quamdiu pugnauimus, alibi cessarunt arma; postquam quieuimus, alibi pugnatum est. Tranquilliori quidem alea resederunt Cliuensium nuper, & Iuliacensium res, diuisæ magis quam compositæ, bene, si non funestius aliquando erupturæ. Causa tamen ad arma venit, omnesque pæne Christiani Orbis Principes in partes traxit, Suecum etiam Danumque grauis contentio miscuit, licet non diuturna. Gallia non vna seditione arsit, vt addetior Regi suo esset. Brunsienses obsessi, & liberati sunt Sileo bellum Allobrogicum, maiori per-
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14 E. PVT. DE COMETA It follows also that, if war should break out, and danger press hard, to stand fast, to fight, nay, to die for our country and for princes, will be sweet. Meanwhile this has now been clearly proved: that our peace depends on another’s war; our war on another’s peace. Behold, while we fought, arms elsewhere ceased; after we rested, elsewhere fighting began. The affairs of the Clivenses and lately of the Juliacenses have indeed settled on a calmer throw of the dice, divided rather than composed, well, if not one day to break out more disastrously. Yet the cause came to arms, and drew almost all the princes of the Christian world into factions; it also stirred up the Swede and the Dane with grave contention, though not a lasting one. France blazed up in no single sedition, that she might be more devoted to her king. The Brunsienses were besieged, and liberated. I shall pass over the Allobrogian war, a greater per-
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LIB. II. PARADOX. II. 85. pertinacia, quam causa gestum. Sileo Bohemicum, cœptum pri- usquam Cometes emersit. In ali- is Orbis partibus concurrerunt maxime sæpe acies, exercitus de- leti sunt, vrbes expugnatæ: & nos nunc tamen homines bellum ti- memus, quasi nullum fuisset: Co- metem timemus, quasi pacis ho- stem. Hæc mortalium consue- tudo est: notant mala, quando si- gna præcedunt: His destituti, pati malunt, quam conqueri. Non certe quia Cometæ fulgent, sequuntur bella, sed quia se- quuntur bella, Comeris assig- nantur. Talis olim calamitas Pe- loponnesiaca, perannos x x v i I. pertinaci armorum furore tra- cta: scilicet, quia cruentum eius- modi lumen & minax septuagin- ta quinque dies post Solis occa- sum arserat. Talis Atheniensium, primum in Sicilia, deinde ad Che-
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LIB. II. PARADOX. II. 85. the obstinacy with which the cause was conducted. I pass over the Bohemian war, begun before the Comet appeared. In other parts of the world armies very often encountered; forces were destroyed, cities taken: and yet now we men fear war, as if none had ever been; we fear a Comet, as if it were the enemy of peace. This is the custom of mortals: they mark evils when signs go before them; without these, they prefer to suffer rather than complain. It is not indeed because Comets shine that wars follow, but because wars follow, they are assigned to Comets. Such once was the calamity of the Peloponnesian war, drawn out for twenty-seven years by the obstinate fury of arms: namely, because such a bloody and threatening light had burned seventy-five days after sunset. Such was that of the Athenians, first in Sicily, then at Che-
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86 E. PVT. DE COMETA Chæroneam clades; quia vtram que Cometes præcesserat, alter Septentrionali cæli parte, alter cir- ca Æquinoctialem visus. Tale Car- thaginis fatum & incedium: quia pauloantè totos triginta duos di- es hi c in cælo ignis fulserat: Tale Pompeij & Cælaris bellum: quia vt Plinius appellat terrificum magnâ ex parte Sidus, ac non leuter pratum se ostenderat. Cum Petronio dicam: Fax stellis comitata nouis incendia dux it. Ita me Deus, post euentum vires denunciatio accepit. Quid opus est verbis? Non Cometæ bella, sed bella Cometas infamârunt. Si quis etiam Historiæ calculum ponat, plura sane in omni Anti- quitate bella, quam Cometas in- ueniet. Sed tædet exemp orum, quibus tenuissimæ etiam scripti- ones extenduntur hodie, plerum- que tamen à proprietate argu- menti alienis. Noster labor fluere
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86. On the comet The disaster at Chaeronea; because two comets had preceded it, one seen in the northern part of the sky, the other around the equinoctial line. Such was the fate and fire of Carthage; because shortly before, for the whole thirty-two days, fire had shone in the sky. Such was the war of Pompey and Caesar; because, as Pliny calls it, the dreadful star, and not lightly the portent, had shown itself in a great part. As I shall say with Petronius: A torch accompanied by new stars led the fires. By God, after the event the warning gained force. What need is there of words? Not comets warred against men, but wars brought comets into disrepute. If anyone also reckons with history, he will indeed find more wars in all antiquity than comets. But I am weary of examples, by which even the thinnest writings are stretched out today, though for the most part they are foreign to the proper subject. Our labor continues to flow
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LIB. II. PARADOX. II. 87 manult, quam turgere: à fonte, quam confluge crescere. Ad rem igitur: imo ad hæc nostra tempora, tanquam frequentioribus signis, malisque obnoxia, plenis & curiosis rerum cælestium obser- uationibus nobilitata. Expletum quidem nuper seculum decimumquintum viceni circiter Cometæ perterruerunt: sed profectò difficiliori adhuc calculo clades computentur Desunt igitur? imò verò, vt liberius omni cælum culpâ liberem, supersunt. Quicquid illud fuit temporis, nil nisi bellum fuit, adeoque tot meritò Cometis notandum, quot anni numerantur. Nescio verò cur vnum hoc potissimum Sidus sanguine inficimus? ab hoc vno spectaculo crudelitatem deriuvamus? Sol iste qui lucet, & pleraque interdum astra rubent: imo tonitru, & fulmen, belli nomina sunt. Pessis
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LIB. II. PARADOX. II. 87 is better to flow than to swell; to grow from a fountain than from a confluence. To the matter, then: nay, to these our times, as marked by more frequent signs, and made notable by full and curious observations of heavenly things, and liable to evils. Indeed, lately the completed fifteenth century was terrified by about twenty comets: but surely with a still harder reckoning let the disasters be computed. Are they therefore lacking? Nay rather, that I may more freely clear the whole heaven of blame, they remain. Whatever that time was, it was nothing but war, and therefore as many comets deservedly must be noted as there are years counted. But I do not know why we stain this one star especially with blood? why from this one spectacle do we derive cruelty? This very sun that shines, and at times most stars are red; indeed thunder and lightning are the names of war.
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38. EPVT. DE COMETA Possis eâdem læuitiæ imagine nubes, ventos, tempestates & quicquid in rerum naturâ pugnat, profanare. Sed in omnibus meticulosa superstitio ludit: & quia non desunt qui terreri amant, inueniuntur qui terrent. Vt nihil prorsus non Martiale sit; & Solis defectum, & Lunæ laborem ad præliorum infelicitatem ignaui referunt. sic percelli imperitorum mentes solent; & qui error est, adiectione litterulæ terror efficitur. Itaque parum erat, ignorare cæli causas, nisi & formido accederet; nisi, quia deerat fortunæ iniuria, nasceretur. Cautiores tamen olim Ægyptij vares, qui in concionem ab Alexandro adducti. vt pauidum foedo prodigio exercitum erigerent, mentiti sunt. Namque cum è statis Orbi- um vicibus scirent, Solem interuentu Lunæ abscondi, Lunam vam
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38. EPIT. OF THE COMET You could defile clouds, winds, storms, and whatever else fights in the nature of things, with the same image of levity. But in everything superstitious fear plays its part: and because there are no shortage of those who love to be terrified, there are found those who terrify. So that nothing is wholly not Martial; and they attribute both the eclipse of the Sun and the labor of the Moon to the ill success of battles, the idle. Thus are the minds of the inexperienced usually struck; and what is error, by the addition of a little letter becomes terror. Therefore it was not enough to be ignorant of the causes of the sky, unless fear were added; unless, because there was lacking the injury of fortune, it were born. More cautious, however, were the ancient Egyptian vares, who, brought into the assembly by Alexander. so that they might raise up the army, made cowardly by a foul prodigy, they lied. For since from the established cycles of the orbs they knew that the Sun is hidden by the intervening of the Moon, the Moon was
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LIB. II. PARADOX III. 89 vmbra terræ hebetari, rudes coelestium animos decipere maluerunt, quam docere. Solem, aiunt (ita Curtius lib. iv.) Græcorum, Lunam esse Persarum: quoties illa deficiat, ruinam stragemq[ue] illis Gentibus portendi. De bello satis; Pestis sequitur, imò adhæret: quo nunc ordine fatales minæ extendentur. PARADOXVM III. De Pestilentia: huius non Caussam, nec Signum Cometam esse. Ergam eiusdem Vatis ore Ploqui: Et grauibus morbis, & lentâ corpora tabe Corripit exustis lethalis flamma medullis, Tabentesq[ue] rapit populos, totasq[ue] per vrbes Publica succensis peraguntur fata sepulchris. Triste hoc, sed tamen populare va-
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LIB. II. PARADOX III. 89 They preferred to deceive the untrained minds of men about heavenly things, rather than to teach them, by saying that the shadow of the earth dims it. The sun, they say (so Curtius, book iv.) is to the Greeks, the moon to the Persians: whenever it fails, ruin and destruction are portended to those nations. Enough of war; pestilence follows, indeed clings to it: in what order now the fatal threats are to be unfolded. PARADOX III. On Pestilence: that its cause, and not its sign, is a comet. Let us speak in the words of the same poet: And with grievous diseases, and with slow decay of the body the deadly flame seizes them, with their marrow consumed, and carries off the wasting peoples; and through the whole cities the public doom is carried out amid funeral pyres kindled all about. This is sad, but yet common-
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LIB. II. PARADOX. III. que, non cælo Apollinis tela sunt: hoc innoxium est, à Caussâ tanti mali, nec minùs á Signo remotum Vt bellum non denunciatu Cometâ: ita nec Contagio. Sæpius enim pestilentia sæuijt, nec monit hoc Signo mortales fuerunt. De inde cessent Signa; moneri Vaticinijs poterunt, Sic Deus olim, vt Sacrae testantur Litteræ, Regi Dauidi tergeminam calamitatem denunciaturus non Cometam, sed Prophetam misit. Immisit pestem, sed tanquam à cælo non profluentem. Hæc poena lustrati superbè populi fuit. Rex etiam, quia in pectoris penetrali Signum invenerat, timere poenam coepit, priusquam moneretur. Ad Aerem transeo, etsi ab argumento alienum. In Aere enim etsi concedam Cometam esse; Signum esse, aut Caussam nego. Et de Signo quidem controver- sia
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LIB. II. PARADOX. III. which are not arrows from Apollo's sky: this is innocent, far removed from the Cause of so great an evil, and no less removed from the Sign. For as war is not announced by a comet: so neither is contagion. Often indeed has pestilence raged, nor have men been warned by this sign. Then let signs cease; they can be warned by prophecies. Thus God once, as the Sacred Letters testify, when He was about to announce a threefold calamity to King David, sent not a comet, but a prophet. He sent plague, but as not flowing down from heaven. This was the punishment of the proudly purified people. The king also, because in the innermost chamber of his heart he had found the sign, began to fear punishment, before he was warned. I pass on to the Air, though it is foreign to the argument. For in the Air, though I grant that there is a comet, I deny that it is a sign or a cause. And as to the sign indeed, the controver- sy
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92 E. PVT. DE COMETASIA non erit. Nam quia à Cælo exultat, infra Cælum non consistet, melius Aereatque sanctius. Erunt signa in Sole, & Luna, & stellis. Si licet dicere Signum Dei vox est: Deus, vt homines moneat & potentiam ostendat, Cælo, non Elemento loquitur: & qui in Cælo, vbique sanè præsens est: vbi que tanquam coràm auditur. Caussa reliqua est, quâ pari spongâ deleo. Nostri plerique vel ad Cometam pestem referunt, vel ad pestem Cometam; satisrati, ab Aere malum deriuari. Ita quicquid elementum peccat, sideris, vt sic nunc appellem, imago lustinet, & passim accusatur. Neque nouus hic error: ab antiquis venit. Hinc grauissimam illam Atheniensium pestem, ab Historicis, sed præcipuè à Thucydide descriptam, lib.11. dignam Manilius censuit, quâ præcipue innoxium si- dus
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92 E. PVT. DE COMETASIA will not be. For since it leaps up from Heaven, it will not remain below Heaven, but more nobly and more purely in the Air. There shall be signs in the Sun, and Moon, and stars. If it be allowed to say it, the Sign of God is a voice: God, to warn men and show His power, speaks to Heaven, not to the Element: and He who is in Heaven, is truly present everywhere: everywhere He is heard as if face to face. The remaining cause is one which I wipe away with the same sponge. Most of ours either refer pestilence to a Comet, or a Comet to pestilence, being quite satisfied that the evil is derived from the Air. Thus whatever the element offends with, the image of the star, as I may now so call it, bears the blame, and is everywhere accused. Nor is this error new: it comes from the ancients. Hence that most grievous plague of the Athenians, described by the Historians, but especially by Thucydides, book 11, Manilius thought worthy of mention, by which especially the harmless star
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LIB. II. PARADOX. iii. 93 dus traduceret, lib. 1. Qualis Erechtheos pestis populata co- lonos Extulit antiquas per funera pacis Athe- nas, Alter in alterius labens cùm fata ru- ebant. Nec locus artis erat Medica, nec vo- ta valebant. Cesserat officium morbis, & funera de erant Mortibus, & lacryma:fessus defece- rat ignis, Et coaceruatisardebant corpora mem- bris. Vt hæc Poetę verba sunt, nihil iam dixisse Historicus videtur; nihil Quidius, qui lib. vi. Meta- morph. pestulentiam Oenopio- rum describens, Historicum ex- pressic: nihil Lucretius, qui exre- mo lib. vi. aliquot paginis Thu- cydidem egire: nihil oraculum A- pollinis dubio sensu acceptum: H'zeta
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LIB. II. PARADOX. iii. 93 thus translated, lib. 1. What plague of Erechtheus, ravaging the colonists, Bore out ancient Athens through the funerals of peace, When, one by one, as the destinies of each were falling, they collapsed. No place was there for the art of medicine, nor did prayers prevail. The duty toward the sick had given way, and funerals were lacking For deaths, and tears: the weary fire had failed, And bodies were burning together with heaped limbs. As these are the poet's words, the historian seems to have said nothing more; nothing more than Quidius, who in book vi of the Metamorphoses, describing the pestilence of the Oenopians, reproduced the historian; nothing more than Lucretius, who from the same source in book vi. for several pages followed Thucydides: nothing more than the oracle of Apollo, received in a doubtful sense: H'zeta
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94 E. PVT. DE COMETA In quo versu , an no- taretur, distingui non potuit. Quod ad Thucydidem: fusè ad- modum sæuissimam tabem expli- cat; nullam tamen mentionem Cometæ facit. Non quia ille non fuit: sed quia ab omni Causâ ma- li, atque Signo alienus. Nos vero ad rationes nunc veniamus. Pe- stis, aiunt, ab aeris intemperie est: hæc à sicco & venenoso halitu, quem in locis præsertim palustri- bus & vliginosis humor ad fæ- cem siccatus exspirat. Atqui ex halitu etiam Cometæ, Solis ra- dijs in altum educto. Cogiautem paullatim hanc materiam, velut effumantem & in molem conti- nuo densari incremento, donec subacta & velut cocta incenda- tur. Quid dicam? post hæc omnia, vel supersunt halitus, vel assumun tur
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94 E. PVT. ON THE COMET In which verse it could not be distinguished whether it was marked. As for Thucydides: he explains at great length the very savage plague; however, he makes no mention of the Comet. Not because it did not exist: but because it was foreign to every cause of evil, and to every sign. But now let us come to the reasons. They say that the plague is from the corruption of the air: this from a dry and poisonous vapor, which, especially in marshy and wet places, moisture exhaled after being dried to a sediment. But indeed also from the vapor of a Comet, drawn upward by the rays of the Sun. Then this material, as it were smoking out, gradually condenses into a mass with continuous increase, until, when worked over and as if cooked, it is ignited. What shall I say? after all these things, either vapors remain, or they are consumed
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LIB. II. PARADOX III. 95 tur & absumuntur omnes. Su- peresse, mirum sit, si magnitudine Cometæ, & molem expendam: rursus, absumi mirum, si reliqua[m] aeris terræque naturam considerem. Breuiter: vnde ventorum vis, quæ, vt Aristoteli placet, se qui Cometas solet & ab halitibus prosicisci? Supersunt igitur. cum absumi necessum sit: & sparsi aut relicti indunt aeri vitium, prius- quam terrere Cometa incipiat. E- mo consumuntur, cum superesse dixeris: & quia flammam lubeunt, expurgantur, adeoque prius no- cere delinunt, quam esse. Ad sum- mam: corrumpiaer potest, Co- meta verò non nasci: quid nisi vt credas, nasci Cometam, aerem vero non corrumpi? Interdum à terrâ vitium esse caussamque ma- li, Seneca, docet: lib. vi. Natural. Quæst. Aer ipse, qui vel terrarum cul- pâ, vel pigritiâ æternâ nocte torpescit, grauis
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LIB. II. PARADOX III. 95 are destroyed and disappear. It would be strange that they should remain, if I weigh the magnitude of the Comet and its mass; again, it would be strange that they should be destroyed, if I consider the remaining nature of the air and earth. Briefly: whence comes the force of the winds, which, as Aristotle thinks, is accustomed to follow Comets and to arise from exhalations? Therefore they do remain, since it is necessary that they be destroyed; and, being dispersed or left behind, they infect the air with a defect before the Comet begins to terrify. Or rather they are consumed, when you say that they remain; and because they approach flame, they are purged away, and so they cease to do harm even before they cease to exist. In sum: the air can be corrupted, though the Comet cannot be born: what else does this mean than that you should believe that the Comet is born, while the air is not corrupted? Sometimes, Seneca teaches, the earth is the cause of the defect and of the evil: book VI of the Natural Questions . The air itself, which, whether through the fault of the earth or through perpetual sloth, grows torpid in eternal night, is heavy
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96 E. PVT. DE COMETA grauis haurientibus est: corruptus internorum ignium v. t[er]tio, cum est lo[n]go situ emissus, purum hunc liquidumq[ue] maculat ac polluit, insuetumq[ue] ducentibus spiritum affert noua genera morborum. Ridiculum mehercule Manilij ab igni argumentum est, lib. 1. Funera cum facibus veniunt, terrisque minantur Ardentes sine fine rogos. Scilicet extremum pietatis officium nisi olim rogus absoluisset, accensus in aere ignis accusari non poterat. Nihil igitur ad eos pertinuit, nihil pertinet, qui spoliata spiritu corpora terræ malunt, quam flammæ mandare, qui sine pyrâ sepulchrum habent. quia enim ab ardentis Cometæ similitudine funera & feralia absunt, ab omni tabe remoti sunt; & quia cineribus non debent corpora, non videntur possemori. PA-
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96 E. COMET OF THE PVT. is harmful to those drawing it in: corrupted by internal fires, thirdly, when it has been sent out after a long stay, it stains and pollutes this pure and liquid thing, and, unfamiliar to those breathing it in, brings new kinds of diseases. By Hercules, Manilius’s argument from fire is ridiculous, book 1. Funerals come with torches, and threaten the earth With burning pyres without end. Indeed, unless of old the funeral pyre had performed the last duty of piety, the fire kindled in the air could not have been accused. Therefore nothing pertained to them, nothing pertains, to those who prefer bodies stripped of spirit to be given to the earth rather than committed to the flames, who have a grave without a pyre. For since funerals and rites for the dead are absent from the likeness of a burning comet, they are kept remote from all decay; and because bodies owe nothing to ashes, they do not seem to die afterward. PA-
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LIB. II. PARADOX IV. 97 PARADOXVM IV. De Fame, alijsq[ue] malis: hæc quomodo cumque referas, perperam ad Come tam referri. Etiam Fame infame fidus est & Epoetæ scilicet furore dignu: Numquam fata libus excanduit ignibus æther. Squallidaq[ue] elusi deplorant arua coloni, Et steriles inter sulcos defessus arator Ad iuga moerentes cogit frustrata iuuencos. Adeone igitur aut infelix, aut infestus Cometa, vt generari nequeat, nisi cum telluris damno? Hanc succo suo, &quodammodo vitâ spoliari volunt, quoties voraci scilicet portento aer incenditur: voluntquicquid magnæ matri inest spiritus, quicquid vigoris, in circumfusum elementum extrahi, imo consumi. Hinc casso labore & inuerti ab agricolis solum, & semen spargi, & annum E im-
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LIB. II. PARADOX IV. 97 PARADOX IV. On Famine, and other evils: however these things are related, they are wrongly referred to a Comet. Even Famine is a faithful companion to infamy, and worthy, as it were, of a poet’s frenzy: The ether has never blazed with fatal fires for crops. And the squalid farmers, deceived, lament their fields, And the weary ploughman, among the barren furrows, Drives his disappointed heifers to the yokes in sorrow. Is a Comet then so unlucky, or so hostile, that it cannot be produced except to the earth’s damage? They want this to be stripped of its juice, and in a manner of its life, whenever the air is kindled by that voracious prodigy: they want whatever spirit is in the great mother, whatever vigor there is, to be drawn out into the surrounding element, indeed consumed. Hence, with vain labor, the ground is turned over by farmers, seed is scattered, and the year...
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98 E. PVT. DE COMETA impendi. Volunteriam Phaeton- tis fabulam cælique decantatum incendium ad Cometam referri: vastum illum aliquem, & sæui ignis, qui tanquam Sol alter, sed dissolutus, Orbem terrarum viderit, & foecunditate omni spoliârit. Oui- dij quoque verba, lib. 11. Metamorph. non aliena videri: Ambustaq[ue] nubila fumant: Corripitur flaminis, vt quæque altissima tellus, Fissaque agit rimas, & succis aret ad- emptis: Pabula canescunt, cum frondibus vritur arbor, Materiamq[ue] suo præbet seges arida damno Sed obsecro, solidâne ista rationum ponderasunt? Profectò adest sterilitas, vbi & Bellum, & Pestis læuiunt: vbi aut deseruntur agri, aut vastantur. Hominum hæc flagitia sunt, non Cometæ: quip- pe
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98 E. On the Comet to be expended. The voluntary fable of Phaethon, and the conflagration celebrated in heaven, are referred to a comet: that some vast and fiery thing, which, like a second Sun, though shattered, may have been seen over the earth, and deprived it of all fertility. Ovid’s words also, Book 11 of the Metamorphoses, do not seem foreign to the matter: "Scorched clouds smoke: The flame seizes the highest part of the earth, and the cleft ground opens its fissures, and, the juices being taken away, dries up: the pastures grow white, the trees burn with their leaves, and the dry crop offers material to its own destruction." But I ask you, are those reasonings sound? Certainly sterility is present wherever both War and Pestilence rage: wherever the fields are either abandoned, or laid waste. These are the crimes of men, not of comets: indeed
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LIB. II. PARADOX. IV. 99 pe ab hoste malumus, quam à terrâ victum exigere, sanguine, quam labore vitam tolerare, A!ibi quo- queruri propitius Cometa fuit, quia populis (vt id iam concedam) nocuit: subtraxit succum, vt cruorem redderet: & collisit fato acies, vt felicius fruges ale- rentur. Sed, quod aiunt, educâ ve- lut foecunditate vterum terræ retardari, frustra sunt. Etenim nascatur, alatur, duret Cometes: hominis tamen annonam inue- nient: alienum consumat pabulum, alieno succo vluat: agri ta- men, propitio Solisastro, Lunæ, Veneris, sibi & naturæ suffi- cient, amplius quam largiuntur cælo, à cælo accepturi: Colendi interim, & continno ad fertili- tatem sudore cogendi sunt, ne aut signi metu, aut timido otio mereamur mala, de quibus præ- maturæ querelæ sunt. Sanè & ip- sa E 2
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LIB. II. PARADOX. IV. 99 We would rather receive sustenance from the enemy than from the land; to sustain life by blood rather than by labor. To Alibi too a comet was propitious, because it harmed the people (if I may grant that point): it drew off the sap, that it might restore blood; and it brought armies into collision by fate, that the crops might be nourished more happily. But the notion, as they say, that by its fertility the womb of the earth is held back is vain. For let Comet be born, nourished, and endure: still they will find man’s yearly provision; let it consume alien fodder, let it feed on another’s sap: yet the fields, under the favorable influence of the Sun, Mars, and Venus, will suffice for themselves and for nature, and will receive from heaven more than they grant to heaven. Meanwhile they must be tilled, and by continual sweat compelled to fertility, lest we earn evils by fear of a sign or by timid idleness, evils of which complaints come too late. Indeed, even the very...
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100 B. PV T. DE COMETA ipsa vices suas terra habet, impar foecunditati, nisi ex interuale sterilescat. Quia nulla continua v[er]bertas est, quædam post lassitudinem ignauia excusatur. Desinamus igitur parilege annos omnes vrgere: cessat interdum copia, vt vires sumat; & deficit, vt pleniori exuberet cornu, & spargatur. Sed quid est? plenus non erat terror, nisi & agricolas concuteret: nec poterant grauiori calamitate omnes omnino homines premi, quam vt innocentissimi affligerentur. Hæc profectò quædam sine morbo pestis est, quædam sine bello strages, & à naturæ magis necessitate, quam ab incendio aeris, vel coeli Sidere dependet. Absit metus, spes succedat: Felicem iam audebo annum promittere, & copiosam annonam: exhalat terra & exspirat quicquid noxi- um, & velut adustum longior tem-
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100 B. Of a comet the earth itself has its own changes, unequal in fertility, unless from intervals it becomes barren. Because there is no continual fruitfulness, a certain sluggishness after weariness is excused. Let us therefore cease to press every year in a bad omen: abundance sometimes stops, that it may gather strength; and it fails, that with a fuller horn it may overflow, and be scattered. But what is this? the terror was not complete, unless it also shook the farmers: nor could all men altogether be burdened by a heavier calamity than that the most innocent should be afflicted. This indeed is a certain pestilence without disease, a certain slaughter without war, and depends more on the necessity of nature than on the burning of the air, or of the sky, or on a star. Let fear be absent, let hope take its place: now I shall dare to promise a fortunate year, and an abundant grain supply: the earth exhales and breathes out whatever is harmful, and as though scorched, the longer it
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LIB. II. PARADOX IV. porismora collegit. Vegetiorem quidni putem quam purgari cer- no: quemadmodum & corpora humana è grauedine & corpore vi- dentur exsurgere, quibus vel artis subsidio per sectam venam san- guis abundans educitur, vel natu- ræ impellu per narium, aliosque corporis meatus effluit. Quod in Microcosmo fieri solet, etiam in ipso Cosmo: prouidit Deus, vt modo suo & ordine rerum Vni- uersitas duraret; nequid in com- mercio elementorum & pugnâ, aut superesset, aut deficeret. Sed quor- sum hæc omnia? controuersiæ so- piendæ satiserat: In coelo Cometa[m] esse. Reliquet iam ærumne viliores, quam vt in examen veniant. Nam alibi aut ventum cieria aerisque flu- ctus impelli, aut amnem inundare, aut mare extolli, aut tempestatem sæuire, tâ familiare est, vt Signa & Causæ negligantur. Incendium E 3 vero,
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Book II. Paradox IV. He collected corollaries. Why should I think it any more vigorous than when I see it being purged? just as human bodies seem to rise up from heaviness and corruption, when either by the help of art, through a cut vein, an abundance of blood is drawn off, or by nature’s impulse it flows out through the nostrils and other passages of the body. What is accustomed to happen in the Microcosm, happens also in the Cosmos itself: God has provided that the Universe should endure in its own way and order; lest, in the commerce and conflict of the elements, anything should either remain over or be lacking. But to what end is all this? It was enough to quiet the controversy: that there was a Comet in the heaven. The lesser troubles are now left, as being too slight to come under examination. For elsewhere, whether the wind is stirred and the waves of the air driven on, or a river floods, or the sea is raised up, or a storm rages, it is so familiar that signs and causes are neglected. Fire, indeed,
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102 E. PVT. DE COMETA verò, Ruina, Naufragium, & si quid eiusmodi, à casu, non à Si- dere sunt, & vel ostento minora vel majora præsagio, supra hominem, infra Deu collocata. Naufragium à vento: incendium, quod miserrimum, ab hoste est: quem vtrumque Claudianus junxit, lib. 1. de Raptu: Præceps sanguineo delabitur igne Come- tes, Prodigiale rubens: non illum nauita tuto, Non impunè vident populi: sed crine minaci Nunciat aut ratibus ventos, aut vrbibus hostes. Quid dicam? nunciat, & fallit: se- curi sumus. Has tamen ad se quo- q[ue] spectare minaslo. PVT BANVS Frater meus, cùm hìc mihi ades- set nuper, arbitratus est, animi ad virtutem compositi Iuuenis, & vt breuiter laudetur, Patrem non minus
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102 E. PVT. OF THE COMET indeed, ruin, shipwreck, and whatever of that kind are from chance, not from the star, and, whether by portent, small or great, they are signs placed above man, below God. Shipwreck comes from the wind; fire, which is most wretched, comes from the enemy: these two Claudian joined, book 1 of the Rape: The comet falls headlong with bloody fire, A prodigious red thing: no sailor safely Nor peoples with impunity behold it: but with threatening hair It foretells either winds to ships, or enemies to cities. What shall I say? it foretells, and deceives: we are secure. Yet these threats also seem to concern it.l0. PVT BANVS My brother, when he recently was with me here, thought that a young man composed in mind to virtue, and, in order to be briefly praised, the father not less
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LIB II. PARADOX. IV. minus ingenio, quàm nomine exprimens, Arbitratus, inquam, & ne frustra in Parnasso esset, elegidio isto, velut Musarum amuleto, auerruncauit, QVis nouus à cælomentem mihi corripit ignis? In Stellâ ardorem sentio, Phoebetuum. Sed meæ sollicitis cesserunt Otia Curis: Phoebum deserui, Mecuriumq[ue] colo. Hic docet extensam trabium compagine classem Ducere, labentes quà Mosa voluit aquas. Vectorumpatiens ratis est, & vimine torto Per vitream serpunt ligna iugat aviam. Sic ego non magno vastas traho flumine siluas: Nauigo (num credas?) sed sine naue feror. Nauigo, quis rabiem, quis diri leniet ignem E4 Side-
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LIB II. PARADOX. IV. less by talent than by name expressing, having judged, I say, and lest it should be there in vain on Parnassus, he averted by that little ornament, as it were the charm of the Muses, What new fire from heaven seizes me? In the Star I feel the flame, Phoebus’s. But my leisure has yielded to anxious cares: I have forsaken Phoebus, and now worship Mercury. He teaches how, with beams joined by a framework, to drive a fleet where Meuse wished its waters to flow. The raft is impatient of its load, and with twisted withes the timbers creep across the glassy stream, joined in a slippery path. So I too, not with a great river, draw vast forests: I sail—would you believe it?—but I am borne along without a ship. I sail; who will soothe the frenzy, who the dire fire E4 Side-
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LIB. II. PARADOX. IV. 105 Cometes, sed postquam fulserat, perierunt. An violentia aquarum ignota est? In eâdem Antiquitate, scribente Plinio, libr. 11. cap. xcii. Pyrrham & Antissam circa Mæotinpontus abstulit. Ex insulâ Ceâ amplius triginta millia passuum abrupta subito, cùm plurimis mortalium rapuit. Et in Siciliâ dimidiam Tyndarida vrbem, ac quicquid ab Italiâ deest. Sed an vllus hîc Cometa accusatur? Iungealia, ac recentia terræ vulnera, miserrimum illud quoque nuper Rhætorum oppidum, vna cum omnibus incolis, subito montium suorum onere obrutum sepultumque, & nullam in Crinito culpam fidere inuenies, nulla insignum cladis fax luxit, nulla incensa est. Obijcere Carthaginis fatum; & Corinthi, tanquam eximium solent. Sed obijcere: quia enim vnius alteriusue, certè paucarum vrbium, rarum exemplum est. E. 5.
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LIB. II. PARADOX. IV. 105 Comets, but after it had shone, they perished. Is the violence of waters unknown? In that same Antiquity, as Pliny writes, book 11, chap. xcii, it carried away Pyrrha and Antissa around the Maeotian Sea. From the island of Ceos more than thirty thousand paces were suddenly torn away, and it swept away many mortals with them. And in Sicily, half the city of Tyndaris, and whatever is lacking from Italy. But is any comet accused here? Add the recent wounds of the earth, that most miserable town of the Rhæti too, lately buried and overwhelmed together with all its inhabitants by the sudden burden of its own mountains, and you will find no fault to lay to Crinitus; no signal beacon of that famous disaster shone, none was kindled. They object the fate of Carthage, and of Corinth, as if exceptional examples. But they object it because indeed the rare example of one or another city, certainly of a few cities, is unusual. E. 5.
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106 E. PVT. DE COMETA est, à necessitate remouetur. De alienis quidem malis ego: de meis fortassis alij. Quid enim? Iam PARADOXORVM hos libellos scripseram, & graui admodum morbo correptus sum. Illum igitur ipsum ab infestis Cometæ radijs influxisse, Elegantissimus Epigrammatum Scriptor BERNARDVS BAVHVSIVS ludere voluit: dignus eâ Societate Vir, quæ doctrinæ & pietatis laude Orbem terrarum impleuit. Impleuit ipse, & ingenium suum iam publicum fecit; ingenio doctrinam & pietatem. Talem vero Amicum mihi, talem Orbi Poetam gratulor. Hic etiam quà Morbum meum scribit, Amicus est; quà Sidus, Poeta. Ego Versus, vel præ Sidere videndos, reprælen- to. E Vâsti, PV TEANE, ipsoque à limine lethi.
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106 E. ON THE COMET is removed by necessity. Of other men’s misfortunes, indeed, I speak; of my own perhaps others. For what? I had already written these little books of PARADOXES, and had been struck by a very severe illness. Therefore the most elegant writer of epigrams, BERNARDUS BAVHUSIUS, wished to make a jest that that very thing had flowed in from the hostile rays of the Comet: a man worthy of that company which has filled the world with the praise of learning and piety. He himself has filled it, and has already made his own talent public; by his talent, learning and piety. Such a friend, then, for me, such a poet for the world, I congratulate. Here too, insofar as he writes of my illness, he is a friend; insofar as of the star, a poet. I commend the verses, even to be seen before the star. E Wretched PUTEANE, and from the very threshold of death.
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LIB. II. PARADOX. IV. 107 Ianuaq[ue] nigrâ pedem reduxti. Icit, non vicit, qui te malus Ignis ab alto Læserat radiantis Os Cometa. Qui nuper stellantem Arcton violauit, & Austrum, Monstrosâ face territans Booten: Cum trabe flammatâ, tot formosissima, solus Formidabilis iret inter Astra, Numinis irati, vt credunt, dirumq[ue] minantis Rubens, virgifer, ensifer Satelles. Ergò triste Iubar suspensum terruit Orbem, Et Belgis rapuit rosas ab ore, Pallenti violâ nos tinges: me quoq[ue] rugâ Arauit dupliciq[ue], tripliciq[ue], Dum tibi supremum lapidem, moestamq[ue] Cupressum, Vrnamq[ue] ossilegam audio parari. Fors, mala si tabeste exsanguibus adde- ret Vmbris. At (charum ô Superis caput!) COMETAM. E 6 Lu-
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LIB. II. PARADOX. IV. 107 You drew back your foot from the black doorway. He struck, he did not conquer, who with evil Fire from above had wounded you, the Mouth of the radiant Comet. He who recently violated the starry North, and the South, frightening Bootes with a monstrous blaze: With a flaming beam, most beautiful in so many ways, alone he went, dreadful among the Stars, as, they believe, the dark attendant of an angry deity and a dire threat, red, maiden-bearing, sword-bearing. Therefore the sad light, hanging overhead, terrified the world, and robbed the Belgians of the roses from their lips, you will stain us with pale violet: me too with wrinkles it has furrowed, with double, and triple, while I hear the final stone, and the mournful cypress, and the urn gathering bones, being made ready for you. Perhaps, if evil even now were added to bloodless shades. But (O head dear to the gods!) COMET. E 6 Lu-
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108 E. PVT. DE COMETA Luctantem tecum potuisti vincer e quando TV NON OCCIDIS, OCCIDIT COMETA. Euasi verò Clarissime BAVHVS; & reduxi pedem, quamuis tardum & sufflaminatum: neque enim ille adhuc sum, qui fui; sed nec fui vnquam, quem à solido robore laudares. Nunc etiam, quia languori obnoxius, tanquam ægrotem, valeo; & ægroto, tanquam valeam. Vici tamen luctantem mecum, non Cometam, sed morbum: nisi & hunc Cometem dicas. Cæterum si hoc tempore neminilicet ægroto esse, nisi cum coeli infamiâ; accusa, quicquid est siderum, & portentorum, omnemque Musarum fauorem in furorem verte: ecce ille Magnus, & extra humani ingenijaleam positus CAROLVS SCRIBANIVS, Societatis vestræ per hanc Prouinciam Præfectus: ille
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108 E. PVT. OF THE COMET You were able to conquer, wrestling with you, when YOU DO NOT KILL, THE COMET DIES. Indeed, most illustrious BAVHVS, I have escaped; and have drawn back my foot, though slow and hampered: for I am not yet what I was; but neither was I ever what you would praise as of sound strength. Now also, because subject to weakness, as though ill, I am well; and being ill, as though I were well. Yet I have conquered the one wrestling with me, not the Comet, but the disease: unless you should call this too a Comet. Moreover if at this time it is not lawful for anyone to be ill, except with disgrace to the heavens; accuse whatever there is of stars and portents, and turn the whole favor of the Muses into madness: behold that Great Man, and placed beyond the reach of human wit, CAROLVS SCRIBANIVS, Prefect of your Society through this Province: that man
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LIB. II. PARADOX. v. 109 ille, cui ne quidem in tanto muneret egrotare vacat, acri morbo impeditus iacuit: etsi ne sic quidem impeditus. Accusa denuo quicquid est siderum, & portentorum: ecce ille Doctus, & scientiarum omnium quoddam quasi oraculum: ille modestâ suauitate, & suaui modestiâ cælestis imaginem naturæ gerens, LEONARDVS LESSIVS, insolita tentatus ægritudine, injuriam doloris sustinuit, cum temperatissimæ vitæ regulam, innocentiamque, non minus exemplo, quam calamo nobilitasset. Bene tamen est: viuit vterque: Cometa vero occidit: ad pristinam vterque valetudinem redijt: Cometæ Fatales illæ vires detractæ sunt. PARADOXVM v. Vanas & fallentes Interpretum minas esse, quæ in Reges, & Regna diriguntur. M Itte ista, & procurentem E,
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BOOK II. PARADOX V. 109 that man, who had not even leisure to be ill amid so great a bounty, lay prostrate, hindered by a sharp disease: and yet even so he was not hindered. Accuse once more whatever there is in the stars and portents: behold that Learned Man, a kind of oracle of all the sciences, that man who, with a modest sweetness and a sweet modesty, bearing the image of heavenly nature, LEONARDUS LESSIUS, assailed by an unusual sickness, endured the wrong of pain, though he had ennobled the rule of a most temperate life and innocence, no less by example than by pen. Yet all is well: both live; but the comet has set: both have returned to their former health: those fatal powers of the comet have been stripped away. PARADOX V. That the threats of interpreters, which are directed against kings and kingdoms, are vain and deceptive. Dismiss those things, and let the one who is attending to it, E,
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110 E. PV T. DE COMETA rem porrò argumenti lineam sequor. Neque enim his duutaxat finibus præsagus, Genethliacorum præsertim, furor stetit, sed in reges quoque, & regna erupit: non iam vanus, sed profanus. A Deo Sceptra sunt: in Deum nefarius quisquis sceptra violat: alius (fierine potest ?) ferro; alius, vt mitius læviat, lingua, aut calamo: Diuinus autem seu Prognostes cælo. Quid dicam? fidus tanquam scelus sit, & innocentissimus Cometa, nunc Regnorum euerfor, nunc Mutans Regna, nunc aliter nuncupatur. sic vero à fatali hoc igni non vni Principi, diem, vt sic dicam, dictum esse volunt. An recenseo? Claudio olim Imperatori, Constantino, Valentiniano Primo, Carolo Magno, Ludovico Secundo, Henrico Quarto, Alberto Primo: si ad non Imperatores extendere quoque seriem lu-
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110 E. PV T. DE COMETA I now follow the line of the argument. For this frenzy has not confined itself to these limits alone, especially those of Genethliacs, but has also burst forth against kings and kingdoms: no longer vain, but profane. Scepters are from God; whoever violates scepters sins against God: one man does it (if it can be done?) with steel; another, to do it more mildly, with tongue, or pen: but the divine one, or prognosticator, with the sky. What am I to say? so faithful as though it were a crime, and the most innocent comet is now called the destroyer of kingdoms, now the changer of kingdoms, now named otherwise. Thus indeed they wish that from this fatal fire not one prince alone had had, so to speak, his day appointed. Shall I go through them? To the Emperor Claudius of old, Constantine, Valentinian the First, Charlemagne, Louis the Second, Henry the Fourth, Albert the First: if I were also to extend the series to non-emperors, lu-
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LIB. II. PARADOX. IV 111 lubet, Ioanni Galeatio Mediolanensium Principi, Carolo Audaci nostro, Philippo Pulchro, pluribusque nupera Historia celebratis. Femina Regina hoc agmen claudat: Cleopatra est, digna scilicet prodigio: vt non minus mors, quam vita clara fuit. Præfusisse Cometam, in Dione lego, lib. L. sed ipsi simul Ægypto fatalem, tanquam in seruitutem redigendæ. Vespasianum omiseram, qui vanissimum ostentum jocosa interpretatione repulit & elusit. Decumbenti aderant amici, stellamque in cælo Crinitam apparere nunciant: ille nequaquam territus, Crinitam, inquit, Rex Parthorum timeat, qui crivitus est. In Dione caluitiæ jocus extenditur, lib. I X VI. ἔκεῖνος γαρπομᾶ, ἐγώ φαλαχρός ἐπιμι: Ille. n. comatus, ego verò caluus sum: Mos gentis illius erat (an bar-
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Lib. II. Paradox. IV 111 It is fitting to add to this company John Galeazzo, Prince of the Milanese, our Charles the Bold, Philip the Handsome, and several others celebrated in recent history. Let a woman queen close this procession: Cleopatra is the one, surely worthy of a portent; for her death was no less famous than her life. I read in Dio, book L, that a comet had appeared beforehand, but one fatal to Egypt itself as well, as though destined to be reduced to servitude. I had omitted Vespasian, who, by a witty interpretation, rejected and mocked a most foolish omen. His friends were with him when he lay ill, and they announced that a long-haired star had appeared in the sky; he, not at all frightened, said, “Let the king of the Parthians fear the long-haired star, for he is bald.” In Dio the jest about baldness is extended, book I X VI. ἔκεῖνος γαρπομᾶ, ἐγώ φαλαχρός ἐπιμι: He, namely, is long-haired, but I am bald. The custom of that people was (whether
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E. PVT. DE COMETA barbarus?) barbam comamque pascere; vt sic quidem solo vo- cabulo prodigium constiterit; sed à Romano, & Imperatore re- jectum. Quid si etiam sideris ip- sius capilli peculiari similitudine Parthi, appellati? Manilium sic for- tassis toleres lib.1. Parthosque capillos. Mentitur paruos ignis glomeratus in orbes. Nam paruosque hic communiter legunt Vtut est, mentitur ignis, quoties Sceptris dirus denuncia- tur; nisi prorsus ad omnes omni- no comatos pertinere Cometen dixeris. Sint ingeniosi, quantum velint Harioli, tutus mihi Prin- ceperit. Etenim si audaci per- gent acumine molesti esse, noua- culam illi opponet, tonsoris be- neficio vanissime artis minas eua- surus. An clarius? impendet capil- los, ne prodigio obnoxius sit. Siquis
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E. COMET. OF A COMET barbarous?) to feed his beard and hair; so that, indeed, by the word alone the prodigy has been established; but rejected by the Roman and the Emperor. What if even the hairs of the star itself, by a special likeness, were called Parthian? You might thus perhaps tolerate Manilius, book 1. The Parthians and the hair. He lies: the fire gathered into small circles. For the little ones here commonly read it as it is; he lies, the fire, whenever it is proclaimed as dreadful by the sceptres; unless you should say that the Comet altogether pertains to all men who are in any way long-haired. Let the fortune-tellers be as ingenious as they will; the Prince will be safe for me. For if they continue with bold sharpness to be troublesome, he will oppose a razor to them, and, by the barber’s favor, will escape the threats of that most vain art. Or more clearly? he lets his hair hang down, lest he be subject to the prodigy. If anyone
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LIB. II. PARADOX. V. 113 Si quis vero erit, cui onera & impedimenta capitis maturo defectu natura amolita est, responsum Vespasiani vsurabit. Lusum hunc sanè dices; sed interim nulla festiuitate vim fatalem impediri. Reiectum à Vespasiano prodigij magis nomen, quam omen: illum enim paulo pòst interijsse. Quid dicam? interierunt alij, tot inquam Cæsares, Reges, Principes, quot iam nominati non sunt; nullo tamen fidere moniti: casum cur in signum commutamus? Ad summos me Pontifices fortasse quispiam ducet: inter alios Vrbanum IV. ostendet, quem Martinus Polonus, lib IV Chronologiæ suæ, incidisse in morbu scribit, eo ipso die, quo Cometa primu[m] visus est, ac deinde trib. interiectis mensibus, eo ipso die extinctum, quo Cometa disparuit. Vertamus sententiæ commata; & causa, nisi fallor, liquebit: Quo
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LIB. II. PARADOX. V. 113 If, however, there should be anyone to whom nature, by an early loss, has removed the burdens and impediments of the head, he will make use of Vespasian’s answer. You would surely call this a joke; but meanwhile no gaiety can prevent the force of fate. The name, rather than the omen, was rejected by Vespasian: for that man died a little afterward. What shall I say? Others have died, I say, so many Caesars, kings, princes, as many, I mean, as have already been named; and yet, though warned by none to trust it, why do we turn an accident into a sign? Perhaps someone will lead me to the supreme Pontiffs: among others he will point out Urban IV, whom Martin of Poland, in book IV of his Chronology, writes to have fallen ill on that very day on which the comet was first seen, and then, three months intervening, to have died on that very day on which the comet disappeared. Let us turn the commas of the sentence; and the cause, unless I am mistaken, will be clear: As to
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E. PVT. DE COMETA Quo die Cometes primum visus est, in morbum Pontificem incidisse: quippe territum: quo disparuit, extinctum: quia magis territum, & prodigio quasi completo. Sic morbum & mortem non stella, sed formido iutulit: & tam prauiter affici potuit, qui fatale sibi prodigium arbitratus. Si verum placet, nihil hic est: imo fortassis in reliqua natura est, quæ à Cometa remouetur. Hinc sane fallax obseruatio est, quæ à fortuito paucorum exemplorum consensu necessitatem ducit: fallax, quæ pari omnia lege premit. quia quod aliter fieri potuit, aliquoties videmus contigisse. Si quis cum terra cælum componat cum sideribus principes: sine funere Cometas plerosque inueniet pleraq[ue], sine Cometis funera. Obsecro quis [left margin]: 1 luctus Annum 10. 1 x x v i. nobilitauit? & tamen stellatum Crinita miræ magnitudi- nis
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E. On the comet On the day when the comet was first seen, the Pontiff fell ill: indeed, because he was frightened; on the day it disappeared, he died; because he was still more terrified, as though the prodigy had then been completed. Thus it was not the star, but fear, that brought on the illness and death; and he could be so badly affected, having judged it a fatal prodigy for himself. If the truth is to be preferred, there is nothing here; indeed perhaps in the rest of nature there is that which is removed by the comet. Hence certainly that observation is fallacious, which from the accidental agreement of a few examples draws necessity: fallacious, which presses all things under the same law, because what could have happened otherwise we see has happened on some occasions. If anyone compares heaven with earth, and the stars with princes, he will find most comets without funerals, and most funerals without comets. I ask, which year of mourning made 10. 1 x x v i renowned? And yet the starry Haired one of wondrous magnitude
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LIB. II. PARADOX. IV. 115 nis illuxit. quis alia memoriæ nostræ tempora; quibus nouo homines lumine cælum stupescit seuere potuerunt Principes, & stellæ nasci, imo quia hæ natæ erant, mori illi, nisi seris tandem aunis, non debuerunt, Natæ, vt vitæ velut nostræ essent, terrisque felicitatem promitterent. deo enim flamæ sunt, ideo radijs aut circumfusæ, aut extensæ. Quod si ferales tamen aut cruentæ, cur omnium mortem Principum ab eodem signo non discimus? cur non maximorum? An ante omnes maximosque, vt de Cæsaribus jam agam, vns aliquis Vespasianus? In tota illa serie plures profecto, imo præcipui sine cælesti hac tace extincti. In Iulij morte ignauum fidus fuit: secutum est, ac celebrante demuludos Octauiano per septe[m] dies (verba Augusti apud Plinium lib.
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LIB. II. PARADOX. IV. 115 it has shone forth. Who among the other ages of our memory, by a new light, could have gazed in awe at the sky more sternly; and could princes and stars be born, indeed because these had been born, ought those to die only after long years? Born, as though for our life, and to promise happiness to the earth. For they are flames of god, therefore either surrounded or extended by rays. But if they are nonetheless baleful or bloodstained, why do we not learn the deaths of all princes from the same sign? Why not of the greatest? Or, before all the greatest and as I now speak of the Caesars, was there not some Vespasian? In that whole line, many indeed, even the chief men, perished without this heavenly torch. In the death of Julius, the omen was of a cowardly ally: it was followed, and Octavianus was pacified by the celebration for seven days (the words of Augustus in Pliny lib.
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116 E. PV T. DE COMETA lib.11.cap.xxv. in regione cæli, quæ sub Septentrionibus est, conspectum. Hic ipse Augustus, Conditor Imperij, sine stella ad cælum, & inter Diuos venit. Scilicet moriturum satis & ætas, & valetudo deficiens indicabant. Iunge Tiberij, Caligulæ, Neronis, aliorumque fatum, & Cometas quære. Tanti fortassis non fuerunt, vt prodigio notarentur: prodigia ipsi erant. Sed de hisileamus. Quis melior Traiano? quis sapientior Aurelio? quis religiosior Theodosio? Cometa caruerunt. Ipse Alexander magnus, qui in terrâ louis credi filius voluit, nullum in cælo fidus inuenit. Ecce tanquam priuatus obiit, imo si Cometa magnitudinem facit, sine prodigio paruus. Sibi signum, imo Orbi terrarum fuit: sed triste, dirum, funestum: quemadmodum à Lucano appellatur, lib.x. Ter-
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116 E. PV T. OF A COMET lib. 11. cap. xxv. in the region of the sky which is under the North, was seen. Here Augustus himself, founder of the Empire, came to heaven without a star, and among the gods. Indeed, both his age and failing health sufficiently showed that he was to die. Join the fate of Tiberius, Caligula, Nero, and the others, and look for comets. Perhaps they were not of such importance as to be marked by a prodigy: they themselves were prodigies. But let us be silent about these things. Who better than Trajan? who wiser than Aurelius? who more religious than Theodosius? They lacked a comet. Alexander the Great himself, who on earth wished to be believed the son of Jupiter, found no faithful one in heaven. Behold, he died as if a private man; nay, if a comet makes greatness, he was small without a portent. A sign for himself, indeed for the whole world, he was: but sad, dreadful, deadly; as Lucan calls it, book x. Ter-
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LIB. II. PARADOX. V. 117 Terrarum fatale malum, fulmenque, quod omneis Percurret pariter populos, & siduss iniquum Gentibus. Necio an acriora Senecæ verba, qui filio patrem iungens, lib. III. Natural. Quæst. Exitio, inquit, gentium clari, non minores fuere pestes mortalium, quam inudatio, qua planum omine perfusum est: quam conflagratio, qua magnapars animantium exaruit. Darius quoque, tot populorum Rex quot enumerate grauesit, si lente velut cælo, occubuit: hostem è prælio fugiens, non minus misere à suis jugulatus fuit, quam superbe pugnauerat. Parco exemplis nam ardeat, vt sic dicam, cælum, si tot ignes natos dixeris, quot à rerum origine Principes fuere. Quemadmodum vero extra me- tum omnem Vespasianus fuit: ita maxime Nero timuit. Nam cum temporibuscius sidus Cometes efful- sisset,
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LIB. II. PARADOX. V. 117 The fatal evil of the earth, and thunderbolt, which will pass through all peoples alike, and an evil star for the nations. I know not whether Seneca’s words are sharper, who, linking father with son, in book III of the Natural Questions says: “For the destruction of famous nations, no smaller plagues of mortals have there been than the flood, with which the whole plain was overflowed: than the conflagration, with which a great part of living creatures was dried up.” Darius also, king of as many peoples as were reckoned under him, if he fell, as it were slowly from heaven, fled from the battle; he was no less miserably butchered by his own men than he had fought proudly. I spare examples; for, so to speak, let the heavens burn, if you say there were as many fires born as there have been princes from the beginning of things. But just as Vespasian was beyond all fear: so Nero was in the highest degree afraid. For when in his time a comet had shone forth,
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118 E PVT. DE COMETA sisset, de quo, scribente Tacito, lib. xiv. annal. vulgi opinio est, tanquam mutationem Regis portendat: quasi iam depulso Nerone, quisnam deligeretur, inquirebant. Quia etiam in omnium ore Rubellius Plautus celebrari coept: hunc timere Nero, & hortari, cousuleret quieti Vrbis. seque praue diffamantibus subduceret. Esse illi per Asiam avitos agros, in quibus tuta & inturbida iuuenta frueretur. Abijt sane monitus, & quid nisi minas æstimauit? sed vt mox tamen trucidaretur, De hoc Cometa Octauia apud Tragicum: Vidimus cælo iubar Ardens, Cometam pandere infestam facem, Qua plaustra tardus noctis æterna vice Regit Bootes, frigido Arctoorigens. Vnius sic quidem morte tutum se crudelis Imperator credidit, vt mox truculentior & immanior esset. Nouo enim mox Cometâ per-
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118. On the comet. had appeared, concerning which, as Tacitus writes, in book xiv of the Annals, the common opinion was that it portended a change of ruler: as though Nero had already been driven out, they were asking who would be chosen. For Rubellius Plautus was also being widely celebrated on everyone’s lips; Nero began to fear him and urged him to consult for the quiet of the City and withdraw himself from those who slandered him maliciously. He said that his ancestral lands were in Asia, where he could enjoy a safe and undisturbed youth. He departed, indeed, when warned, and what did he think it was but threats? yet only so that he might soon afterward be slaughtered. About this comet Octavia says in the tragedy: We saw in the sky a blazing radiance displaying a menacing comet’s torch, with which Bootes, slow-driver of the night’s carts in endless rotation, guides them, rising from the cold Arctic region. Thus the cruel emperor believed himself safe by the death of one man, but he was soon to become more savage and more monstrous. For soon another comet came forth—
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LIB. II. PARADOX IV. 119 perterrefactus, nullum fecit sæui- tia modum. Huceiudem Taciti spectant verba lib. xv. Annal. Fine anni vulgantur prodigia, imminentium malorum nuncia. Vis fulgurum non a- lias crebrior, & sidus Cometes, sanguine illustri semper Neroni expiatum. & quomodo expiatum? E Suetonio discimus, in eodem Nerone: Stella Crinita, quæ summis potestatibus exiti- um portendere vulgo putatur, per con- tinuas noctes oriri cæperat. Anxius ea re (Nero.) vt ex Babillo Astrologo didicit, folere Reges talia ostenta cæde aliqua illustri expiare, atque à semet in capita Procerum depellere: nobilissimo cuique exitium destinauit. Doctrina hæc è Ptolemæo hacta, qui portendi ex- itium aut Regi, aut alicui Magnatum existimat, si in centro geneseos Regiæ Cometa apparuerit. Quia vero aut Regi, aut alicui Magnatum a- uerti fatum posse, superstitio cre- didit, & in succidaneum velut caput
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LIB. II. PARADOX IV. 119 terrified, he set no limit to his cruelty. To this place also belong the words of Tacitus in book xv of the Annals: “At the end of the year portents were made public, messengers of impending evils. There was an unusually frequent display of lightning, and the star Comet, always expiated by the blood of illustrious Nero.” And how expiated? We learn from Suetonius, in the same Nero: “A long-haired star, which the common people generally think foretells the downfall of the highest powers, had begun to appear on successive nights. Anxious about this, Nero, as he learned from the astrologer Babylon, that kings were accustomed to expiate such omens by some illustrious slaughter and to turn the blow away from themselves onto the heads of the nobles, destined ruin for every man of the highest rank.” This doctrine is taken from Ptolemy, who thinks that destruction is foretold either to a king or to some great man, if a comet appears in the center of the royal nativity. But since superstition believed that fate could either be averted from a king or some great man, and that it could be transferred, as it were, to a substitute head
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LIB II. PARADOX. VI. 119 si eodem fato pelluntur Principes quo intereunt: quis obsecro Cometa Dionysium Iuniorem, Siciliæ tyrannum à scepstro ad ferulam deduxit? à Regno ad ludum? Quis Tarquinium Roma pepulit? Quistot alios fortuna exuit? paupertati & miseræ mancipiauit? sine prodigio experti sunt, quid extremum in rebus humanis eslet: prolapsi, priusquam monerentur. An mirum? scelesti, impij, vnoverbo tyranni fuerant: hoc satis prodigij erat. PARADOXVM VI. Artes, scientiæ, & ingenia formidine ac infortunio liberata. Prognostarum vaticinia deliria esse. Insignis Seruij de Cometa locus. Ceterum ingeniosis decretis fuis, nescio quam audaciam Mathematicorum filij adijciant: ab hominibus ad scientias, morel que F
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LIB II. PARADOX. VI. 119 if the same fate drives rulers by which they perish: who, I ask, drove Dionysius the Younger, tyrant of Sicily, from the scepter to the ferule? from a kingdom to a schoolroom? Who expelled Tarquinius from Rome? Who stripped so many others of fortune, and enslaved them to poverty and misery? Without a prodigy they learned what is the ultimate end in human affairs: they had fallen before they were warned. Is it surprising? they were wicked, impious, in one word, tyrants: that was prodigy enough. PARADOX VI. Arts, sciences, and talents freed from fear and misfortune. The prognosticators’ prophecies are delusions. An outstanding passage of Servius on the Comet. Besides, if for ingenious decrees I know not what boldness the sons of Mathematicians should add: from men to the sciences, by habit and F
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LIB. II. PARADOX. VI. 12 ineris rabiem in mortalium amores transfundi. An, quia suo igne fietas in coelo forma: Sidus accendit, homines in terrâ foedi sunt, & libidine stimulantur? Nunc etiam venena timete: Serpentem Cometa tetigit; an & Serpentis caput? Reliquum enim fortassis extra noxam corpus est, sinuoso licet flexu horrorem mentiatur. De Triquetra, & Quadratâ configuratione, nimis meherculelepidum est. Nempe: Consensu quoque fatamouent, & foedere gaudent. Et quæ igitur hæc ? Tri-gona, & Tetragona. Illa, quæ tri-bus interlectis signis, primum cum quinto; hæc, duobus duntaxat primum cum quarto componit. Sed cur & Hexagona huc non fa-ciunt? quia à Mercurio aliena. Mer-curius hic enim, quia de litteris ingenijsque agitur, Cometam regit. O ingeniosæ nugæ! F2 Et
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LIB. II. PARADOX. VI. 12 to pour the madness into the loves of mortals. Or because, through its own fire, the beauty in heaven takes shape: the star kindles, men on earth are ugly, and are stimulated by lust? Now also beware of poisons: the comet touched the serpent; or also the serpent’s head? For the rest is perhaps a body free from harm, though by its winding turn it may feign terror. As for the Triquetra and the Quadrate configuration, by Hercules, it is too charming. Indeed: they also move what is fated by agreement, and delight in a pact. And what then are these? Tri-gona and Tetragona. The former, with three signs left between, joins the first with the fifth; the latter, with only two, joins the first with the fourth. But why do not Hexagona also belong here? Because they are foreign to Mercury. For Mercury here, since letters and talents are being discussed, governs the comet. O ingenious trifles! F2 And
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LIB. II. PARADOX. V: 125 Occidentem attenderit, grauat Italiam & quicquid ab Italia vsque ad Hispanias tendit: si à Meridie in Septentrionem ierit, à bellis quidem externis securitatem denunciat, sed seditiones domesticas significat. Alter Cometes est, cui ex gladio nomen est: Nam Græcè appellatur, cuius tractus est longior, & pallidus color, neque comas habere dicitur, & hebetior eius flamma est: qui si Orientem attenderit, Regem Persidis dolis significat appetendum: denunciat & bella, etia[m] Syrios pari conditione inuoluit, & Lybiam atque AEgyptum fraude & insidijs nuciet posse * laborem: [Lege: nunciat posse laborare. nisitamen Meridiei, & Septentrionis hîc fata desiderentur.] quod si Occidentem attenderit, foedera noua regionis eius Regi significat, quæ, dicit, per puellam congregatam in nuptias, posse dissolui. Tertius Cometes est, qui Lampas appellatur, & quasi fax lucet. Hic cùm Orientem attederit, omnes F 3
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LIB. II. PARADOX. V: 125 If it looks toward the west, it burdens Italy and everything that stretches from Italy as far as Spain; if it goes from south to north, it indeed proclaims security from foreign wars, but signifies domestic seditions. Another comet is that which takes its name from a sword: for in Greek it is called, whose trail is longer, and its color pale, nor is it said to have a tail, and its flame is more dull; if it looks toward the east, it signifies that the King of Persia is to be assailed by cunning: it also announces wars, and likewise involves the Syrians under the same condition, and it warns that Libya and Egypt may suffer trouble through deceit and ambush. [Read: announces that it may suffer trouble. unless, however, the fates of the south and north are sought here.] But if it looks toward the west, it signifies new alliances in that region for the king, which, he says, can be dissolved by a maiden brought together in marriage. The third comet is called Lampas, and it shines like a torch. When this has looked toward the east, all F 3
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124 E. PVT. DE COMETA omnes illas Orientis partes dicit nebulis posse laborare, frugesq[ue] earum caliginoso aere corrumpi: si Meridiem attenderit, Africam dicit siccitate & serpentibus posse laborare: si Occidentem spectauerit, Italiam dicit, assiduis fluminum inundationibus laborare: si Septentrionem viderit, famem gentibus Septentrionalibus significat. Est etiam Cometes, qui verè Cometes appellatur: nam comis hunc inde cingitur. Hic blandus esse dicitur: qui si Orientem attenderit, lætas res ipsi parti significat: si Meridiem, Africæ, aut Aegypto gaudia: si Occidentem inspexerit, terra Italiæ voti sui compos erit. Hic dicitur apparuisse eo tempore, quo est Augustus sortitus imperium: tunc denique gaudia omnibus gentibus futura, sunt nu[n]ciata: si Septentrionem attenderit, prospera vniuersa significat. Est Quinctus Cometes in tympani modum, quia & valdè lucet, & electri colorem habet, quem Disceum vocant, quoniam iste ex vno loco Sol & gignit orbi teraru[m] cædes,
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124 E. PVT. DE COMETA It says that all those parts of the East can be troubled by clouds, and their crops corrupted by the dark air; if it should turn toward the South, it says that Africa can suffer from drought and snakes; if it should look toward the West, it says that Italy suffers from the continual flooding of rivers; if it should be seen toward the North, it signifies famine for the northern peoples. There is also a comet, which is truly called a comet; for it is surrounded by a mane. This one is said to be gentle: if it should look toward the East, it signifies happy things for that region; if toward the South, joys for Africa or Egypt; if it looks toward the West, the land of Italy will attain its desire. It is said to have appeared at the time when Augustus obtained imperial power; then, at last, good tidings were announced that joys were to come to all peoples. If it should look toward the North, it signifies universal prosperity. There is a fifth comet, in the shape of a tambourine, because it shines very brightly and has the color of amber, which they call Disceus, since from one place the Sun both brings forth and creates slaughter for the world of the earth,
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LIB. II. PARADOX. VI. des, rapinas, bella, & cætera mala significat. [Fortassis: Quoniam iste ex vno loco non solet gigni, Orbiterrarum, &c. Si amplius conjecturæ concedis, explere ausim: ex omni loco vndiqut paruos radios emittit & quoties soleat gigni, Orbi, &c. Sic Plinius lib. :1. cap XXV. Quos (radios) Disceus suo no- mini similis, colore autem electri, paruos è margine emittit.] Sextu[m] Cometen ap- pellari ex Regis Typhonis nomine Typhonie[m] dicunt, qui semel in Aegypto sit visus, qui no[n] igneo, sed sanguineo rubore fuisse nar- ratur. Globus ei modicus dicitur, & tu- mens: crinem eius tenui lumine apparere ferunt: qui in Septentrionis parte aliqua[m] do fuisse dicitur. Hunc Aethiopes dicun- tur & Persæ vidisse, & omni* maloru[m] & fames necessitatis pertulisse quarum pl- na, vel in pleniores differentias, vel in Campestro, vel impetus. sirisiq[ue] * de- lectauerit quærat. Verba hæc, tan- quam funera sunt: asterisci, tan- quam Cometæ. Duorum enim F4 insig-
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LIB. II. PARADOX. VI. destruction, plunder, wars, and the other evils it signifies. [Perhaps: since this does not usually arise from one place, “Orbiterrarum,” etc. If you allow a further conjecture, I would dare to complete it: it sends out small rays from everywhere, and whenever it is usually born, “Orbi,” etc. Thus Pliny, book I, chapter XXV. “Which (rays) the Disceus, similar to its own name but in the color of amber, sends out small ones from the edge.”] The sixth comet is said to be called Typhonian from the name of King Typhon, which was seen once in Egypt, and which is said not to have been fiery, but of a blood-red color. It is said to be of moderate size and swelling; they report that its hair appeared with a thin light: it is said to have been in some part of the North. The Ethiopians and Persians are said to have seen this one, and to have suffered all kinds of evils and necessities of hunger, whose full account, or even fuller distinctions, either in the Campestrian, or in impulse, if it has pleased him, let him seek. These words are, as it were, funerals; the asterisks, as it were, comets. For of the two insig-
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126 E. PV T. DE COMETA insignium Scriptorum nomina hic iugulata & sepulta iacent; quæ eruo, & ad vitam voco: Et omnia genera malorum, & famis necessitates pertulisse. Horum plures, & pleniores differentias vel in Necepso, vel in Petosiri, si quem delectauerit, quærat. Necepsus, & Petosiris, Ægyptij & Astronomi fuerunt, quos coniungere Scriptores amant. Præter Seruium, & fortassis Auienum, Plinius, lib.11.c. xxiii. De mundi geometriâ: Ægyptiaratio, quam Petosiris, ac Necepsos ostendêre, singulas partes in Lunari circulo, vt dictum est, minimo, triginta duobus stadijs, paulo ampliùs patere colligit. Ægyptia ratio: quia vterq; ille Ægyptius. Et lib. VII. ca. xix. De varietate nascendi: Durat & ea ratio (AEgyptia,) quam Petosiris, ac Necepsos tradiderunt, & tetartemorion appellant, à trium signorum portione. Iulius Firmicus præfatione li.111. Illi Diuini viri atque omni admiratione di- gni
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126 E. PVT. DE COMETA the names of famous writers here lie butchered and buried; which I dig up and call back to life: and they have endured all kinds of evils and the necessities of hunger. For the fuller and more detailed differences of these let him who wishes inquire either in Necepso or in Petosiris. Necepsus, and Petosiris, were Egyptian and astronomers, whom writers like to join together. Besides Servius, and perhaps Avienus, Pliny, book 11, chapter xxiii. On the geometry of the world: the Egyptian rule, which Petosiris and Necepsos showed, he concludes that the individual parts in the lunar circle, as has been said, the smallest, extend a little more than thirty-two stadia. Egyptian rule: because each of them was Egyptian. And book VII, chapter xix. On the variety of birth: that rule also lasts (of the Egyptians,) which Petosiris and Necepsos handed down, and they call it the tetartemorion, from a portion of three signs. Julius Firmicus, in the preface to book III. Those divine men, and worthy of every admiration
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LIB. II. PARADOX VI. 127 gni, Petosiris Necepsq[ue], quorum prudentia ad ipsa secreta Diuinitatis accessit, etiam mundi genituram diuino nobis scientiæ magisterio tradiderunt, vt ostendrent, & demonstrarent, hominem ad naturam mundi similitudinemq[ue] formatu[m], ijsdem principijs, quibus ipse mundus regitur, & continetur, perenniter perpetuitatis sustentari comitibus. Petosirin tamen seorsim Suidas nominat, & Aegyptium fuisse Philosophum, scriptis Astrologicis clarum. De Typhone vero breuiter sic Plinius, lib. II. cap. xxv. Diraq[ue] comperta AEthiopum, & AEgypti populis, cui nom[m]e aui eius Rex dedit Typhon, igneâ specie, ac spiræ modo intorta, visu quoq[ue] toruo, nec stella veriùs, quàm quidâ igneus nodus. Volunt autem plurimum momenti in illo signo esse, in quo Cometa natus est; nimirum originis quasi lege: vt alia & alia subit, indole variari. Nescio an tantu fit, sed tamen recenseo: Ab Ariete motus & F.5. sedi-
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gni, Petosiris, Necepsq[ue], whose prudence reached even to the very secrets of Divinity, also handed down to us the generation of the world by divine instruction in knowledge, so that they might show and demonstrate that man, formed in the likeness and resemblance of the world, is sustained perpetually by the same principles by which the world itself is governed and preserved, with the companions of perpetuity. Yet Suidas names Petosiris separately, and says that he was an Egyptian philosopher, distinguished by astrological writings. Concerning Typhon, however, Pliny speaks briefly thus, book II, chapter xxv: the dreadful things found among the peoples of the Ethiopians and Egyptians, to whom his grandfather the king gave the name Typhon, in a fiery form, twisted like a spiral, and with a grim look as well, not more truly a star than some fiery knot. But they think that there is very great importance in that sign under which a comet was born; namely, as though by a law of its origin: so that, according to different natures, it undergoes variation. I do not know whether it is so great a matter, but still I recount it: from Aries the motion and F.5. sedi-
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18 E. PV T. DE COMETA seditiones Orienti imminere. à Tauro, Septentrioni & Occideti. A Geminis, impuras incestasq[ue] libidines immutti, Religione labefactari. A Cancro, pestilentiam, luris oppressionem, aliaq[ue] mala esse. A Leone, frugibus, arboribusq[ue] vitium. A Virgine, Regum Principumq[ue] ministris damnum, carcerem, exilium. A Librâ, latrocinium. A Scorpione, dissidia, proditiones, rebelliones, A Sagittario, artibus scientijsque vilitatem ac contemptum. A Capricorno, honestati ac pudicitiae maculâ. Ab Aquario, tumultum, cædem, populationem. A Piscibus, discordiam, lites, bella, inter a[n]nicos & propinquos. An satis? Vt suas Signa Regiones occupa[n]t, has potissimâ vrgeri. Volunt etiam Cometarum virus viresque à crinibus in proximum quodque Sidus transfundi. Vnde si in Saturni globum fax conuersa est, satorum interitu[m] e[st] annonæ caritatem sequi: si in Iouis, Diadematum siue damna, siue pericula: si in Martis, cruentam vim armorum: si in Veneris, mulie-
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18 E. PV T. OF THE COMET seditions to threaten the East. From Taurus, the North and the West. From Gemini, impure and incestuous lusts are let in, religion is undermined. From Cancer, pestilence, oppression of the law, and other evils are. From Leo, a blight on crops and trees. From Virgo, damage, imprisonment, exile to the servants of kings and princes. From Libra, robbery. From Scorpio, dissensions, betrayals, rebellions. From Sagittarius, vileness and contempt for arts and sciences. From Capricorn, a stain on honor and chastity. From Aquarius, tumult, slaughter, devastation. From Pisces, discord, quarrels, wars, among friends and kinsmen. Enough? Since the Signs occupy their own regions, these are chiefly oppressed. They also maintain that the poison and force of comets is transferred from their tails to whichever nearby star. Whence, if the blaze is turned toward the globe of Saturn, the destruction of crops and the dear price of grain follows: if toward Jupiter, the loss or danger of crowns: if toward Mars, the bloody force of arms: if toward Venus, the wom-
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LIB. II. PARADOX. VI. 129 mulierum interitum, & præcipue magnarum Regiaru[m]quê: in Mercurij, tur bas & seditiones populares. Solem, Lunâque ab hoc sodalitio eximunt circa hos enim vix Cometam collucere: si collucet tamen, promiscuam Orbiterrarum cladem stragemque portendi. Ecce quicquid de Astris homniant aut fingunt cæli interpretes, ad Cometen referunt, tanquam ad Astrum. Sic & pulcherrima mundi machina imposturis obnoxia sit, & tot illustres ignes in exitium generis humani computantur. Dixerim profecto, aut alienari ab hominibus cælum, aut à cælo homines, dum felicitatis regio tristissimis impletur fatis. & mortale Genus quicquid ad terrorem minatque deductum est, timere cogitur. O quanto satius, secernere à Diuinorum communione corporum horroris causam, & innocen- tiam F. 6
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LIB. II. PARADOX. VI. 129 of the destruction of women, and especially of great royal women: in Mercury, popular tumults and seditions. They exempt the Sun and the Moon from this association; for about these hardly ever is a comet seen to shine: if, however, it does shine, it is taken to portend a common slaughter and ruin of the earth-dwellers. Behold, whatever the interpreters of heaven babble or invent concerning the stars, they refer to the comet, as though to a star. Thus also the most beautiful machine of the world may be subject to impostures, and so many illustrious fires are reckoned as the destruction of the human race. I would indeed say either that heaven is estranged from men, or men from heaven, while the region of happiness is filled with most sorrowful fates. And the mortal race is compelled to fear whatever is brought down to threaten terror. O how much better it would be to separate from the communion of divine bodies the cause of dread and innocence F. 6
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130. E. PV T. DE COMETA tiam coelo permittere! quando satius, naturæ simplicitatem ingeniosa superstitione libera! re! Sicci- ne aut ardere non potest aer, aut illustrari cælum, nisi vt terrarum quies scelere & ærumnâ conturbetur? Siccine peccare non possunt homines, nisi & sidera iniqua sint? Monet fateor, & terret prodigijs Deus: & se Deum ostendit: sed hæc tum prodigia sunt, mira, inusitata, à naturæ modo allena. Vt sic dicam, stare Solem, & cælum quiescere: extingui sidera, & noua accendi: deprimi cardinem; & tantæ machinæ compagem solui. Sed quid? Hæc omnia seruent ordinem suum, & nihilominus Auctorem omnium agnoscam Deum. Nam quia Deus est, hæc sichiunt omnia: Sol fertur, cælum mouetur lucent sidera, constat axis, mundus durat. sic & Cometa naturam suam habet & in- noxius,
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130. E. On the Comet Why should we allow this to happen in the heavens? when it would be better for the ingenious simplicity of nature to be free from superstition! Thus, can the air neither burn nor the heavens be illuminated unless the peace of the earth is disturbed by crime and misfortune? Thus, can men not sin unless the stars too are unrighteous? God, I confess, warns and terrifies by portents, and shows Himself as God; but then these are portents—marvels, unusual things, foreign to the ordinary course of nature. As I may say, the sun standing still and the heavens at rest; the stars extinguished and new ones kindled; the axis brought down; and the frame of so great a machine dissolved. But what then? Let all these things preserve their order, and yet I shall acknowledge God as the Author of all things. For because He is God, all these things take place: the sun is carried along, the heavens move, the stars shine, the axis stands firm, the world endures. So too the comet has its own nature and is harmless,
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LIB. II. PARADOX. VI. 131 noxius est: examinandus, vt terro- re liberemur. Naturam, inquam, suam habet: imo & a potelosma suum habet: sed profecto occul- tum, aut parum adhuc explorat- tum. Homines igitur quia verum ignorant, affingunt fallum; & fi- da obieruatione destituti, corru- ptam errore opinionem ample- ctuntur. Nimis profecto arduum est, vim astrorum definire. Gran- diori nobis quotidie flamma ipsi Planete lucent, & te- nebras tamen solertiæ contem- plantium offundunt: errant, cum nequaquam errent, & in errorem præsagia omnia ducunt. Adhuc nescimus, an, quomodo, quando, siue propitij, siue infesti sint, licet quotidiani ac familiares: & pere- grinos istis, raris, fugacibus igni- bus, non ignibus, omnium & ho- minum & regionum fata fatui assignamus. His fidem in futuro quærere F7
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It is harmful: it must be examined, so that we may be freed from fear. Nature, I say, has its own character; indeed, it has its own nature: but certainly it is hidden, or as yet only little explored. Men therefore, because they are ignorant of the truth, invent falsehood; and, lacking faithful observation, they embrace an opinion corrupted by error. Truly it is too difficult to define the power of the stars. The planets themselves shine for us each day with a greater flame, and yet cast darkness upon the sight of those who contemplate them with skill: they seem to err when they do not err at all, and they lead all omens into error. We still do not know whether, how, when, whether they are favorable or hostile, though they are daily and familiar: and to those strange, rare, fleeting fires—not fires—we foolishly assign the fates of all men and of all regions. To seek trust in these in the future
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132 E. PVT. DE COMETA quærere, & Cometis dare vim extinctis, maioris dementiae est. Quia statim non sequiunt minæ, sequi dicuntur; post menses, & annos tandem, si Dis placet, maturescere: an addo? interea, velut otiosos, in aliquo cæli angulo desidere. Ergo nocent Cometæ, & ne existunt quidem; no[n] sunt, & obsunt. Quasi dixerim, vrere ignem, sed iam extinctum: lucere facem, sed in cineres ia dilapsam. Quod si omnino credulitas rationem vicit, timeri, quamdiuco[m] spicuum est, portentum possit: deinceps negligi. Nam vt vllę hic vires sint, nullæ, profecto postumæ nisi confingantur. Sol dum lucet, non postquam luxit, diem facit:æstatishiemisque vices non relinquit, sed ducit. Præsentem quoque Lunæ vultum inferior hæc humidiorque natura exprimit, tumentis plena, deficientis exarel-
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132. But to inquire into, and to attribute force to Comets after they are extinguished, is a greater madness. Because they are not immediately followed by threats, they are said to follow; only after months and years at last, if the gods please, do they mature: or shall I say? meanwhile, like idlers, they are said to lie in some corner of the sky. Therefore Comets do harm, and do not even exist; they are not, and yet they are hurtful. As if I should say, a fire burns, but one that is already extinguished: a torch shines, but one fallen already into ashes. But if credulity has altogether conquered reason, a portent may be feared as long as it is conspicuous; thereafter it is to be disregarded. For if here there are any powers at all, there are none in truth afterwards, unless they are imagined. The sun, while it shines, makes the day, not after it has shone: it does not leave behind the alternation of summer and winter, but conducts it. This lower and more moist nature also expresses the present aspect of the Moon, full when swelling, waning when diminishing.
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LIB. II. PARADOX. VII. 133 exarescens. Cogita in Cometa, Solis, Lunæq; conditionem esse, imaginem esse, adeoque salutarem. PARADOXVM VII Cometam à nonnullis olim faustum ac propitium habitum. De nostro amoenæ quædam obseruatio: V Os fauete Boni: ab astris & ego vaticinium sumam: sed faustum lætumque, & oratione benignori: nisi quicquid demu[m] triste & dirum, placere debeat. Salutares autem nonnullos Cometas fuisse, iam dictum est. Fuit ille, qui natalè Mithridatis Regis Ponti, & ille qui auspicia regni illustrauit: certe Mithridati fuit. Fuit ille qui Romæ in teplocultus est, quia Augusto & orbi terrarum fuit: de quo Virgilius Eclogâ ix. Ecce Dionæi processit Cæsaris astrum: Astru[m], quo segetes gauderet frugib. & quo Duceret apricis in collibus vua colorem: Nalo ad Iulium refert li. xv. Metamorph. Resque
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LIB. II. PARADOX. VII. 133 fading. Consider that in a comet there is the condition of the Sun and of the Moon, that it is an image, and therefore salutary. PARADOX VII A comet was once held by some to be fortunate and propitious. Concerning ours, a certain pleasant observation: You who are good, favor me: from the stars I too will take up a prophecy, but a fortunate and joyful one, and in gentler speech; unless indeed whatever is sad and dire in any case ought to please. But it has already been said that some comets have been salutary. There was that one which appeared at the birth of Mithridates, king of Pontus, and that one which illuminated the omens of the kingdom: certainly it belonged to Mithridates. There was that one which at Rome was honored in a temple, because it was for Augustus and for the whole world: concerning which Virgil in Eclogue IX says: Behold, the star of Caesar, sprung from Dione, has appeared: A star by which crops might rejoice in their fruits, and by which the vine might bring color to the sunny hills. Naso refers it to Julius in book XV of the Metamorphoses. And the rest
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LIB.II. PARADOX. VII. 153 Arboris & prati hoc passim apud Poetas el[em] gium est. Peculiariter e- tiam , quemadmodu[m] dicitur: pratum comans, id est, Læto, & comante gramine vestitum. Sic igitur & Stella Co- mans siue Crinita, quæ lætos ra- dios spargit. Quod ad herbam, Ti- thymallus Characias, siue mascu- lus appellatus, cuius in ca- cuminibus coma iuncea nascitur, & velut ridet. Addo, quod è Pli- nio Seruius colligit in lib.x. Aenei- dos. Quia enim Cometas legerat fieri de Planetis quinque: explicationem adfert: Vnde interdum bona, in- terdum mala significant. Nam si de Ve- nere aut Ioue fiant, meliora significant: si de Marte, aut Saturno, deteriora. Mer- curius semper talis est, qualis ille cui ad- hæret: vnde Minister Deorum fingi- tur. Idem; & ibidem, ex Auie- no: Est etiam alter Cometes, qui verè Cometas appellatur. Nam comis hinc in- de
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This epithet is used indiscriminately by poets of trees and meadows. It is also used in a special sense, as when one says: pratum comans , that is, a meadow clothed with cheerful, waving grass. So too a stella comans , or crinita , a star that sheds bright rays. As to the plant, the Tithymallus Characias , or “male” so called, whose tops grow a rush-like tuft, and seem almost to smile. I add what Servius, from Pliny, collects in the tenth book of the Aeneid . For since he had read that comets are formed from the five planets, he gives this explanation: hence they sometimes signify good things, sometimes bad. For if they are formed from Venus or Jupiter, they signify better things; if from Mars or Saturn, worse. Mercury is always such as the one to which he adheres; hence he is imagined as the servant of the gods. The same writer, and in the same place, from Avienus: there is also another comet, which is properly called a comet. For with hair on this side and that
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136 E. PVT. DE COMETA de cinqitur. Hic blandus esse dicitur: q[ui]n si Orientem attenderit, lætas res ipsi par- ti significat: si Meridiem, Africæ aut AEgypto gaudia: si Occidentem inspexerit, terra Italiæ voti sui compos erit. Hic dicitur apparuisse eo tempore quo est Augustus sortitus imperium, tunc denique gaudia omnibus gentibus futura sunt nunciata: si Septentrionem attenderit, prospera vniuersa significat. Non ma- la tantùm, led & bona denotari, satis, si concedat Antiquitas: vnde & bonum quandoque Cometam esse, ex eodem dogmate statuat. Bo num scilicet, si ex ambiguo, alter- utribonorum juncto. Noster, vt ad rem veniam, vnde factus sit, iâ antè dixi: Mercurio proximum fuisse, quamdiu in Planetarum viâ moram traxit, manifestum est. Le- pida & amoena hominis Docti & scientiarum Mathematicarum periti obseruatio est, quam ab anti- quæ Nobilitatis, Virtutis, Elegan- tiæ
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is said to be sweet. It is said to be gentle: for if it looks toward the East, it signifies glad things for that region; if toward the South, joys for Africa or Egypt; if it looks toward the West, the land of Italy will attain its desire. It is said to have appeared at the time when Augustus obtained the empire, and then at last tidings of joys to be granted to all nations were announced: if it turns toward the North, it signifies all things prosperous. Not only evils, but also good things are denoted, if Antiquity will permit this to be granted: whence one may also infer from the same doctrine that a comet is sometimes good. Good, that is to say, if from ambiguity, joined to either of the goods. As for ours, to come to the point, from what it was made I have already said; that it was nearest Mercury, as long as it remained on the path of the planets, is manifest. A neat and pleasing observation of a learned man and expert in mathematical sciences is that which, from ancient nobility, virtue, elegance
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LIB. II. PARADOX. V. 1. 137 tiæ Viro HESSELO AB HERMANA, Amico meo, & quod glorior Auditore, accepi: Non videri ex illo siderum errantium coitu hoc sidus natum. Illa enim per hoc tempus grandi satis inter se disiuncta interuallo, solitaria, & quodammoda vidua iuisse. Vnum omnium quasi iter fuisse, eadem vestigia, sed serie quadam per eundem coeli tramitem distincta. Quid? Chorum tot luminum, atque ordinem quendam fuisse, pleno ac redeunte in se orbe absolutum. Itaque præcedebat Phoebus, princeps ac moderator reliquorum, hinc Scorpio, illinc Serpentario, tanquam gemino satellitio munitus. Ne Regnam desiderares, Venus, sed triginta sex partium interuallo lequebatur: à tergo inhærente vestigiis Capricorno. Spatium fere quadraginta partium interiectum erat, & hilarem nectare vultulupitero. ffendit
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LIB. II. PARADOX. V. 1. 137 to the man Hessel ab Hermana, my friend, and, as I boast, my listener, I have received: That this star does not seem to have been born from that conjunction of the wandering stars. For they at this time were sufficiently widely separated from one another, solitary, and, as it were, widowed. There seemed to be one common path for all, the same tracks, yet marked out in a certain sequence along the same course of heaven. What then? There was a chorus of so many lights, and a certain order, completed in a full and returning orbit. And so Phoebus went before, the leader and governor of the rest, with Scorpio on this side, and Serpentarius on that, as though protected by a twin guard. Venus, you would not miss the kingdom, but followed at an interval of thirty-six parts, with Capricornus clinging to her tracks from behind. A space of nearly forty parts lay between, and Jupiter with a cheerful nectar-like countenance.
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138 E. PV T. DE COMETA flendit, proximam Ganymedis vr- nam quasi tangens. A Ioue Lu- nam, siue Dianam viginti circiter tres partes separabant: quia feræ deerant, circa Piscem Austrinum occupatam. Ergo insolito exem- plo, & venationem, & in cælo ad- mireris. Interstitio centum dein de partium tardus senio Saturnus fe- rebatur, Taurum, velut iugo sub- iecturus, cornibus apprehendens. Pari hinc pænè remotus spatio Mars Gradius, impetum facere in Leonem visus, nouoque labore ponè Herculis monstrum vrgere. In extremo tandem orbe lucentem barbæ iubam nouum Sidus expli- cuit. Auroræ nuncium putes, alte- rumque quasi Phosphorum: sub cuius radijs Mercurius, agmen ve- lut ex insidijs sequens, latitabat. Furtiua hæc vestigia erant; mox ta- men detecta, procurrente in Bo- rex latus Cometâ, & per signa, aut iux-
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138 E. OF THE COMET’S PATH it inclined, almost touching the nearest orbit of Ganymede. From Jupiter, the Moon, or Diana, was separated by about twenty-three parts: because the beasts were missing, it was occupied around the Southern Fish. Thus, by an unusual example, you would admire both the hunting and also, in the sky. In the interval of a hundred parts thereafter, slow with age, Saturn was carried along, seizing Taurus by the horns, as if about to place him under the yoke. At nearly the same distance from this, Mars Gradius was seen to make an attack on Leo, and with new effort to press upon the monster behind Hercules. At last, in the outermost circle, a new star displayed a shining mane of beard. You might take it for the messenger of dawn, and almost for another Phosphorus; beneath whose rays Mercury was lurking, as if following a troop from ambush. These were stealthy tracks; yet soon they were detected, as the Comet ran out toward the side of Borex, and through the signs, or iux-
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LIB. II. PARADOX. VIII. 139 iuxta signa, quæ propitia augutor. PARADOXVM VIII. Felicitatis præsagium, ad Pontificem, Imperatorem, Regem Catholicum, & Serenissimos Principes nostros relatu[m]. Felix faustumque Libræ signum est, æquinoctio coelum, autumno annum diuidens: hinc quia moueri nouum Sidus coepit, pro felici faustoque habendum; quia in cardinem ipsum porrexit, ostendere potuit quantum & quo- vsque se AEquitas & Religio essent extensura: ostendere, vnde illustrandæ gentes, quas tenebræ quædam temporum inuoluerunt. Libra est, hanc sibi Sidus vindicat; imo Roma est, hanc Libra notat. AEquitas est imo Religio est: Religionem AEquitas inducit. Sic Maniljadhuc versus vsurpo, lib iv. Hesperiam sua Libra tenet, quâ condita Roma, Et
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LIB. II. PARADOX. VIII. 139 according to the signs, which I augur as propitious. PARADOX VIII. An omen of happiness, addressed to the Pontiff, the Emperor, the Catholic King, and our most serene Princes. The sign of Libra is fortunate and auspicious; the sky divides the year at the equinox into autumn: hence, because a new star has begun to move, it ought to be regarded as lucky and favorable; because it has extended itself to the very pivot, it could show how far and how long Equity and Religion were to be extended: to show from where the nations are to be enlightened, whom certain darknesses of the times have enfolded. Libra is what this star claims for itself; indeed Rome is what Libra denotes. It is Equity; indeed it is Religion: Equity introduces Religion. Thus I still use the verse of Manilius, book IV. With its Libra Hesperia is held, by which Rome was founded, And
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140 E. PV T. DE COMETA Et proprijs frenat prudente[m] nutibus orbæ Cris & imperium retinet. Discrimina rerum Lancibus, & positas gentes tollitq[ue] pre- mitque. Mittet felici nunc omine Roma sanctissimæ maiestatis radios: & Ecclesiæ Romanæ Princeps Po- tisex maximus, infracto & vniuersali Dogmatum consensu felicitatem Religionis extendet. Submittit canimos, quotquot estis in Christianum nomen adoptati: sanctius pietate, quâimperio Orbis regitur. ne quis tamen imperium desideret, Diuinum est, & celesti nutugubernatur. Quod ad Discrimina attinet, à Poeta nominata; hæc æquitas non potentia facit: benigna bonis, ne præmium desideres; seuera mali, ne supplicium auerseris. Regi & confirmari sic quoque Religio debet, aut Religio non e- rit
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140 E. PVT. OF A COMET And by his own prudent motions he restrains the orb, and retains the dominion. He weighs the differences of things in the scales, and lifts up and presses down the peoples set in place. Now Rome will send forth, with happy omen, the rays of its most holy majesty: and the Prince of the Roman Church, the supreme Pontiff, with unbroken and universal agreement of doctrines, will extend the happiness of Religion. Bow down your minds, all you who have been adopted into the Christian name: more sacred by piety, by which the empire of the world is governed. Yet let no one desire empire; it is divine, and is ruled by heavenly guidance. As for the differences named by the Poet, it is equity, not power, that makes them: gracious to the good, lest you should desire a reward; severe toward evil, lest you should shrink from punishment. Thus also Religion must be regulated and confirmed, or Religion will not exist
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LIB. II. PARADOX VIII. 141 rit: Deum exprimere, qui & a- mantis & irascentis vultum su- mit. Ad Cometam redeat: is à sig- nifero deflectens, mox exaduer- sum Herculi sterit, viresque cæli illuminauit. Præsenti face quid- ni prudentiam denotem, & sum- mæ sicquidem potestati iunctam? Quisquis ille Hercules, ille Heros, qui subiectum cælo mundum re- git vider: quisquis ille, (& nonne noster?) non impetu sed ratione regitur. Item, quæcumque hæc prudentia, quæ terrarum Orbem sustinet, oculata est, & ab astris lumen deriuat. Sic tanta rerum moles secura est; sic tutæ vires, quibus illa sustinetur. Videre, hoc est firmum esse: vis prudentiæ ex- pers, creca est. Huc & poëtarum figmenta spectant, qui mihi vi- dentur Iceptrum consilio instru- ctum, Argi imagine: destitutum, Cyclopis effinxisse. Frustra af- fluentis
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LIB. II. PARADOX VIII. 141 to represent God, who assumes the face of one who loves and is angry. Returning to the Comet: when it turns aside from the standard-bearer, it soon stands opposite Hercules, and illuminated the powers of heaven. Why should I not by this present torch denote prudence, and indeed joined to supreme power? Whatever that Hercules may be, whatever that Hero, who rules the world subject to heaven, let him be seen: whoever he is, (and is he not ours?) is governed not by impulse but by reason. Likewise, whatever this prudence may be, which sustains the globe of the earth, it is seeing, and draws its light from the stars. Thus so great a mass of things is secure; thus the forces by which it is upheld are safe. To see is this, to be firm: power without prudence is blind. Here too the fictions of the poets have reference, who seem to me to have fashioned the sceptre equipped with counsel in the image of Argus: deprived of it, they have made it into a Cyclops. In vain of the overflowing
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142 E. PVT. DE COMETA fluentis fortunæ copia, nisi prouidè & cautè administretur: inani fiduciâ res sæpe maximæ dissipatæ sunt. Itaque prudentiæ fulcro excellens Maiestas nititur, nec casum timet. Excellens, & sic AVSTRIACA, quæ Orientem simul & Occidentem complexa, fuis velut sceptris, vbique terrarum fulget. Mundi Hercules, quis nisi Cæsar Augustus AVSTRIACVS, Imperij concordiâ & felicitatem, summo auspicio vrgens? verè Cæsar, & in rerum motu constans, in tempestate fortis: verè Augustus, & Numinis opæternitatem nominis stabiliens. Mala & monstra sæculi fugient, non pelle tamen & clauâ, id est, horrore & sæuitiâ; sed sceptro & diademate, id est maiestate & clementiâ superada. Vaticinium vaticinio augendum est: Mundi Hercules, quis nisi noui Orbi Monarcha PHILIPPVS Rex Catholicius?
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142 E. PVT. DE COMETA the abundance of flowing fortune, unless it is prudently and cautiously administered: by empty confidence, great affairs are often dissipated. Therefore excellence in a strong foundation of prudence rests Majesty, and fears no chance. Excellent, and thus AUSTRIAN, which, embracing both East and West, shines everywhere throughout the earth, as if by scepters. The Hercules of the world, who else than Caesar Augustus AUSTRIACVS, pressing onward with the harmony and happiness of the Empire, under the highest auspices? Truly Caesar, and constant amid the movements of affairs, strong in tempest: truly Augustus, and establishing by the aid of the Deity the eternity of the name. The evils and monsters of the age will flee, not however by the club and skin, that is, by terror and severity; but by the scepter and diadem, that is, overcome by majesty and clemency. The prophecy must be augmented by prophecy: the Hercules of the world, who else than the Monarch of the new World, PHILIPPVS, Most Catholic King?
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LIB. II. PARADOX. Viii. 143. cuss? Suo propè vnius exemplo ostendit, quid sit in terris Maximum & simul Optimum esse; Potentissimum, & Lenissimum. Certat cum humanitate quædam, vt sic appellem, diuinitas: faciliusque terminatam cum Orbe terrarum fortunam regit quam singula ali regna, prouincias, vrbes, familias. Etenim vbique quasi Rex est, vbique Dominus, vbique Præfectus, vbique Pater. Putes, non Religione tantum, sed potentia nomen titulumque CATHOLICI exprimi. Ne miremur: Religio tantam potentiam meruit: potentia ad summum fastigium cura & consilio prouecta, populum salute confirmata est. Amplius etiam Cometæ tribuo: vicinus non Herculi modo, sed Coronæ fuit. sed quemadmodum Hercules & Imperatorem, & Regem AUSTRIACOS significat: G ita
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LIB. II. PARADOX. VIII. 143. …by his almost single example he shows what it is on earth to be both the Greatest and at the same time the Best; the Most Powerful and the Mildest. There contends with humanity a certain divinity, if I may so call it; and it more easily governs fortune, bounded by the whole world, than separate kingdoms, provinces, cities, families. For everywhere it is as it were King, everywhere Lord, everywhere Governor, everywhere Father. You would think that not religion alone, but power, expressed the name and title of CATHOLIC. Let us not wonder: Religion has earned so great a power; power, advanced to the highest summit by care and prudence, has strengthened the people by safety. I also attribute something more to the comet: it was near not only Hercules, but also Corona. But just as Hercules signifies both Emperor and King, the AUSTRIANS: G so
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LIB. II. PARADOX VIII. 145 totum percurreret. O pulchrum spectaculum! Gemmo in Arcturo, Custos Erymanthidos Vrsæ illustrari visus est. Quis igitur ille custos? Arctophylax. Quis? Serenissimus, Potentissimus, que princeps noster AIBERTVS, cui Astræa sua, id est, ISABELLA CLARA EVGENIA adhæret. Hic vere Arctophylax fugientem vrlam sequitur, & inuitat. Fugientem, sed suam: sequitur, vt seruet: inuitat, vt felicem reddat. Quid hæretis meliore digni forte Populi? redite vnde desciuistis. Non alia tranquillitas est, quam ab vno regi: qui quanto maior meliorque, tanto æquius imperium est. Ipsa natura docet, membrorum munia sub vno demum capite in salutis obsequium coalescere. siqua Prodigio fides; nouum quod fulger Sidus fausta omnia pollicetur. Acælo ducen- G2 dum
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LIB. II. PARADOX VIII. 145 through the whole. O lovely spectacle! Gemma in Arcturus, the Guardian of the Erymanthian Bear seemed to be made manifest. Who then is that guardian? Arctophylax. Who? Our most serene, most powerful, and prince AIBERTVS, to whom his Astraea, that is, ISABELLA CLARA EVGENIA, is attached. Here truly Arctophylax follows the fleeing she-wolf, and invites her. Fleeing, but his own: he follows, to save her; he invites her, to make her happy. Why do you hesitate, a people worthy of a better fate? Return from where you have strayed. There is no other tranquility than to be ruled by one: the greater and better he is, the more just is the dominion. Nature itself teaches that the duties of the members, under one head at last, combine in dutiful service for safety. If there is any faith in a prodigy; that new star which shines promises all things fortunate. From the sky leading- G2 to
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146 E.PVT.DE COMETA dum est omen: illustratur. Deus ipse promittit Principem, quem ostendit. Educite à terra, & erigi- te oculos: ostendit AVSTRIA- CVM ostendit A L BERTVM, O- stendit vestrum Date honorem Maiestati, in ætherea regione con- secrata est: recipite. Per astra designatur: pacem & felicitatem admittite, vtramque Cometa prominente fulgore annunciat. Aut vana omnia omnia sunt aut Cælesti igne designari dixerim, à quo tandem post miserrimi bel- li couersionem Belgæ debeat regi PARADOXVM IX. Conclusio, & argumenti excusatio. Non sidera, sed sceleraprodigia esse: scele- ratis portendi, quicquid timendum est. A Moui præsagia, vt tamen Aurparem: pietate vicisse superstitionem videor. Pietas bo- na omnia & fausta ominatur: Su- persti-
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146 E.PVT.DE COMETA When it is an omen, it is illuminated. God himself promises the Prince whom he shows. Lift up your eyes from the earth, and behold: he shows the Austrian; he shows Albert; he shows your own. Give honor to Majesty, consecrated in the heavenly region: receive him. He is designated by the stars: admit peace and happiness; the comet, with its shining blaze, announces both. Either all these things are vain, or I would say that they are marked by a celestial fire, by which at last, after the turning of the most miserable war, the Belgians ought to be ruled. PARADOX IX. Conclusion, and apology for the argument. Not the stars, but crimes are prodigies; whatever is to be feared is foretold to the wicked. The omens of A. Mouv, though I may still name them, seem to me to have been overcome by piety by superstition. Piety foretells all good and fortunate things: Supersti-
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LIB. II. PARADOX. IX. 147 perstitio, mala & infausta semper timet. Illa quæ ominatur, sperare audet: hæc quæ timet, nunqua[m] amoueri posse putat: non Bellum, non Pestem, non Famem, ærum nasquealias, non denique triste fatum Regum atque Principum. Itaque sumpsi calamum, & in tam vario trepidantium tumultu, & vaticinantium metu, alloqui populosausus: sum imò Reges Principesque. Alloqui ausus: sed argumenti fiduciâ, non lætioris tantum sed verioris. Breuiter: indulsi ingenio stiloque, vt admirandum mundi spectaculum ad litteras quoque reuocarem. Fortassis & mitiores siciam in Cometam plerique erunt, quem non omni penitus destitutum patrocinio adnimaduertent: solâ autem raritate formidari. Nesciatur quotidie, & nullum ostenti nomen erit: splendeat semper, & negli- G}gini-
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LIB. II. PARADOX. IX. 147 Superstition always fears evil and unlucky things. That which it foretells dares to hope; that which it fears, it thinks can never be averted: neither War, nor Pestilence, nor Famine, nor other miseries, nor finally the sad fate of Kings and Princes. And so I took up the pen, and amid so great a confused turmoil of the trembling, and the fear of those prophesying, I dared to address the populace: yes, even Kings and Princes. I dared to address them: but with confidence in my subject, not only of a happier but of a truer argument. In brief: I indulged my talent and style, so that I might bring the astonishing spectacle of the world back also to literature. Perhaps too there will be many who will be more gentle toward the Comet, for they will observe that it is not altogether destitute of support; but it is feared solely on account of its rarity. Let it be unknown from day to day, and it will have no name of portent; let it always shine, and neglect-
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148 E. PVT. DE COMETA gi incipiet. Sed quid est? quoties apparet, tanquam ignotus venit: nec aliam ob causam mirus, quàm quia rarus; terrorem incutiens, quia nescitur. Vos timete mali, semper rudes: scelerum nube involutis obscura omnia, & horrenda sunt. Timete, & expauescite, non mundi, sed auaritiæ, iniustitiæ, impietatis portenta; in animo, non in cælo prodigia, quibus Deus, Lex, Natura irascuntur. Si qui etiam peccandi consuetudine flagitia sua non vident, attollant in sublime oculos: vt metuere supplicia incipiant. Mehercle, quàm pulchrum est cælum, tam terribile quoque Numen, quoties non contemnitur tantùm, sed negligitur. Quis contemnit? qui & in Regem, Principem, Magistratum impius est. Quis negligit? qui in Ciuem, imo in Se, siue iniuste vitam instituendo, siue turpiter & flagitiosè,
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148 E. PVT. DE COMETA will begin. But what is it? whenever it appears, it comes as though unknown: and it is wondrous for no other reason than because it is rare; striking terror, because it is not known. You should fear evil, always ignorant: for those wrapped in the cloud of crimes, all things are dark and dreadful. Fear, and be terrified, not of the prodigies of the world, but of greed, injustice, ungodliness; prodigies in the mind, not in the sky, at which God, Law, and Nature are angry. If those who, through the habit of sinning, do not even see their own wicked deeds, lift up their eyes on high: so that they may begin to fear punishments. By Hercules, how beautiful is the sky, so terrible also is the Deity, whenever He is not merely despised, but neglected. Who despises Him? he who is impious also toward the King, Prince, and Magistrate. Who neglects Him? he who, toward his fellow citizen, indeed toward himself, either by ordering his life unjustly, or shamefully and wickedly,
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LIB. II. PARADOX. IX. 149 tiose. Interim Dei vindicem ipsa Natura aget, sæuiet. Ne minæ desint, tot semper fulgebunt Cometæ, quot Stellæ sunt: in pectore cuiusque prodigia, imo supplicia nascentur. Sed quò digredior? Carmine claudere sententiâ lubet, & prorumpentem stili impetum numerorum velut religione coercere Error hic, anterror fallax, qui dira Cometis Fata dedit? sæum crinibus Imperium? O vos, innocuo, Prognostæ, parcite cælo: Ostendi vanas Sideris ire minas. Terra suos generat dānati luminis ignes. Naturæ fæces terra, facesq[ue] gerit. (res, Cernite corruptos, & dignos vindice mo- An morbos? raptu per mala vota nefas. Prodigio humanu[m] stat crimem: parcite cælo Sæuit & humano crimine prodigium. Ergò fatalè scelerato in pectore flamam Accendit varijs vis animi furijs. Hinc rubet in poena[m], valido perstrictus ab igni G 4 Qui
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LIB. II. PARADOX. IX. 149 Those things. Meanwhile, Nature herself shall act as avenger of God; she shall rage. Lest threats be lacking, so many Comets shall always shine as there are Stars: in the breast of each one prodigies, nay punishments, shall arise. But where am I straying? I am pleased to close the sentence with verse, and to restrain the rushing impulse of the pen, as it were by the religion of numbers: Is this the error, this deceitful terror, which gave cruel fate to Comets? a savage rule over their locks? O you Prognosticators, spare the harmless sky: The earth shows the vain threats of a star’s course. The earth begets the fires of condemned light. The dregs of Nature, the earth, bears torches also. See the corrupt things, and worthy of an avenger— Are they maladies? by a snatching away through evil vows, wickedness. In the prodigy, human crime stands forth: spare the sky; The prodigy rages through human crime. Therefore, fatal flame in the criminal breast the force of mind kindles with various furies. Hence he reddens in punishment, struck down by a strong fire.
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COROLLARIVM, A IVSTO ET FAVSTO PVTEANIS Paternæ PARADOXOLOGIAE adiectum. Spectanti COMETAM Patri, atque etiam scribenti, operam aliquam dedimus; si non ingenio, certè manu. Nunc quoque officiosi sumus & quam iuuimus Editionem exornatum imus. Doctorum hic aliquot in Academiâ nostrâ Virorum Carmina collegimus, qui bono affectu stimulati, addere pompam Operi huic, tanquam facem faci, lumen lumi- ni, voluerunt. Scriptam quidem DE COMETA παραδοξολογίαν, si Cometam appellare licet, Versus, qui accedunt, radij sunt & fauente velut Phoebo missi. Constitu- G erat-
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COROLLARY, Added to THE JUST AND AUSPICIOUS PUTEANUS of his father’s PARADOXOLOGY. Having watched the COMET, Father, and even in writing, we devoted some effort; if not by talent, certainly by hand. Now too we are dutiful, and proceed to adorn the edition. We have collected here the poems of a few learned men in our Academy, who, stimulated by goodwill, wished to add pomp to this work, as if a torch to a torch, light to light. Indeed, the PARADOXOLOGY ON THE COMET, if it may be called a comet, was written; the verses that follow are rays, and, as it were, sent by favoring Phoebus. It had been G determined-
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erat verò Paternon pauca huic argumento adiungere: sed in re nouâ modum seruare maluit, moremetiam morbo, & post morbum languori gerere. Cæli tamen naturam, són theô, vberius a- liquando explicaturus. Quæstu- unculam in prælenti proponit: An, quia apud Homerum lib. x. Iliad. Ex verterâ αναφαίντα, ὑπιος ἀστη, ad Cometam referri debeat? Hunc nobiscum expende, quicun- que curiosus es; & has Philoso- phorum aliquot Veterum Opini- ones à Plutarcho sic breuiter, ex- pressas. DE
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It was indeed Paternon’s intention to add a few things to this argument; but in a new matter he preferred to keep a moderate course, even in illness and after illness to continue in weakness. He will, however, explain the nature of the heavens more fully at some other time, with God’s help. For the present he puts forward a little question: whether, because in Homer, book X of the Iliad, from the words “ἀναφαίντα, ὑπιος ἀστη,” it should be referred to a comet? Consider this with us, whoever you are that are curious; and also these opinions of a few of the ancient philosophers, briefly expressed by Plutarch. DE
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DE COMETA PHILOSOPHORVM ALIQVOT VETERVM OPINIONES, Apud Plutarch. lib. ii. De Placitis. PYTHAGOREORVM ALIQVI Cometam censent Stellam esse, sed ex ijs, quæ nonnisi post certum interuallum conspicuæ, periodo demum confectâ, ex- orientur. ALIQVI, Reflexionem visus nostri ad Solem: quemadmodum in speculis i- magines quædam apparent. ANAXAGORAS ET DEMO- CRITVS, Coitum stellarum duarum aut plurium, fulgorem iungentium. ARISTOTELES, Igneam è sicco vapore massam. STRATO, Lumen sideris densâ nube co[m]prehensum: vt fieri in lucernis so- let. G 6 HE-
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ON THE COMET THE OPINIONS OF SOME OF THE ANCIENT PHILOSOPHERS, According to Plutarch, book ii. On the Opinions. SOME OF THE PYTHAGOREANS think a comet to be a star, but one of those which are seen only after a certain interval, and which, when its period has at last been completed, appear again. SOME, the reflection of our sight to the Sun; just as certain images appear in mirrors. ANAXAGORAS AND DEMO- CRITUS, the conjunction of two or more stars, joining their brightness together. ARISTOTLE, a mass of fiery substance from dry vapor. STRATO, the light of a star caught in a dense cloud: as is customary to happen in lamps. G 6 HE-
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AD AMPLISSIMVM VIRVM E PVTEANVM, Ex morbo conualescentem, in quem inciderat, cum de COMETA ANNI . 13C. XVIII. scriberet. D Vm vimportenti diris, PVTEANE, Cometis. Demis, & innocuum crinibus ire iubar Astruis, afflictos inuasit pallidus artus Languor, vt ambiguis vix fluat ex animis Inueterata diu sententia, tristerubentis Quæ nunquam visas sideris asseruit Impunè species. Iam fecerat omnia morbus: Viuus adhuc, coeli iam propè crimen eras. Extimuit Phoebus, crudum ne forsan Alumni G 7 Au-
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To the most distinguished man, E. Puteanus, recovering from the illness into which he had fallen, when he was writing about the comet of the year 13C XVIII. While you were, Puteanus, assigning to the terrible comets the blame, and setting forth that the harmless raying star goes its way with locks of hair, a pallid illness invaded your stricken limbs, so that from your mind scarcely flows, amid uncertain signs, the long-established opinion, which declared the sad-blazing spectacle of a star never before seen to be guiltless. The sickness had already done everything: still alive, you were already almost the crime of heaven. Phoebus was alarmed, lest perhaps the harshness of the offspring
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Augeret veterem funus amaritiem. Ergo serenatis astrorum cincta choræis Agmina mox gyro deuocat aerio. Afflatum miscere iubet, qui languida membra Roboret, & stellis detrahat inuidiam. Ecce tuam Cæli iurant, PYTEANE, salutem, Ne posset veri mors temerare fidem. P. CASTELLANVS.
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It increased the old bitterness of death. Therefore, with the celestial bands made serene, it soon summons the hosts in a swirling aerial circuit. It orders the breath to be mingled, so that it may strengthen the languid limbs and remove envy from the stars. Behold, the heavens swear to your salvation, PYTEANE, lest death might dare to violate the truth. P. CASTELLANVS.
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IN LIBROS DE COMETA AMPLISSIMI ET CLARISSIMI VIRI Eryci Pvteani I IN terris fulget, qui nuper fulsit in Astris, Insolita pingens luce COMETA poli. Illi Sol Phoebus luce infundebat in Astris, In terris Phoebu[m] Sol PVTEANVS agit. Occidet hæc nunquam lux, illa recessit ab Astris: Namque hic plus quàm Sol, Sol PVTEANE, potes. II. Nec pestem terris, nec cuiquam fata Cometes, Portendit fama[n]sed, PVTEANE, tibi, Nam qua demonstras certâ ratione Cometen, Excipient famam sacla futura tuam. NICOLAVS Vernulæus. IN
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ON THE BOOKS ON THE COMET OF THE MOST DISTINGUISHED AND MOST ILLUSTRIOUS MAN Erycius Puteanus I He shines on earth, who lately shone among the stars, The COMET of the sky, painting with unusual light. Phoebus the Sun was pouring his light into the stars for him; on earth Phoebus the Sun is set in motion by PVTEANUS. This light will never set; that one has withdrawn from the stars: For you can do more than the Sun itself, O PUTEANUS, you can. II. Nor pestilence for the lands, nor fate for anyone, does a Comet foretell, but rather fame, O PUTEANUS, for you; For by the sure reason with which you demonstrate the comet, future ages shall receive your renown. NICOLAS Vernulaeus. IN
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IN PARADOXOLOGIAM A. V. ERYCI PVTEANI De nouissimo COMETA. Qvacunq[ue] gens es, cuius ille nuperus COMETA mentem perculit, per hunc Librum Quasi per dioptram contuere panicum Tuum tremorem, disce sensus altiùs Lacere iacentes, error hic erret procul Quiterret: est inane nomen omnis COMETA, si rimére propiùs, antequa[m] Mirêre properus. Euge, robur mutua A mente nostrâ Belgicorum, quos duplex COMETA, visus pænè eodem tempore, Nil perculit, sed in stuporem perpulit Lætum ac lubentem. Itane, inquies, Sidus Ita, inquo, nihil sinistri, perpera[m] (duplex? Minitans nihil, verum recenti lumine Amæna, faustaq[ue] pollicens qua[m] plurima. Natura Sidus alterum dedit polo, Liber iste Sidus alterum dedit solo. FR. MELCHIOR DAELHEMIVS Erem. Augustinianus,
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In Paradoxology A. V. Of Ericius Puteanus On the most recent Comet. Whoever you are, whatever nation you belong to, whose mind that recent Comet has shaken, through this book As through a diopter behold your panic, your trembling; learn to read the senses more deeply. Let error here wander far away: Whoever fears, let him know this is an empty name—every COMET—if you examine it more closely, before you wonder at it in haste. Well done; strength is renewed in our mind by the Belgians, whom a double Comet, seen almost at the same time, did not alarm at all, but drove them into astonished delight and willingness. “What then,” you will say, “a star?” Yes, I say, nothing harmful, indeed, not at all a double one? It threatens nothing, but with recent light promises many pleasant and fortunate things. Nature gave one star to the sky, this book gave another star to the earth. FR. MELCHIOR DAELHEMIUS Augustinian Hermit,
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AD CL. V. E. PVTEANVM, Cùm de COMETA nouo. PARADOXA scriberet. Paradoxæ cerno, Veritatis symbola, In portico Democritum, Clausamque calimachinam Putei ambitu, Et quicquid est miraculi, Quicquid comatâ siderum ludit face Natura, visque occultior. At ipse subtiliss murisu Sophus Nesciuit olim, sidera Quo fonte traheret crinium ardætes globos, Sic crevit error: dum latet Ignotus ignis, quisque portentum putat, Majusquid verò territâ Inanemonstrum, Inanesed primus facis, PVTEANE, è Puteo tuo, Potente calamo, Veritas tandem redux Expugnat ignorantiam. Dum voce doctâ, pariter & filio exprimis: Quid sit COMETA, noscitur: Vanaq; per te deprehenduntur mina. Abominati sideris. Nam,
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To CL. V. To E. PUTEANUS, When on the new COMET he was writing PARADOXES. I see paradoxes, the symbols of Truth, in the portico of Democritus, and the closed Calimachian well, by the circuit of Puteus, and whatever there is of marvel, whatever nature, with her hair-like torch, plays with among the stars, and whatever is a more hidden power. Yet even the very subtle sage once did not know from what source to draw the blazing globes of the stars; thus error grew: while the unknown fire lies hidden, each man thinks it a portent; but in truth, more than the frightened empty monster, it is only an empty thing first made by you, PUTEANUS, from your well, with powerful pen, Truth at last brought back drives out ignorance. While, with learned voice, and at the same time through your son, you explain: what a COMET is, is known; and vain threats are detected through you of the abominable star. For,
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IOANNIS STORMI DE COMETA CARMEN RECIPROCVM, Naturam prodigij, & Effectum Contrario sensu explicans Sedus esse Prodigium, mirari homines desinant: Carmen est, sed de Side- re conscriptum. Clariss. Io. STORMI- vs, Medicinæ, & Maheleos myst, Vir & morum probitate, & ingenij, variæque doctrinæ laude excellens, tam propitium Apollinis Gen:u habuit, vt, Quid sic Co- meta, & Quid portendat, mero Oraculo complexus sit. Natura quidem breui, & Reciproco Epigrammate absoluitur: Va- ticinium autem xvii. Distichis decurrit, recta & porrecta illa serie metum incuti- ens; inversa tollens. Disponuntur fata, sed si per eadem referuntur gradum referas, proculcantur ac percunt. OPINIO LOQVITVR. Flagret Barba ea, non Solis fit lumine fumi Copia sic ardet, non ibi Stella mera est. RATIO RESPONDET. Est mera Stella ibi, no[n] arde: sic copia fumi: Lumine fit Solis, non ea Barba flagrat. OPI-
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JOANNIS STORMI ON THE COMET A RECIPROCAL POEM, Explaining the nature of the prodigy and its effect in contrary sense Let the prodigy cease to be counted a prodigy, let men cease to marvel: it is a poem, but written about a star. The most distinguished Io. STORMI- us, a man outstanding for the praise of his skill in medicine and the Muses, for the probity of his character, and for the excellence of his intellect and varied learning, enjoyed such a kindly gift of Apollo's genius that, in a single oracle, he set forth What a comet is and what it portends. The nature indeed is set forth in a brief and reciprocal epigram: the prophecy, however, runs through seventeen distichs, the straight and extended sequence striking fear; the reversed one removing it. Fates are appointed, but if they are brought back by the same steps they are trampled down and perish. OPINION SPEAKS. Let that beard blaze; it is not from the light of the sun. Such a great mass burns; there is no mere star there. REASON RESPONDS. There is indeed a mere star there, and it does not burn: such a mass of smoke is there; it is from the light of the sun that it is made, that beard does not blaze. OPI-
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162 OPINIOVATICI NATVR. Interitum id Sidus radians, haud nun ciat ortum Principi: ito retrò, non bona vaticinor Occiduis nocet hac lux, nec blanditur Eois, Infestat Boreos, non ea amica Moto est. Teutonibus mala, nec Belgis fert prospera. Iberis. Aspera, non populis hac favet Ausonia, Flagro percutienda est, nec ruta India abibis; Turbat, non recreat fax nova Sauromatas. Hercyniam opprimet armatis, neque culta colonis. Arva dabit: perdet, nec sata perficiet. Quadrat stella malè hac Batauis: haud uniet ipsos, Puniet hos vndis: haud locus obstat huic: Ijs turbat mare, nec toto sinit orbe carinas Ire: negat reditum, nec freta pandia ijs. Submerget Batauos, non mare placat iis, Est fera ubique ea, non lampas satis aquæ: sepulchro Orta datur soboles hinc neque viua patri Deest ipsa auxilio, haud infantem promouet ortum: Impedit, haud foetus exitui apta præest. Patrat monstra, neque est inceptis utilis: obstat.
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162 OPINION OF THE NATURE OF THE STAR. That shining star foretells destruction, not birth to the prince: go back; I prophesy no good. This light harms the western peoples, nor does it smile on the eastern, it oppresses the northern peoples; it is no friend to the south. It is evil for the Teutons, nor does it bring prosperity to the Belgians, or to the Iberians. Harsh, it does not favor the peoples of Ausonia; it must be struck with flame, and you shall not go from India unharmed; the new torch disturbs, not refreshes, the Sauromatae. It will crush Hercynia with armed force, and will not give cultivated fields to husbandmen: it will destroy, nor will it bring the crops to fruition. This star bodes ill for the Batavians: it will not join them together, it will punish them with waves: no place blocks its power; for them it stirs the sea, nor does it allow ships to go across the whole world: it denies return, nor do the wide straits open for them. It will submerge the Batavians; the sea does not calm itself for them. It is savage everywhere, nor is there enough water for the lamp: from the tomb a child is born; from this no living offspring is given to the father. The star itself lacks aid; it does not advance the birth of the infant: it hinders, and is not fit to bring the foetus forth to its end. It brings forth monsters, and is not useful for undertakings: it obstructs.
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163 obstat Fructib[us] haud teneris assiduò ipsa præest. Interimet prius, haud nuptas dubit esse puellas, Ire facit steriles, no[n] cisò fructiferas. Lethiferas modò fert pestes, nec pharmacæ gignit Commoda: dat calidas, hanc sine morte febres. Re, let cade loca. haud rectis hac abstinet igni inijcit accerum, non euet ipsa sacris. Exitum parit haud regnis hac proderit: urbes Diruet excelsas non nec restituet Nobilibus mala, nec populo hinc op aria propinat: Stella dat hac inopem fruge nec implet ægrum. Evacuat stabula, haud favet agricolis, Est Est mala Barba ea, non superum hinc abit iræ: Cometes Arma parat nobis non bona significat. RATIO RESPONDET Significat bona, non novis, parat arma Cometes: Ira abit hinc superum, non ea Barba mala est. Agrecolis fauet, haud miseros facit esse: ju venecis Aucta replet multis, haud stabula eva Agrum
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163 It opposes With fruit not yet tender, it continually presides over it itself. It first destroys, and makes girls who have not yet married hesitate to go, it causes sterile things to go, not quickly fruitful. It produces only deadly plagues, nor does it create any benefit from medicines: it gives fevers, hot ones, and these without death. In things let it fall into places. It does not keep away from straight fire it throws up, not itself from sacred rites. It brings about an end; it will not profit kingdoms: it will overthrow lofty cities, nor will it restore them. It brings evil to nobles, nor does it from here pour out useful things to the people: a star gives with this a poor harvest, nor fills the sick. It empties the stalls, does not favor farmers. It is It is an evil beard, and from here the anger of the gods does not depart: A comet It prepares arms for us, it does not signify good things. REASON ANSWERS It signifies good things, not for new things, it prepares arms A comet: From here the anger of the gods departs; that beard is not evil. It favors farmers, and does not make the wretched to be so: for the young Increased wealth fills many, does not empty the stalls, the field
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Sauvematas noua fax recreat, non turbat: abib it India tuta, nec est percutienda flagro, Ansonia fauet hæc populis, non aspera Iberis: Prospera fert Belgis, nec mala Teutoni- bus. Est Noto amica ea, non Boreos infestat. Eois Blanditur, nec lux hæc nocet Occiduis. Vaticinor bona, non retrò ito: Principis ortum Nunciat haud radiant Sidus id interitum -------------------------------------------------------- CENSURA. Hanc Paradoxologiam de Cometâ nu pero, eleganter ac eruditè conscriptam, vtiliter prælo committendam conseo, quòd & inveterata quædam nervosè redarguat, atque ad plenioris de eo veritatis indaginem, & plurimum con- ferat, & occasionem subministret. Louanij, 4. Feb. 1619. GUILHELMVS FABRICIVS Apostolicus, & Archiducalis Librorum Censor.
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The new torch rekindles Sauvematas, not in disorder: it will depart. India is safe, nor is it to be smitten with the scourge; this Ansonia favors the peoples, not harsh to the Iberians; it brings prosperity to the Belgians, nor evils to the Teutons. It is friendly to the South, it does not trouble the North; it flatters the Eastern peoples, nor does this light harm the Western ones. I prophesy good things; do not go back: a prince’s rise this star announces; that radiant star not destruction. -------------------------------------------------------- CENSURE. I judge that this Paradoxology concerning the recent comet, elegantly and learnedly written, should be usefully committed to the press, because it vigorously refutes certain long-held errors, and contributes greatly, and provides occasion for a fuller investigation of the truth about it. Louvain, 4 Feb. 1619. GUILHELMUS FABRICIUS Censor of Books to the Apostolic See and the Archducal Court.
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BONE LECTOR. QVæcunq[ue] hîc scripsi, verecundè scri- pta funto. Nam cùm de Sideribus, de Stellis, de Calo disputamus, cauendum maximè, nequid temere, aut impuden- ter. E Globis tamen siue Corporibus, quæ calorum inerrant sparsi, quidni Cometas constituam? Hac fiduciâ Paradoxorum titulum vsurpaui. Inter Mathematicorum bodie primos Reuerendum, et rarissimæ subtilitatis Virum Gregorium A S. VINCENTIO habeo: quippe Magni Clauij è Societate resu Auditorem: is in Thesibus De Comeris, peculiarem de admirando hoc spectaculo opinionem exprimens, et quâ Paradox quædam nostra confirmentur, esse eiusmodi in cælo Globos, eiusmodi Corpora pariter profitetur. Id te Lector, scire volui, et saluere. Σπεδαίων ζην άρισον. BIBLIOTICA NAZ. ROMA. VITTORIO EMIMILE
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BENE READER. Whatever I have written here, let it be written modestly. For when we dispute about the Sidera, the Stars, and the Heavens, we must especially beware lest anything be said rashly or arrogantly. Yet from the globes or bodies scattered through the heavens, why should I not set down Comets? With this confidence I have assumed the title of Paradoxes. Among mathematicians today I hold in esteem the Reverend and man of most rare subtlety, Gregory of S. Vincentio: indeed, a hearer of the great Clavius of the Society of Jesus; he, in the Theses De Cometis, expressing a particular opinion about this admirable spectacle, and by which certain of our paradoxes are confirmed, likewise professes that there are such globes in the sky, such bodies as well. I wished you, reader, to know this, and farewell. Σπεδαίων ζην άρισον. BIBLIOTICA NAZ. ROMA. VITTORIO EMIMILE
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