Chapter XLV: Book VI: chap. iii.) that Philolaus, whom he calls an illustrious

mathematician and a very experienced investigator of nature, would have the earth to be one of the stars and to turn in an oblique circle around the fire, just as the sun and moon have their paths.

In the “Abhandlungen zur Geschichte der Mathematik,” Leipzig, 1899, Vol. IX. pp. 275–292, will be found “Note sur le charactère de l’astronomie Ancienne,” by Paul Mansion, explaining the seven systems of Ancient Astronomy and showing the centre of the world to be, according to Philolaus, a central fire, or vital flame of the entire planetary system; whilst Eudoxus,[66] Ptolemæus and Tycho Brahé believed it to be the earth immovable; Heraclides of Pontus asserted that it was the earth rotating from West to East; and both Aristarchus and Copernicus maintained that it was the Sun.

REFERENCES.--Fabricius (Johann Albert), “Bibliotheca Græca”;
Rose’s “New Gen. Biog. Dict.,” London, 1850, Vol. XI. p.
102; Houzeau et Lancaster, “Bibl. Gén.,” Vol. II. p. 224;
Chaignet (Antelme Edouard), “Pythagore et la Philosophie
Pythagoricienne,” 1873; Humboldt, “Cosmos,” 1859, Vol. I. p. 65;
Larousse, “Dict. Univ.,” Vol. XII. p. 823.

=Philostratus=, FLAVIUS, to whom Gilbert alludes briefly at Chap. XXXVIII. book ii. of his _De Magnete_ as affirming that the stone _pantarbes_ attracts to itself other stones, was an eminent Greek sophist, born at Lemnos between 170 and 180 A.D., whose only writings known to us are accounts of the lives of Apollonius of Tyana[67] and of the Sophists. These were first published, Paris, 1608, and a part thereof have found a good translator in M. A. Chassang, who entitled his book “Le Merveilleux dans l’Antiquité,” Paris, 1862.

REFERENCES.--Letronne (Jean Antoine), “Mém. de l’Acad. des
Inscrip.,” N. S., Vol. X. p. 296; Gibbon (Edward), “Roman
Empire,” Vol. III. p. 241; Ritter (Dr. Heinrich), “Hist. de
la Philos. Ancienne,” Vol. XII. chap. vii.; Fabricius (Johann
Albert), “Bibliotheca Græca,” Vol. V. p. 540; Miller, in the
“Journal des Savants,” 1849; “Biog. Gén.,” Vol. XL. pp. 3–5;
ninth “Encycl. Britan.,” Vol. XVIII. pp. 796–797.

=Plancius=, PETER, who is alluded to in Edward Wright’s address to Gilbert, was a Dutch theologian and astronomer--“a most diligent student, not so much of geography as of magnetic observations”--(1552–1622), the first to recommend the Dutch expeditions to the Indies and who prepared the necessary instructions and maps to ensure their success. His universal map has been alluded to at the Blundeville entry, A.D. 1602. In the article on Dr. Kohl’s Collection of Early Maps (“Harv. Univ. Bull.,” Vol. III. p. 305) allusion is made to a map of America by Peter Plancius, 1594, which is spoken of by Blundeville in his “Exercises” as “lately put forth in the yeere of our Lord 1592.”

REFERENCES.--Wagenaar (Jan), “Histoire de la Hollande,” Vol.
IX. p. 140, and also “Histoire d’Amsterdam,” Vol. I. p. 407,
and Vol. III. p. 219; “Biog. Gén.,” Vol. XL. p. 403; Larousse,
“Dict. Univ.,” Vol. XII. p. 1129.

=Plotinus of Alexandria=, the father of Neoplatonism, lived 205–270 A.D. His writings were left to the editorial care of Porphyry, who arranged them in six divisions, each of which was subdivided into nine books, or Enneads. Plotinus maintains that men belong to two worlds, that of the senses and that of pure intelligence, and it depends upon ourselves as to which one we will direct most our thoughts and finally belong. The fire-firmament of Plotinus is alone referred to by Gilbert in the third chapter of the last book of _De Magnete_.

REFERENCES.--“Neoplatonism,” and works cited in the
Encyclopædias, also the works on Plotinus, especially by
Kirchner (Carl), 1854, by Brenning (Emil), “Die Lehre ...
Plotin ...” (1864), and by Kleist (E. C. von) (1884); Plotini,
“Operum Philosophicorum Omnium,” Basilæ, 1580, Liber III, Ennead
II, p. 115; Kingsley (Charles), “Alexandria and her Schools,”
Camb., 1854; Grucker (Emile), “De Plotinianis,” Paris, 1866;
Lewes (George Henry), “History of Philosophy from Thales to
Comte,”[68] London, 1867; Larousse, “Dict. Univ.,” Vol. XII. p.
1198; “Biog. Gén.,” Vol. XL. pp. 487–494; Dr. Fried. Ueberweg,
“Hist. of Philos.,” tr. of Geo. S. Morris, 1885, Vol. I. pp.
240–252; Bouillet (Marie Nicolas), “Les Ennéades de Plotin,”
1857.

=Ptolemæus=, CLAUDIUS, the great Egyptian mathematician, geographer and astronomer who flourished in middle of the second century after Christ, is frequently alluded to throughout four of the books of _De Magnete_, and Gilbert makes direct reference to the “Opus Quadripartitum,” “Cosmographia” and “Geographia.” The last is, however, the work with which Ptolemy’s name is most prominently connected. It was the standard up to the time of the marine discoveries of the fifteenth century, and has been translated and published into editions too numerous to mention here.

It may be added that the “Geographia Universalis” issue of 1540 is the first to embrace a proper map bearing the name “America,” and that, to the identical account of Columbus which originally appeared in the 1522 and 1525 editions, Servetus appended a few words concerning the absurdity of putting the claims of Americus Vespuccius before those of the real discoverer.[69] The first book in which the name America was formally given to the new Continent is entitled “Globus Mundi,” published 1507–1510, and attributed to Henricus Loritus--de Glaris--Glareanus. The suggestion of the name had, indeed, been made by the geographer Waldseemüller (Martinus Hylacomylus) of Freiburg, in his “Cosmographiæ Introductio,” published at St. Dié, in Lorraine, April 25, 1507, but the “Globus Mundi” was first to put it into effect.

The Waldseemüller suggestion above alluded to is thus translated: “And the fourth part of the world, having been discovered by Americus, it may be called Amerige; that is, the land of Americus, or America.” In 1901, Prof. Jos. Fischer, of Beldkirch, discovered, at Wolfegg Castle in Würtemberg, two huge maps, measuring together eight feet by four and a half feet, which proved to be those of Waldseemüller, of which all trace had been lost for centuries. They were reproduced in London, during the year 1903, and were thus alluded to by one of the writers at the time:

“Ever since Humboldt first called attention to the ‘Cosmographiæ Introductio’ no lost maps have ever been sought for so diligently as those of Waldseemüller. It is not too much to say that the honour of being their lucky discoverer has long been considered as the highest possible prize to be obtained amongst students in the field of ancient cartography. But until the summer of 1901, although many copies of the book are known in various editions, no specimen of either the globe or map has ever been seen or heard of in modern times. Some historians and geographers have even gone so far as to state definitely that they were never issued at all, and the book published alone. Others have held that they never got beyond their manuscript form, while some have contended that they were actually issued with the book, but, being separate, had become lost in the course of time. The writers holding this last view have been brought to their belief by tracing the supposed influence of the St. Dié cartography in later maps, and these authorities have been proved to be right by Prof. Fischer’s discovery. The expectation that the missing map would be found to bear the name of AMERICA on the newly discovered Western Lands has also been duly realized.”

REFERENCES.--“Le nom d’Amérique et les grandes mappemondes
... de 1507 et 1516,” in “Annales de Géographie,” 15 Janvier
1904, pp. 29–36; “History of North America,” by Alfred Brittin,
Philadelphia, 1903, at p. 293, Vol. I of which is a fine
reproduction of a sheet from Waldseemüller’s “Cosmographiæ
Introductio” published in May 1507, showing the passage that
first suggested calling the new world by the name of America;
“Martinus Hylacomylus Waltzemüller, ses ouvrages et ses
collaborateurs, par un géographe bibliophile” (M. d’Avezac),
Paris, 1867; “Geographical Journal,” Vol. XIX. pp. 201–209,
389; Humboldt, “Examen Critique,” Paris, 1836, Vol. I. p. 22;
also Vol. IV and Vol. V _passim_; “Amerigo Vespucci,” Vol. II.
pp. 129–179 of Justin Winsor’s “Narrative and Critical History
of America,” Boston, 1889. See also the geography and maps of
Loritus (Henricus), _Glareanus_, in the “Geographical Journal”
for June 1905; “Le Journal des Savants” for December 1830; April
and May 1831; August 1840; October and December 1843; July 1847;
Houzeau et Lancaster, “Bibl. Gén.,” Vol. I. part i. pp. 420–424,
684–688, and part. ii. p. 1390; also Vol. II. p. 231.

=Puteanus=, GUILIELMUS--Dupuis, and not Dupuy--French physician of the sixteenth century, professor at the University of Grenoble, is the author of “De Medicamentorum,” Lyons, 1552, which was reproduced with a treatise of Cousinot under the title “De Occultis Pharmacorum” two years later. To Puteanus, Gilbert alludes (_De Magnete_, Book I. chap. i. and Book II. chap. iii.) saying that he discusses the loadstone briefly and crudely and deduces its power, not from a property of its whole substance unknown to any one and incapable of demonstration (as Galen held and, after him, nearly all physicians), but from “its substantial form as from a prime motor and self-motor, and as from its own most potent nature and its natural temperament, as the instrument which the efficient form of its substance, or the second cause, which is without a medium, employs in its operations. So the loadstone attracts iron not without a physical cause, and for the sake of some good.” But nothing like this, adds Gilbert, is done in other bodies by any substantial form unless it be the primary one, and this Puteanus does not recognize.

REFERENCES.--“Biographie Générale,” Vol. XV. p. 367; Larousse,
“Dict. Universel,” Vol. VI. p. 1420.

=Pythagoras=, celebrated Greek philosopher (569–470 B.C.) who, as Hegel says, “First made thought and not sense the criterion of the essence of things.” He is said to have travelled widely and, according to one of his biographers, he learned geometry from the Egyptians, arithmetic from the Phœnicians, astronomy from the Chaldæans, religious formulæ and ethical maxims from the Magians, and obtained other scientific and religious knowledge from the Arabians and the Indians. He settled finally at Crotona in Lower Italy, during the year 529 B.C. and there established the school that has made him famous.

To a complete exposition of the Pythagorean school or sect, the “Biographie Générale” devotes, in Vol. XLI, twenty-four full columns, whilst the notices of the Pythagoreans which Aristotle gives in the first book of the “Metaphysics” contain about all that is of importance in their theory.

According to the report of Philolaus of Croton, the Pythagoreans taught the progressive movement of the non-rotating Earth, its revolution around the focus of the world (the central fire, _hestia_), while Plato and Aristotle imagined that the Earth neither rotated nor advanced in space, but that, fixed to one central point, it merely oscillated from one side to the other. Humboldt, from whose “Cosmos” the above is taken, further says that the figurative and poetical myths of the Pythagorean and Platonic pictures of the universe were as changeable as the fancy from which they emanated, and he cites Plato, who, in the _Phædrus_, adopts the system of Philolaus, whilst, in the _Timæus_, he accepts the system according to which the earth is immovable in the centre and which was subsequently called the Hipparchian or Ptolemaic.[70]

REFERENCES.--Ueberweg (Dr. Friedrich), “History of Philosophy,”
tr. of Geo. S. Morris, New York, 1885, Vol. I. pp. 42–49; Butler
(William Archer), “Lectures on Ancient Philosophy”; Gilbert,
_De Magnete_, Book II. chap. ii., and Book V. chap. xii.; Chas.
Rollin, “Ancient History,” London, 1845, Vol. I. pp. 383–384;
Iamblichus’ “Life of Pythagoras,” translated from the Greek by
Thos. Taylor; “Dict. des Sc. Philos.,” Paris, 1852, Vol. V. pp.
297–312; Ritter (Dr. Heinrich), “History of Ancient Philosophy,”
London, 1846, Vol. I. pp. 326–357; Houzeau et Lancaster, “Bibl.
Gén.,” Vol. II. p. 232; Roeth (Eduard), “Geschichte,” 1846–1858;
Cantor (Moritz), “Geschichte der Mathematik,” Leipzig, 1894,
Vol. I. pp. 137–201; Grote (George), “Greece,” Vol. IV. pp.
525–551; Chaignet (Antelme Edouard), “Pythag. et la Phil.
Pyth.,” 1873.

=Reinholdus=, ERASMUS. _See_ Erasmus.

=Rhazès=--Razes--Rasis--Rasaeus--Abu-Bekr Al-Rázi--Muhammad Ibn Zakariya--one of the most famous of the ancient Arabian physicians, is the author of “De simplicibus, ad Almansorem,” the ten books of which contain a complete system of medicine.[71] In Book I. chap. xv. of _De Magnete_, reference is made to Chap. LXIII. liber ix. of Rhazès’ work, entitled “De Curatione omnium partium,” wherein an electuary of iron slag, or of prepared steel filings, is spoken of as a highly commended and celebrated remedy for dried-up liver, the Arabs believing that iron opens the spleen and the liver.

REFERENCES.--“Journal des Sçavans,” Vol. LXXVI for 1725, p.
220, and Vol. LXXXV for 1728, p. 412; “Journal des Savants”
for February 1892, pp. 118–126 _passim_, and for March 1892
(“l’Alchimie de Razes”), pp. 190–195, also for May 1851, p.
288, giving names of all the leading alchemists; “Abhandlungen
zur Geschichte der Mathematik,” Vol. VI., Leipzig, 1892, pp.
43–44, 76; Larousse, “Dict. Univ.,” Vol. XIII. p. 747; Freind
(John), “History of Physic”; Eloy (N. F. J.), “Dict. Hist.
de la Médecine,” Vol. IV. pp. 56–61; Haller (Albrecht von),
“Bibliotheca Botanica”; Sprengel (Kurt Polycarp Joachim), “Hist.
de la Médecine.”

=Ruellius=, JOANNES--Jean Ruel--(1479–1537), was a French physician, attached to the court of François I--, who wrote a Commentary on Dioscorides, published 1516, 1529, 1543, as well as several medical treatises. The one by which he is best known is the “De Natura Stirpium,” Paris, 1536, reprinted four times at Basle and at Venice, from which Gilbert extracts (_De Magnete_, Book I. chap. i.) the mention by Ruellius that the loadstone’s force, when failing or dulled, is restored by the blood of a buck.

REFERENCES.--“Sc. de Ste Marthe, Elogia Doct. Gallorum”; Eloy
(N. F. J.), “Dict. hist. de la Méd.”; “Biographie Générale,”
Vol. XLII. pp. 864–865.

=Rueus=, FRANCISCUS--François de la Rüe--(1520–1585), Flemish naturalist who long practised in his native country and the author of “De Gemmis aliquot ...” 1547, 1565, which was printed, with the book on “Philosophy of Vallesius” in 1588, 1595, 1652, also at Franckfort in 1596, and together with the “Similitudines ac Parabolæ” of Lev. Lemnius in 1626. Gilbert’s only reference to him is briefly made in the opening chapter of _De Magnete_.

REFERENCES.--Valère, André, “Bibl. Belgica,” p. 240; Mercklein
(Georg Abraham), “Lindenius renovatus,” 1686, pp. 297, 304; Le
P. Lelong, “Bibl. Sacr.,” p. 935; “Biog. Générale,” Vol. XXIX.
p. 702.

=Scaliger=, JULIUS CÆSAR (1484–1558), a famous Italian scholar who practised medicine at Verona until 1525 and afterwards devoted his time to writing on various subjects, as shown in the “Biographie Générale,” Vol. XLIII. pp. 446–450. Of the works cited in latter, should be extracted, as best known: “In Aristotelis ... de plantis,” 1556; “In Theophrasti, de causis plantarum,” 1566; “De Subtilitate ad Cardanum,” 1557, 1560, 1576, 1592, 1634.

It is to the last-named important work that Gilbert frequently alludes (_De Magnete_, Book I. chaps. i. xvi; Book II. chaps. i. iii. iv. xxxviii.; Book iv. chap. i.). He says, more particularly, that Scaliger strays far from truth when, in treating of magnetic bodies, he speaks of diamond attracting iron, also that he keeps the loadstone and iron in bran to protect them from the injurious action of the atmosphere, and that Scaliger, in order to explain the difference of variation for change of locality, brings in a celestial cause to himself unknown, and terrestrial loadstones that have nowhere been discovered; and seeks the cause not in the “siderite mountains,” but in that force which formed them, to wit, in the part of the heaven which overhangs that northern point.

REFERENCES.--Teissier (H. A.), “Eloges des hommes illustres”;
Coupé (Jean Marie Louis), “Soirées littéraires,” Vol. XV;
Nicéron (Jean Pierre), “Mémoires,” XXIII; Larousse, “Dict.
Univ.,” Vol. VIII. pp. 692–693.

=Silvaticus=--Sylvaticus--Matthæus Moretus, well-known Italian savant living in 1344, physician to the King of Naples, one of the professors at Salerno,[72] and author of “Matth. Silvatici, medic. de Salerno, Liber cibalis et Medicinalis Pandectarum ...” originally published at Naples, 1474. This work, dedicated to Ferdinand, King of Sicily, is an Encyclopædic Dictionary and one of the most important books we have of the history of medicine in the Middle Ages, and at beginning of the Italian Renaissance. The citations made by Græsse (“Trésor,” Vol. VI. p. 406), state that Silvaticus was the owner of a private botanical garden at Salerno (Chap. CXCVII. s.v. “Colcasia” of the Opus Pandectarum), and allude to Thos. Frognall Dibdin’s “Bibliotheca Spenceriana,” Vol. IV. London, 1815, pp. 24–25, and Van der Meersch, “Rech. sur les impr. Belges,” etc., Vol. I. pp. 384, etc.

REFERENCES.--“Repertoire et sources historiques du Moyen Age,”
par l’abbé Ulysse, Joseph Chevalier, Paris, 1877–1886, p. 2089;
Argellati (Philippo), “Bibliotheca Mediolan.,” 1745; Tiraboschi
(Girolamo), “Storia della Letteratura Italiana,” 1807, Vol.
I. p. 275; Sbaralea (Joannes Hyacinthus), “Supplementum ...
Scriptores ordinis,” 1806, p. 529; Tafuri (Giovanni Bernardino),
“Scrittori ... di Napoli,” 1749, Vol. II. pp. 67–70; “Thesaur.
Lit. Bot.,” 1851, p. 185; Brunet (Jacques Charles), “Manuel du
Libraire,” 1864, Vol. V. pp. 387–388; Watt (Rob.), “Bibliotheca
Britannica,” Edinburgh, 1824, Vol. II. p. 856 _h_; Larousse,
“Dict. Univ.,” Vol. XIV. p. 1308; Paul Lacroix, “Science
and Literature of the Middle Ages,” p. 117; Ludovico Hain,
“Repertorium Bibliographicorum,” Vol. II. part ii. Nos.
15192–15202, pp. 375–376; Gilbert, _De Magnete_, Book I. chap. i.

=Solinus=, CAIUS JULIUS--_Grammaticus_--a Roman writer who lived in latter part of the second century, the author of a compilation in fifty-seven chapters which contains a sketch of the world as it was known to him, but which is supposed to have been taken entirely from Pliny’s “Natural History.” It was originally published under the title of “Collectanea rerum mirabilium,” the second edition being headed “Polyhistor.” This was one of the earliest known printed books, having first appeared at Venice in 1473, and it has since been translated into many foreign languages, notably during 1600, 1603, and 1847.

The most important of the three references Gilbert makes to Solinus is found in _De Magnete_, Book II. chap. xxxviii., where it is said that Pliny and Julius Solinus tell of the stone _cathochites_, affirming that it attracts flesh and that it holds one’s hand, as loadstone holds iron and amber holds chaff. But that, says he, is due solely to its viscosity and its natural glutinousness, for it adheres most readily to a warm hand.

REFERENCES.--Dodwell (Henry, the elder), “Dissertationes
Cyprianicæ”; Moller (D. W.); C. J. Solino, in “Biog. Gén.,” Vol.
XLIV. pp. 153–154; “La Grande Encycl.,” Vol. XXX. p. 232.

=Thebit Ben-Kora=--Thabit Ibn Corrah--Abū Thabit Ibn Kurrah--Tebioth ben Chorezen (Houzeau, No. 1130), one of the most brilliant and accomplished scholars produced by the Arabs (836–901), called by Delambre “Le Ronsard de l’Astronomie,” is the author of many treatises on mathematics, and on other scientific subjects, the mention of the titles of which take up nearly two folio pages of Casiri’s “Catalogue.” Especially is he shown in latter as having translated into Arabic the chief works of Archimedes, Apollonius, Euclid and Ptolemy also the Physics and Analytics of Aristotle and many of the works of Hippocrates and Galen.

Incidentally it may be added that geometry, to which Thebit Ben-Kora gave particular attention, was named by the Arabs _handassah_, and that the _Tahrir Hendassiat_ contains: the explication, the _data_ and the optics, of Euclid, the _syntaxis magna_ of Ptolemy, the spherics of Theodosius and his book concerning night and day, the spherics of Menelaus, the movable sphere of Autolycus, the _ascendants_ or _horoscopes_ of Asclepius, a treatise of Aristarchus on the discs of the sun and moon, the _lemmas_ or theorems of Archimedes, also his treatise on the sphere and cylinder, the conics of Apollonius and Thebit Ben-Kora, a treatise of Theodosius on the positions, or quiescence, of bodies, etc., etc. (D’Herbelot, art. _Handassah_, and _Aklides_. See also, for origin of geometry, etc. “A Short History of Greek Mathem.,” Jas. Gow, Cambridge, 1884, pp. 123–134.)

The allusions by Gilbert are to be found, Book III. chap. i., and