Chapter XIII: Introduction (8)

Of all the seven sciences of the Trivium and Quadrivium, Astronomy, Dante thought, was the noblest, and for two reasons. Aristotle had said that a science is noble in proportion to the nobility of its subject, and the certainty of its conclusions; and in both of these Astronomy excels. Its subject is the Movement of the Heavens, and its certainty is perfect. “E nobile e alta per nobile e alto suggetto, ch’è del movimento del cielo: è alta e nobile per la sua certezza, la quale è senza ogni difetto.”[160] If astronomers are sometimes mistaken, the fault lies in them, as Ptolemy said, and not in the science.

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [160] _Conv._ II. xiv. 244-217. “It is noble and lofty because of its noble and lofty subject, which is the movement of the heavens; it is lofty and noble because of its certainty, which is without flaw.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------

This quotation from Ptolemy is from his book on “judicial astronomy,”[161] and it may be that Dante was partly thinking of astrological predictions, as he almost certainly was in the passage that follows, where he adds that astronomy takes a long time to learn, not only because of its great range, but because experience is necessary to form a correct judgment. Nevertheless, it is probable that by its flawless certainty he meant that unchanging laws govern the celestial phenomena, so that they may always be predicted without error when the laws are known.

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [161] See p. 156. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

His definition of astronomy was accurate, for it was not until the middle of the nineteenth century that physical astronomy began to take its place beside the old “astronomy of position,” and in Dante’s day practically the only subject open to research concerning the heavenly bodies was their movements. Of these, and especially the “prime motion” of the diurnal revolution, he was vividly conscious. His favourite name for the heavens is “wheels”—“le ruote magne,” “eterne ruote,” “stellate ruote”;[162] and he often refers to them as a standard of motion. Thus when with Beatrice he was rapt from the summit of Mount Purgatory, to express the swiftness of their flight he says it was almost as rapid as the movement of the sky—“veloci, quasi come il ciel vedete.”[163] Constantine moving the capital of the Roman Empire eastwards is described as turning the Roman Eagle contrary to the course of the sky—“contra il corso del ciel,”[164] and the sky itself is described as a sphere which is ceaselessly at play like a lively child:—

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [162] “The great wheels,” “eternal wheels,” “starry wheels.”

[163] “Swift, almost as the heaven ye behold.” _Par._ ii. 21.

[164] “Against the course of the sky.” _Par._ vi. 2.

... “la spera,
Che sempre a guisa di fanciullo scherza.”[165]

[165] ... “That sphere,
Which aye in fashion of a child is playing.”
_Purg._ xv. 2, 3. (_Longfellow_).
------------------------------------------------------------------------

To Dante, as to the Greeks, it is not the unusual or startling that appeals, but the unfailing harmony of the regular celestial movements. Comets he mentions only twice, and shooting stars twice, eclipses seven times; but there are scores of allusions to the rhythmical progression of Sun and stars, Moon and planets. The skies were familiar to him in all their daily aspects—sunset and dawn and radiant noons; cloudy nights “sotto pover cielo,”[166] brilliant starlit nights, nights of clear moonlight. He had seen the stars fade one by one, till at last even the brightest vanished in the glow of dawn:—

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [166] “Under a poor sky.” _Purg._ xvi. 2.

“E come vien la chiarissima ancella
Del sol più oltre, così il ciel sì chiude
Di vista in vista, infino alla più bella.”[167]

[167] “And as advances, bright exceedingly,
The handmaid of the sun, the heaven is closed,
Light after light, to the most beautiful.”
_Par._ xxx. 7-9. (_Longfellow_).
------------------------------------------------------------------------

he had watched for their first appearance in the evening twilight:—

“E sì come al salir di prima sera
Comincian per lo ciel nuove parvenze,
Sì che la vista pare e non par vera....”[168]

------------------------------------------------------------------------
[168] “As at evening hour
Of twilight, new appearances through heaven
Peer with faint glimmer, doubtfully descried.”
_Par._ xiv. 70-72. (_Carey_).
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Numberless other passages and expressions will occur to every Dante reader, proving how keenly he felt the beauty of the skies.

But they prove more than this. Other authors have felt and have described poetically the beauties of the skies, but they often remember imperfectly what they saw, or draw upon their imagination without any knowledge of the celestial movements, and so fall into absurd mistakes. The moon especially is a stumbling-block, and it is quite a rare thing for a modern novelist to introduce one without making it do something impossible. A new moon will rise at midnight, or a waning moon at sunset; she has even been known to rise and then to set in the dark hours of one short midsummer night;[169] and a well known author sees her in two phases at the same moment: “the full moon rose, yellow _and gibbous_!”[170]

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [169] In Kenneth Grahame’s delightful book, full of sympathy with Nature, _The Wind in the Willows_. The moon rose when it was “past ten o’clock,” and “sank earthwards reluctantly and left them” before dawn.

[170] H. G. Wells, _The Time Machine_. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dante’s moon does indeed give us a little trouble once or twice, but he never makes flagrant mistakes of this kind. His consistency and truth of description prove his knowledge of astronomy, and also imply intelligent thoughtful watching of the celestial movements; for it is notorious that book-knowledge, if unassisted by acquaintance at first-hand with the facts of a subject like astronomy, will not save a writer from glaring inaccuracies.

His allusions to the motions of the moon, both diurnal and monthly, show plainly that he understood them well. His new moon appears in the evening, his waning moon rises late at night and sets in morning sunshine,[171] and his full moon comes on the meridian at midnight, for when he wishes to describe her at her brightest, as a comparison with a very brilliant light, he places her in a clear sky at midnight in her mid-month.[172] In the middle of a lunar month the moon is full, and being exactly opposite the sun will reach the meridian at midnight: this therefore is the time when she gives all the light she possibly can. In the _Quæstio_[173] Dante mentions that the moon does not move in the celestial equator, but sometimes north of it, and sometimes an equal amount south; in the _Convivio_ he indicates the length of her period, and briefly describes her phases and their cause—“Ora luce da un lato, e ora luce dall’ altro, secondo che ’l sole la vede.”[174]

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [171] _Inf._ xv. 18, 19; _Purg._ xviii. 76-81; _Purg._ x. 14, 15, _Cf._ ix. 44.

[172] _Purg._ xxix. 53, 54.

[173] _Qu._ xx. 61-63.

[174] “Now she shines on one side, and now on the other, according to the way the sun looks upon her.” _Conv._ II. xiv. 77-79. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Her position in the zodiac is mentioned several times. In one passage he indicates a very brief space of time in the following curious way:—

“Quando ambo e due i figli di Latona,
Coperti del Montone e della Libra,
Fanno dell’ orizzonte insieme zona,
Quant’ è dal punto che il zenit inlibra.
Infin che l’uno e l’altro da quel cinto,
Cambiando l’emisperio, si dilibra,
Tanto, col volto di riso dipinto,
Si tacque Beatrice.”[175]

------------------------------------------------------------------------
[175]
“At what times both the children of Latona,
Surmounted by the Ram and by the Scales,
Together make a zone of the horizon,
As long as from the time the zenith holds them
In equipoise, till from that girdle both
Changing their hemisphere disturb the balance,
So long, her face depicted with a smile,
Did Beatrice keep silence.”
_Par._ xxix. 1-8.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

That is to say, when Sun and Moon (the children of Latona) are both on the horizon, but one being in Aries and the other in Libra they are opposite one another, the zenith for a moment holds them, as it were, in balance; but the next moment one will drop below the horizon while the other rises above it, thus changing from the visible to the invisible hemisphere and _vice versa_, as each frees itself (“si dilibra”) of the common horizon that girdled them. The pause of Beatrice was as brief as the time during which sun and moon would thus hang in the balance.

Yet, though Dante shows that he was familiar with the movements and appearances of the moon, his allusions to her are cold and comparatively rare. Unlike modern poets, moonlight does not seem to have had any great fascination for him. In all his works there are only fifty-one references to the moon, and far the greater number of these are remarks about the measurement of time, or else her phases, her markings, her share in causing eclipses etc. In all his short poems (including those of the _Vita Nuova_ and _Convivio_) there are but two references, and those as dry as possible. “Più lune”[176] is once used, meaning several months, and in a sonnet which describes the influences of each heaven on his lady, all he can find to say of the moon’s is “E ’l primo ciel di sè già non l’è duro.”[177]

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [176] “Many moons.” _Canz._ xx. 89.

[177] “And the first heaven is not grudging to her.”—_Sonetto_ xxviii. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

The chill of moonlight is spoken of as with a shudder on the hill of Purgatory;[178] and its usefulness is recognized rather grudgingly when Virgil remarks that yesternight the moon was full, and adds that Dante must remember it, since it did him no harm in the depths of the Forest.[179] It is true there is some beauty in the description of the aurora which preceded moonrise[180] on the first night in Purgatory, but Dante gives it an ugly name, and the waning moon when seen on the following night, four days after full, is oddly compared to a bucket in shape. Dante did not admire this gibbous form, for he instances the outline of the moon when not quite full as an ignoble curve, contrasting it with the beauty of a perfect circle.[181]

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [178] _Purg._ xix. 1, 2.

[179] _Inf._ xx. 127-129.

[180] _Purg._ ix. 1-9.

[181] _Conv._ IV. xvi. 89-93. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

To illustrate _Par._ xxix. 1-6. (_See p. 265_).

In the first figure the sun and moon are balanced, as it were, being at equal distances from the zenith: in the second, a few minutes later, by the rising of the sun and the setting of the moon, the balance is disturbed, and each changes its hemisphere.]

Hardly ever does he find a beautiful epithet for her: she is ruler of Hell,[182] Cain and the Thorns[183] (in reference to the legend which sees this figure in her dark markings); or she is simply Delia,[184] Trivia,[185] the daughter of Latona,[186] or with a little warmth the sister of the sun,[187] and with the sun one of the two Eyes of Heaven.[188] One exception to this harsh treatment is in the beautiful description of reaching the heaven of the moon,[189] for there she is the first star, the eternal pearl; and the sudden burst of eloquence in the midst of a grave argument in _De Monarchia_ startles us doubly when we find that Justice is compared to the moon—not, as one might expect, resplendent in a dark sky, but Phœbe gazing at her brother opposite, in the purple of the morning calm.[190] The passage from _Par._ xxix. quoted above helps us to understand why the moon in this position should symbolize Justice, for here again is suggested the perfect balancing of the two great orbs, as the sun rises and the full moon sets.

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [182] _Inf._ x. 80.

[183] _Inf._ xx. 126.

[184] _Purg._ xxix. 78; _Ep._ vi. 54.

[185] _Par._ xxiii. 26.

[186] _Par._ x. 67; xxii. 139; xxix. 1.

[187] _Purg._ xxiii. 120.

[188] _Purg._ xx. 132.

[189] _Par._ ii. 25-36.

[190] _De Mon._ I. xi. 35-37. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Add to these passages two similes drawn not indeed from the moon itself but from the halo surrounding her,[191] and two descriptions of brilliant moonlight nights,[192] and we have all that Dante has written in praise of the moon. It is true that throughout the _Inferno_ and _Purgatorio_ the sun typifies Divine Grace, and the moon is his opposite, but this cannot altogether explain the difference in their treatment, even in the _Divine Comedy_. A deeper reason seems to be Dante’s true southerner’s love of the sun; and he doubtless had the astronomer’s feeling that moonlight always means loss of starlight, which he dearly loved (see _Purg._ xviii. 76, 77). Perhaps too the astrological views of the moon influenced him, consciously or not. According to Ristoro, the moon represents the poorest and lowest classes of people, who are servants and messengers to the rest; and as all the planets were supposed to be either masculine or feminine, he ungallantly adds—“E questa Luna, a cagione di sua viltà, potemo dire per ragione ch’ella sia femmina.”[193] Her only house, too, which is Cancer, is also poor and base. The moon, moreover, is nearer Earth than any other planet, and shows by her dark markings that she is less pure than the rest.

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [191] _Par._ x. 67-69; and _Purg._ xxix. 78.

[192] _Purg._ xxix. 53, 54; and _Par._ xxiii. 26.

[193] “And this moon, because of her inferiority, is rightly called feminine.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------

2. MOVEMENTS OF THE SUN.

Whatever the reason, Dante’s fifty-one references to the moon are in strong contrast to his allusions to the sun. These are four times as many, and they include warm expressions of admiration and delight, and beautiful epithets and similes. The sun is Titan with his chariot and horses,[194] he is a Mirror, a Car of Light, the Lantern of the World, the Prince of the Stars, the Father of all mortal life.[195] His beautiful form is admired, “la perfetta sua bella figura,”[196] and his intense brilliance often noted.[197] He is the guide that leads all aright,[198] to whom Virgil appeals:—

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [194] _Ecl._ ii. 1-4.

[195] _Purg._ iv. 62, 63; _Purg._ iv. 59; and xxix. 117, 118; _Par._ i. 38; _Canz._ xix. 114; _Par._ xxii. 116.

[196] “The perfection and beauty of his shape.” _Canz._ xix. 76.

[197] _V. N._ xlii. 29; _Canz._ ix. 2; _Conv._ II. xiv. 126, 127; _Purg._ xvii. 52, 53; _Par._ i. 54; and x. 48, etc.

[198] _Inf._ i. 17, 18.

“O dolce Lume, a cui fidanza i’ entro
Per lo nuovo cammin, tu ne conduci.”[199]

[199]
“O pleasant light, my confidence and hope!
Conduct us thou,” he cried, “on this new way.”
_Purg._ xiii. 16, 17. (_Carey_).
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Under his rays the rose expands, the air is gladdened, mists are dispelled, snow melts, and all things are quickened into life.[200] Unlike the moon, the sun is the bringer of warmth and comfort, chasing away cold and darkness,[201] sunrise is the hour of renewed hope and confidence,[202] it strengthens our limbs, paralysed by the cold of night,[203] it is eagerly awaited through the darkness by the little bird on her nest;[204] and delicate flowers, bowed and closed during the cold night, rise upright on their stems and open as soon as the sun shines once more upon them.[205] The exquisite sunsets and sunrises of the _Purgatorio_ are favourite passages with all readers.

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [200] _Par._ xxii. 55, 56; _Inf._ vii. 122; _De Mon._ II. i. 37-39; and _Par._ ii. 106-108; _Canz._ xi. 37; _Conv._ III. xii. 59, 60, etc. etc.

[201] _Canz._ ix. 5.

[202] _Inf._ i. 41-43.

[203] _Purg._ xix. 10, 11.

[204] _Par._ xxiii. 1-9.

[205] _Inf._ ii. 127-129. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Love is compared with the summer sun,[206] the generosity of a noble nature resembles “the great planet.”[207] The Emperor Henry VII., from whom Dante expected the regeneration of Italy and the whole Christian world, is likened to the rising sun;[208] the birth of St. Francis is described as “nacque al mondo un sole,”[209] and his birthplace ought rightly to be called not Assisi but Orient.[210] Virgil is addressed as “O Sol che sani ogni vista turbata;”[211] Beatrice is “Il sol degli occhi miei.”[212] Finally the sun is the best symbol of God,[213] and so it is used many times in the _Divine Comedy_: “Il Sol degli angeli,”[214] “Il Sol che raggia tutto nostro stuolo;”[215] a spirit turns to “il Sol che la riempie,”[216] and when Virgil laments that he is shut out of heaven it is in these words: “Ho i’ perduto Di veder l’ alto Sol che tu disiri.”[217]

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [206] _De Mon._ II. i. 36-41.; _Canz._ ix.

[207] _Canz._ xix. 96-114.

[208] _Ep._ v. 10; and vii. 19, 20, 25.

[209] “A sun rose upon the world.” _Par._ xi. 50.

[210] _Par._ xi. 52-54.

[211] “O sun that healest all imperfect vision,” _Inf._ xi. 91.

[212] “The sun of my eyes.” _Par._ xxx. 75 (See also _Par._ iii. 1-3).

[213] _Conv._ III. xii. 52-63.

[214] “The Sun of the angels.” _Par._ x. 53.

[215] “That Sun which enlightens all our company.” _Par._ xxv. 54.

[216] “The Sun which satisfies it.” _Par._ ix. 8.

[217] “I have lost the sight of that high Sun whom thou desirest.” _Purg._ vii. 25, 26. Compare _Par._ xxx. 126; xv. 76; xviii. 105. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

But we may not dwell on those thoughts of the sun as the typical giver of light and life; we must ask what Dante says about his movements, since this was the chief subject-matter of mediæval astronomy.

His daily course, “il cammin del Sole,”[218] is often spoken of, and is indicated both by his position in the sky, and the length and direction of shadows. The second _Eclogue_ begins with a description of a breathlessly hot midday, when objects, which are usually shorter than their own shadows, now surpassed them in length.

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [218] “The path of the sun.” _Purg._ xii. 74.

“Resque refulgentes, solitae superarier umbris,
Vincebant umbras.” _Ecl._ ii. 5, 6.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

At this time the sun appears most brilliant, and seems to move most slowly, since he is scarcely changing his position with regard to the horizon.

“E più corrusco, e con più lenti passi,
Teneva il sole il cerchio di merigge.”[219]

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [219] “Shining more brightly and with slower steps, the sun had gained the circle of midday.” _Purg._ xxxiii. 103, 104. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

The greatest number of references to the sun’s daily journey occur in the _Purgatory_, and we shall quote them in a later chapter.

His yearly journey through the zodiac is also very often referred to. When relating his first meeting with Beatrice, Dante names his age, not by simply saying that he was nearly nine years old, but by counting the number of the times that the “heaven of light,” that is, of the sun, had returned to the same point since his birth:—

“Nove fiate già, appresso al mio nascimento, era
tornato lo cielo della luce quasi ad un medesimo
punto, quanto alla sua proprio girazione.”[220]

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [220] “Nine times already since my birth had the heaven of light returned to the selfsame point almost, as concerns its own revolution.”

_V. N._ ii. 1-4. (_Rossetti_).
------------------------------------------------------------------------

The sun’s “own revolution” is of course its apparent yearly movement, as distinct from the diurnal movement which it shares with all the heavenly bodies.

The same thought is expressed in a sonnet:

“Io sono stato con Amore insieme
Dalla circolazion del Sol mia nona.”[221]

We know further that Dante was born in either May or June, because he says, when he finds himself among the stars of Gemini, that the sun was rising and setting in this sign at the time of his birth.[222]

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [221] “I have dwelt with Love since my ninth revolution of the sun.” _Son._ xxxvi. 1, 2.

[222] See diagram on p. 276.

“O gloriose stelle
Con voi nasceva e s’ascondeva vosco
Quegli ch’è padre d’ogni mortal vita,
Quand’ io senti’ da prima l’ aer tosco.”[223]

[223]

“O glorious stars ...
With you was born, and hid himself with you,
He who is father of all mortal life,
When first I tasted of the Tuscan air.”
_Par._ xxii. 112-117. (_Longfellow_).

At this date the sun entered the _constellation_ of Gemini on June 1 (Old Style), but was in the _sign_ from May 11 to June 11, and it is always to the signs that Dante refers in the _Divine Comedy_. The anonymous fourteenth century commentator known as “l’Ottimo” interprets this passage as indicating the time “between the middle of May and the middle of June.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Boccaccio tells us that a Mayday feast, given by the father of Beatrice, was the occasion of Dante’s first meeting with her, and also that not long before his death in Ravenna he told a friend that he had completed his fifty-sixth year in the preceding May, so we may conclude that May was the month of his birth.

Dante seems to have taken some trouble to find out the exact period of the sun’s revolution. His text-book, the _Elementa_ of Alfraganus, only gives it as 365¼ days nearly:—“Sol ... orbem confecit diebus 365 et propè ¼.” Ristoro d’Arezzo and Brunetto Latini were content to repeat this rough estimate, and call the year 365 days 6 hours, but Dante wished to be more exact, and somehow contrived to obtain a value which was much nearer the modern estimate of 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, 46 seconds. We know this from two passages. In the _Convivio_ he gives the half period as less than 182 days 15 hours; and in the _Paradiso_ Beatrice says that January will in time cease to be a winter month, because of a neglected fraction of time.

“Prima che gennaio tutto si sverni
Per la centesma ch’ è laggiù negletta.”[224]

------------------------------------------------------------------------
[224]
“Ere January be unwintered wholly
By the centesimal on Earth neglected.”
_Par._ xxvii. 142-143. (_Longfellow_).
------------------------------------------------------------------------

January was in fact receding from the winter, and steadily though slowly advancing towards the spring, because the Julian year (as we saw, p. 171) was 11 minutes 14 seconds longer than the true solar tropical year. When Julius Cæsar reformed the Calendar, March 25 was made (as of old) to coincide with the spring equinox, but by Dante’s time this date was 13 days late, and the true equinox fell on March 12. Consequently though the day called January 1 still came 84 days before March 25, it was only 71 days before the spring equinox.

If Beatrice meant to speak with scientific precision, and was correct in her hundredth part of a day per annum, that is, if the difference between the astronomical and the Julian year was one day in a hundred years, it would be 7100 years before the first of January came to coincide with the spring equinox, and January became a spring month. But the error quoted is really rather too large, for a hundredth part of a day is 14 minutes 24 seconds, and it was in fact only 11 minutes 14 seconds.

It would be interesting to know where Dante found this value, which is practically the only astronomical datum not given in Alfraganus. Ptolemy, following Hipparchus, had given the tropical year as ¹/₃₀₀ part of a day less than 365¼; Albategnius gave a more accurate figure, and one which agrees well with the “centesma,” for his tropical year differs from the Julian by a little less than ¹/₁₀₆ of a day; but he also improved the value of precession, and Dante does not seem to have known this, so he was probably not acquainted with this astronomer’s work. The Alfonsine Tables gave a value which was very close indeed to the correct one, making the tropical year only 30 seconds longer than the modern value, and the difference between the Julian and true year ¹/₁₃₄ of a day. (The correct value is ¹/₁₂₈). Either of these figures may have been known to Dante indirectly: perhaps he had obtained the Alfonsine value in conversation with Brunetto Latini, who had visited Alfonso’s court. His fraction was evidently only approximate, but it is interesting to know that he had found out more than popular books could tell him about the period of the sun’s revolution, and that he had been sufficiently struck by the small difference between the calendar and astronomical years to mention it in a picturesque way in his poem. It is possible that he had heard of Roger Bacon’s appeal to the Pope in 1267 to correct the calendar because the date of the spring equinox was of importance in connection with the observation of Easter.

It is hardly necessary to remind my readers that this was done by another Pope three hundred years later, before January had made much more advance towards becoming a spring month. The hundredth part of a day, of which Beatrice complained, is now subtracted from the year by omitting to make century years leap years; but as the error was really not quite so great as she said, an exception is made for century years divisible by 400. Thus 1600 was a leap year, but not 1700, 1800, or 1900.

Dante seems to have connected any season of the year with the sun’s path in the zodiac as readily as with the name of a month. The sun’s yearly course through the signs is shown diagrammatically in figure 40, and a glance at this will make clear a number of allusions without any explanation.

Starting from the first point of Aries at the spring equinox, which in Dante’s time fell in the middle of March, and taking one-twelfth of the year to traverse each sign, it is evident that during the end of March and beginning of April the sun was in Aries; he entered Cancer and reached the summer solstice in June, the autumnal equinox in Libra in September, and the winter solstice when he entered Capricornus in December. The six signs above the horizontal line are northern, the six below are southern.

The following are a few typical examples.

When Dante wishes to express the transition of his feelings from despondency to courage, at seeing the stern and troubled face of his guide melt suddenly to a smile, he compares himself to a poor shepherd who wakes early and sees the fields covered, as he thinks, with snow, but in a short time finds that it is only hoar-frost which has put on the semblance of her white sister, and seeing the face of the world changed he gladly leads out his sheep to pasture. The time at which this may happen is

“Quella parte del giovinetto anno,
Che il sole i crin sotto l’Aquario tempra,
E già le notti al mezzodì sen vanno.”[225]

------------------------------------------------------------------------
[225]
“In that part of the youthful year wherein
The sun his locks beneath Aquarius tempers,
And now the nights draw near to half the day.”
_Inf._ xxiv. 1-3. (_Longfellow_).
------------------------------------------------------------------------

That part of the youthful year when the sun cools his locks beneath Aquarius is clearly the end of January or beginning of February, but the last line may bear one of two meanings. If we translate “mezzodì” as “half the day” it means that the nights are growing shorter, and very soon (in March) when the sun will have reached the equinox, they will be just twelve hours long. If we take “mezzodì” as meaning “the south,” we must interpret the passage in the light of others in the _Divine Comedy_ where Night is personified, and considered as circling in the zodiac always opposite to the sun. For instance in _Purg._ ii. 1-6 (a passage which will be more fully explained later) Night is described as circling opposite to the sun, “La notte, che opposita a lui cerchia,”[226] and as the sun at that time was in Aries, Night was in Libra, “le Bilance.” Henceforth for six months the sun will be in the northern signs, and the days longer than the nights, but as soon as Night begins to assert her supremacy, and the nights begin to be longer than the days, the sun enters Libra and then it is not visible all night. This is the meaning of

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [226] “Night that opposite to him revolves.” (_Longfellow_).

“le Bilance,
Che le caggion di man quando soverchia.”[227]

[227]
“The Scales, that from her hands are dropped
When she reigns highest.”
_Purg._ ii. 5, 6. (_Carey_).
------------------------------------------------------------------------

When Night becomes dominant, the Scales fall from her hand, for the sun is in that sign.

Applying this idea to the passage quoted above, it will mean “The nights are going southward,” for the sun in Aquarius is not far from the point where he crosses the equator to the north, therefore Night circling opposite to him is nearing the point where she goes south. Either interpretation is faithful to fact, but perhaps the circumstance that the plural noun is used favours the first.

_From the “Cosmi Historia” of Robert Flud, a.d. 1612._

(_Reproduced from Brown’s Phainomena of Aratos._)]

Conrad Malaspina prophesied to Dante that his favourable opinion of the Malaspina family would be justified “before the sun had come to rest again seven times in the bed which the Ram covers and bestrides with his four feet.”

“Ed egli: Or va, che il Sol non si ricorca
Sette volte nel letto che il Montone
Con tutti e quattro i pie copre ed inforca
Che cotesta cortese opinione ...”[228]

------------------------------------------------------------------------
[228]
“And he: Now go, for the sun shall not lie
Seven times upon the pillow which the Ram
With all his four feet covers and bestrides.
Before that such a courteous opinion ...”
_Purg._ viii. 133-136. (_Longfellow_).
------------------------------------------------------------------------

The sun was at the time in the Ram, and Malaspina means that less than seven years would elapse, before his prophecy was fulfilled. The aptness of the description may be seen by the figure of Aries as portrayed in an old seventeenth century book in which the Ram is uncomfortably trying to sit on the ecliptic.

Another instance is in the beautiful midwinter Ode, “Io son venuto al punto della rota.”[229] Each stanza pictures a feature of a severe winter—snow and rain, the absence of summer birds, bare trees and dead flowers, the favourite walk become a torrent; but the first describes the position of stars and planets. When the sun sets, the Twins appear on the eastern horizon, hence we know at once that the sun is in Sagittarius and the time is November or December. To confirm his melancholy, the poet adds that the Star of Love (Venus) is hidden from us by the sun’s rays which now shine athwart her, and that the planet which strengthens the cold (Saturn, the “frigida stella” of Virgil) displays himself in that arc of the sky in which all the seven planets cast the shortest shadow;[230] that is, either he is on the meridian at sunset, or he is in the most northerly part of the zodiac, in Gemini or Cancer. A planet in this place, as for instance the sun at midsummer, is visible longer, describes a longer arc, and casts shorter shadows, than in any other part of the zodiac. And as this is the part which rises over the eastern horizon as the sun sets, Saturn would also rise at that time and remain visible all night.

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [229] “I have come to that part of the wheel.” _Canz._ xv.

[230] Like all mediæval writers, Dante includes the sun and moon among the seven planets. The others do not cast perceptible shadows, except Venus and Jupiter at their brightest.

The opening lines of the Ode run thus:—

“Io son venuto al punto della rota,
Che l’orizzonte, quando il Sol si corca,
Ci parturisce il geminato cielo;
E la stella d’amor ci sta rimota
Per lo raggio lucente, che la ’nforca
Sì di traverso, che le si fa velo;
E quel pianeta che conforta il gelo
Si mostra tutto a noi per lo grand’ arco,
Nel qual ciascun de’ sette fa poca ombra.”[231]

[231]
“I to that point in the great wheel have come,
Wherein the horizon, when the sun doth set,
Brings forth the twin-starred heaven to our sight;
And Love’s fair star away from us doth roam,
Through the bright rays obliquely on it met
In such wise that they veil its tender light;
That planet which makes keen the cold of night
Shows himself to us in the circle great,
Where each star of the seven casts little shade.”
(_Plumptre_).
------------------------------------------------------------------------

It is astonishing that Giuliani should so completely miss the point of the “twinned sky,” that he substitutes “ingemmato” for “geminato,” and reads—

“ ... la rota,
Ch’ all orizzonte, quando il Sol si corca,
Ci parturisce l’ingemmato cielo.”[232]

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [232] “The Wheel which, when the sun sets, brings forth for us on the horizon the jewelled sky.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------

He understands the hour of evening to be meant, when the Wheel of Day and Night brings a jewelled, _i.e._ starry sky on the horizon as the sun sets. But it is not only on the horizon that stars appear at sunset; and the mention of Gemini to indicate the time of year is thoroughly characteristic of Dante. The Wheel is the revolving year which has carried the sun into Sagittarius.

Angelitti remarks that the whole description was literally true for December 1296, since Venus was then in conjunction with the sun, and Saturn in Cancer;[233] and as this poem is a complaint of the hardness of his lady, to whom the poet is nevertheless wholly devoted, it may well have been written in that time when the lady Philosophy refused to smile upon her lover.[234]

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [233] _Sulla Data del Viaggio Dantesco_ p. 90, note.

[234] Comparing _Conv._ II. ii. 12, xiii. 49-52, and IV. i. 60-62, we learn that in August 1293 (_vide infra_, p. 314), Dante first became acquainted with the Lady Philosophy; that in the early part of 1296 he was completely under her spell; and that some time afterwards she for a while estranged herself from him. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Further on in the same poem the effects of the sun in spring, when he is in the sign of Aries, are alluded to as “the virtue of Aries”:—

“Passato hanno lor termine le fronde,
Che trasse fuor la virtù d’Ariete,
Per adornare il mondo, e morta è l’ erba.”[235]

------------------------------------------------------------------------
[235]
“Scattered and faded now is all the foliage
Which had burst forth, beneath the power of Aries,
To beautify the world, the grass is withered.” _Canz._ xv. 40-42.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Contrast with this the passage in the _Paradiso_ where “nocturnal Aries” is used as a synonym for autumn.

“Questa primavera sempiterna
Che notturno Ariete non dispoglia.”[236]

------------------------------------------------------------------------
[236]
“This everlasting spring
Nocturnal Aries never can despoil.”
_Par._ xxviii. 116-117.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

For although Aries may be seen during some part of the night in the greater part of the year, it is most emphatically a noctural sign when it rises as the sun sets, and remains above the horizon until he rises; this happens when the sun is in the opposite sign of Libra, which he enters at the autumnal equinox.

A rather curious passage in the _Paradiso_ is incomprehensible unless we think of the sun’s path in the zodiac, and realize that Dante is comparing the brightness of the spirit of St. John in an indirect way with the brightness of the sun.

“Poscia tra esse un lume si schiarì,
Sì che, se il Cancro avesse un tal cristallo,
L’inverno avrebbe un mese d’un sol dì.”[237]

------------------------------------------------------------------------
[237]
“Thereafterward a light among them brightened
So, that if Cancer one such crystal had
Winter would have a month of one sole day.”
_Par._ xxv. 100-102. (_Longfellow_).
------------------------------------------------------------------------

If a light as dazzling as this spirit were to shine forth in Cancer, there would be perpetual day for a whole month in winter. For when the sun entered Capricornus, which he does in December, he would be exactly opposite, so that as one light set the other would rise, and there would be no darkness until the sun passed into another sign.

To many similar instances the diagram (p. 276) will be found to supply a key, and some we shall have occasion to notice presently in another connection.

3. THE STARS.

If our poet did not love moonlight, there is no doubt that starlight was very dear to him. Never are stars spoken of as cold, or placed in antithesis to the sun. Rather are they classed together, as in the pathetic letter, written when he heard of the possibility that the Florentines might receive him again if he would consent to return as a disgraced but pardoned criminal. If this is the only path to Florence, never will he re-enter the beloved city. “What then?” he cries. “Can he not see the mirrors of the sun and of the stars, wherever he may be? can he not meditate on precious truths under any sky?”[238]

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [238] _Ep._ ix. 46-49. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

He describes the Inferno as bereft of stars as well as of sun;[239] he hopes to escape those dark abysses to see the beautiful stars again,[240] and the terror of the sounds of weeping and crying is heightened indescribably by the simple words:—“risonavan per l’aer senza stelle.”[241] When he does at length come forth to see “le cose belle che porta il ciel”[242] how eagerly he gazes, not only at Venus, but at the new stars in the south! how his “greedy eyes”[243] seek the same region as soon as dusk begins to fall! and how radiantly the stars look down upon him on that last night on the rocky slopes of the Mountain, near the summit![244]

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [239] _Inf._ iii. 23.

[240] _Inf._ xvi. 82, 83.

[241] “Resounded through the air without a star.” _Inf._ iii. 23.

[242] “The fair things that heaven holds.” _Inf._ xxxiv. 137, 138.

[243] _Purg._ viii. 85.

[244] _Purg._ xxvii. 89, 90. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is all allegorical, no doubt, but it is because of Dante’s feeling for the real “belle stelle”[245] that he uses them as symbols of truth and holiness, and concludes each Cantica of the _Divine Comedy_ with their name:—

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [245] “Beautiful stars,” _Inf._ xvi. 83.

“E quindi uscimmo a riveder le stelle.”[246]
“Puro e disposto a salire alle stelle.”[247]
“L’Amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle.”[248]

[246] “Thence issuing we beheld again the stars.”

[247] “Pure and disposed to mount unto the stars.”

[248] “The Love that moves the sun and the other stars.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here “stelle” has the wider meaning of the French “astres,” for which we have no equivalent in English except the clumsy “heavenly bodies;” but most of Dante’s hundred references are to stars in the more special sense, and often to particular stars or constellations. Over eighty occur in the _Divine Comedy_.

Stars are jewels, torches, flames, immortal nymphs adorning every region of the sky.[249] Heaven is made beautiful by their light, and the joy of the angels is expressed in their shining, as mortal joy shines forth in human eyes.[250] If the spirits in the fourth heaven are described as glowing suns,[251] the “splendours” that descend upon the golden ladder in the seventh, make Dante think that all the stars in the sky are gathered together there.[252]

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [249] _Purg._ ix. 4; _Purg._ viii. 89; _Purg._ i. 25; _Par._ xxiii. 26.

[250] _Par._ ii. 130, 142-144.

[251] _Par._ x. 76.

[252] _Par._ xxi. 28-33. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

The eyes of Beatrice shone brighter than stars;[253] light comes as from many stars in reading the sacred books;[254] faith gleams like a star in the sky;[255] and truth appears in a mind cleared of falsehood and error like the radiance of stars in a sky which has been wholly swept of cloud and mist by a north wind.

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [253] _Inf._ ii. 55.

[254] _Par._ xxv. 70. See also _Conv._ II. xvi. 4-12, where the writings of Boëthius and Cicero, and all instructive books, are called stars full of light.

[255] _Par._ xxiv. 147.

“Come rimane splendido e sereno
L’emisperio dell’ aer, quando soffia
Borea da quella guancia ond’ è più leno,
Perchè si purga e risolve la roffia
Che pria turbava, sì che il ciel ne ride
Con le bellezze d’ogni sua paroffia:
Così fec’ io, poi che mi provvide
La Donna mia del suo risponder chiaro,
E come stella in cielo il ver si vide.”[256]

[256]
“Even as remaineth splendid and serene
The hemisphere of air, when Boreas
Is blowing from that cheek where he is mildest,
Because is purified and resolved the wrack
That erst disturbed it, till the welkin laughs
With all the beauties of its pageantry:
Thus did I likewise, after that my Lady
Had me provided with her clear response,
And like a star in heaven the truth was seen.”
_Par._ xxviii. 79-87. (_Longfellow_).
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Stars, as well as the sun, are used as symbols for the objects of Dante’s deepest reverence; for the Blessed Virgin is called “la viva stella,”[257] and the Final Vision in which the redeemed find their ultimate bliss is a Trinal Light seen as a single star:—

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [257] “The shining star.” _Par._ xxiii. 92.

“O trina Luce, che in unica stella
Scintillando a lor vista sì gli appaga,
Guarda quaggiù alla nostra procella.”[258]

[258]
“O Trinal Light, that in a single star
Sparkling upon their sight so satisfies them,
Look down upon our tempest here below!”
_Par._ xxxi. 28-30. (_Longfellow_).
------------------------------------------------------------------------

The diurnal motion of the stars is referred to many times. As Dante watched the mystical procession in the Earthly Paradise, and saw one group follow in the footsteps of another across the flowers and the grass, he thought of the stately procession of stars which we see here by night, star following star across the sky.[259] Their movement marks for him the passage of time, as we see in the first sonnet of the _Vita Nuova_:—

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [259] _Purg._ xxix. 91.

“Già eran quasi ch’ atterzate l’ ore
Del tempo che ogni stella è piu lucente.”[260]

[260]
“Of those long hours wherein the stars above
Wake and keep watch, the third was almost nought.”
_V. N._ iii. 81, 82. (_Rossetti_).
------------------------------------------------------------------------

and in the _Inferno_, where Virgil hastens Dante, saying that all the stars are sinking which were rising when he started on his long journey.[261]

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [261] _Inf._ vii. 98, 99. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

The motion of those stars which neither rise nor set, but are always seen circling round the pole, is clearly described. In the heaven of the sun, spirits gather round Dante and Beatrice, and circle round them, “Come stelle vicine ai fermi poli;”[262] and the motion of the stars near the pole is said to be slow, like the part of a wheel which is near the axle.[263] We may compare these descriptions with the statement of Alfraganus:—“Eæ stellæ (_i.e._ the northern circumpolar) vertuntur omnes circa idem punctum. Et quei ex iis puncto huic est vicinior, minorem conficit circulum: motusque ejus appâret lentior.”[264] Dante assumes that his readers understand this motion when he describes himself as seeing unknown stars near the South Pole. The Mount of Purgatory is supposed to be situated in the southern hemisphere, and at his first arrival, before dawn, he turns to the right, after looking at Venus in the east, therefore to the south, and sees near the pole four stars so brilliant that the whole sky seems to rejoice in their radiance, and he pities the “widowed” northern hemisphere because they are invisible there.[265] In the evening, as soon as it begins to grow dark, although he is engaged in an interesting discourse with a friend with whom he had exchanged warm greetings, he looks eagerly once more towards the pole (note the intensity expressed by the repeated “pure”)—

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [262]

“Like unto stars neighbouring the stedfast poles.”
_Par._ x. 78.

[263] _Purg._ viii, 86, 87.

[264] “These stars all revolve round the same point, and the nearer a star is to this point, the smaller is the circle that it makes, and the slower its motion appears.” _El. Ast._ cap. ii.

[265] _Purg._ i. 22-27.

“Gli occhi miei ghiotti andavan pure al cielo,
Pur là dove le stelle son più tarde,
Sì come rota più presso allo stelo.”[266]

[266]
“My insatiate eyes
Meanwhile to heaven had travelled, even there
Where the bright stars are slowest, as a wheel
Nearest the axle.”
_Purg._ viii. 85-87. (_Carey_).

He now sees three bright stars which make this pole glow with light, and Virgil says that the stars he saw in the morning are low, while those now visible have risen higher to take their place.

“Ed egli a me: Le quattro chiare stelle
Che vedevi staman son di là basse,
E queste son salite ov’ eran quelle.”[267]

[267]
“And he to me: The four resplendent stars
Thou sawest this morning are down yonder low,
And these have mounted up to where those were.”
_Purg._ viii. 91-93. (_Longfellow_).
------------------------------------------------------------------------

The diurnal movement of the starry heaven is also alluded to in the _Convivio_, and contrasted with that immensely slow movement which was discovered by Hipparchus, and is called by us Precession. The starry heaven, says Dante, displays one of its poles to us, and keeps the other hidden; and in like manner it displays only one movement to us, and keeps the other almost hidden. By the first, it revolves once in every day from east to west; the other is nearly insensible, being only one degree in a hundred years, and it is from west to east.[268] This is the value of precession as given by Alfraganus, following Ptolemy.

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [268] _Conv._ II. xv. 10-14, and 96-104. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was this stupendous and mysterious cycle which was used by Dante to measure the age of Beatrice, though for his own he used (as we saw) the ordinary measure of the sun’s period. When he first saw “la gloriosa donna”[269] she had only been in this life so long that the starry heaven had moved towards the east one-twelfth part of a degree. Therefore, she was one-twelfth of a hundred years old, or 8 years 4 months, “so that it was near the beginning of her ninth year that she appeared to me, and I saw her nearly at the end of my ninth.”[270]

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [269] “The glorious Lady.”

[270] _V. N._ ii. 9-15. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dante tells us how many stars had been counted by “the sages of Egypt,” by whom he means Ptolemy and the other Alexandrians: he did not know that the star catalogue of the _Almagest_ was originally made by Hipparchus of Rhodes.

“Dico ch’ il cielo stellato ci mostra molto stelle;
chè, secondochè li savi d’Egitto hanno veduto,
infino all’ultima stella che appare loro in
meridie, mille ventidue corpora di stelle pongono,
di cui io parlo.”[271]

------------------------------------------------------------------------
[271]
“I say that the starry heaven displays a multitude
of stars to us, for as the Sages of Egypt have
perceived, including the last star which appears
to them in the south, they reckon one thousand
and twenty-two starry bodies, of which I am now
speaking.”
_Conv._ II. xv. 18-22. (_Jackson_).
------------------------------------------------------------------------

It will be noted that he carefully avoids saying that this is the number of all the stars visible from the whole earth. Had he, like Ristoro, run away with the idea that a blank space on the globe meant a blank in the sky, his night sky seen from Purgatory would have been strangely bare and dull! Yet both writers used the same text-book. Dante is here following Alfraganus closely, for he had written in his nineteenth chapter:—

“Sciendum itaque sapientes inivisse mensuram
stellarum fixarum omnium, quoad instrumentis
observari eæ potuerunt, extremam usque meridiei
partem, in tertio climate ipsis conspicuam....
Stellæ universae quarum agi mensura potuit sunt
mille viginti duæ.”[272]

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [272] “You are to know that the Sages measured the places of all the fixed stars as accurately as possible with their instruments, as far south as they could see in the third climate.... The number of all the stars which he was able to measure is one thousand and twenty-two.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Both in the _Quæstio_ and the _Paradiso_ Dante notes how stars differ, not only in their brightness or “magnitude,” but also in the quality of their light, by which he probably means their colour:—

“Videmus in eo [_sc._ cœlum stellatum] differentiam
in magnitudine stellarum et in luce.”[273]

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [273] “We see in it (the starry heaven) a difference in the magnitude of the stars and in their light.” _Qu._ xxi. 19-21.

“Lumi, li quali nel quale e nel quanto
Notar si posson di diversi volti.”[274]

[274]
“Lights many the eighth sphere displays to you
Which in their quality and quantity
May noted be of aspects different.”
_Par._ ii. 65-66. (_Longfellow_).
------------------------------------------------------------------------

It seems as if it were the beauty and the movement of the starry sky as a whole which appealed to Dante, rather than the distinguishing of special stars and constellations. Those which he mentions are almost all either in the zodiac, and used to denote the hour, the season, or the position of one of the seven planets; or else they are near one of the poles and illustrate the circumpolar motion.

All the zodiacal constellations are mentioned except Virgo and Sagittarius. Besides the ordinary names of “Ariete,” “Libra,” etc., Aries is called “il Montone;”[275] Gemini “il segno che segue il Tauro,” “gli eterni Gemelli,” and “il bel nido di Leda,”[276] in reference to the mother of Castor and Pollux, its two brightest stars; Libra is “le Bilance”;[277] Scorpio “il freddo animale”;[278] Capricornus is “il Capra del ciel”;[279] and Pisces “la celeste Lasca.”[280]

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [275] “The Ram.” _Purg._ viii. 134; _Par._ xxix. 2.

[276] “The sign which follows Taurus,” _Par._ xxii. 110, 111; “The eternal Twins,” xxii. 152; “The fair nest of Leda,” xxvii. 98.

[277] “The Balance.” _Purg._ ii. 5.

[278] “The cold creature.” _Purg._ ix. 5.

[279] “The Goat of the sky.” _Par._ xxvii. 69.

[280] “The celestial Carp.” _Purg._ xxxii. 54. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

In one place Castor and Pollux are mentioned, but merely as a synonym for the whole constellation of Gemini.[281] “Il petto del Leone ardente”[282] is perhaps Cor Leonis, the Heart of the Lion, for this is the name given to Regulus by both Ptolemy and Alfraganus. The “Maggior Fortuna”[283] of _Purg._ xix. 4, is a group of stars belonging to the two constellations of Aquarius and Pisces, in which the geomancers, who told fortunes by means of certain points traced at random, thought they saw a special series of these points,-:::..

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [281] _Purg._ iv. 61.

[282] “The burning Lion’s breast.” _Par._ xxi. 14.

[283] “Greater Fortune.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------

It is generally agreed that the “gemme” of _Purg._ ix. 4, “poste in figura del freddo animale, Che con la coda percote la gente,”[284] are some stars of Scorpio which were shining on the eastern horizon just before the moon rose on the first night in the Island of Purgatory.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
[284]
“Gems ... set in the shape of that cold animal
Which with its tail doth smite amain the nations.”
(_Longfellow_).
------------------------------------------------------------------------

The zodiacal constellations in general are spoken of as “all the lights of his [the sun’s] path:” “Tutti i lumi della sua strada.” (_Par._ xxvi. 121, 122).

The pole star is described as the point of the axle round which the first sphere revolves.[285] The first sphere (or wheel, as it is called, with reference to its circling motion) is here the Primum Mobile, which was thought to cause the diurnal motion. This unique position gains for the pole star the name of “the star,” as for instance in _Conv._ III. v. 84, 85, where Dante says that a man standing at the north pole would have “la stella” directly over his head. And in Paradise he hears a voice among the spirits which makes him turn in its direction as the needle turns to the star—

------------------------------------------------------------------------ [285] _Par._ xiii. 11, 12.

“Voce, che l’ago alla stella
Parer mi fece in volgermi al suo dove.”[286]

[286]
“A voice,
That made me seem like needle to the star,
In turning to its whereabout.”
_Par._ xii. 29, 30. (_Carey_).
------------------------------------------------------------------------

This property of the magnet was known in Dante’s day, as well as its power of attracting iron, though only the latter had been known to Ptolemy and the classical world. Whether the discovery came from China, where it is said that some form of compass has been used since the second century A.D., or whether it had been discovered independently by Arab or Italian navigators, we do not know: but scholars and poets in the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries write of the “ugly brown stone” used by sailors to make an instrument that cannot lie. For a needle, rubbed by it and run through a straw, when floated on water turns so surely to “the star” that one need never doubt its guidance. Thus writes Guyot, the poet of Languedoc, about 1200:—

“Un art font qui mentir ne puet,
Par la vertu de la manete,
Une pierre laide et brunete,
Ou le fers volentiers se joint,
Ont: si esgardent le droit point,
Puis c’une aiguile i ont touchie,
Et en un festu l’ont couchie,
En l’eve la metent sanz plus,

* * * * *

Puis se torne la pointe toute
Contre l’estoile si sanz doute,
Que ja nas hom n’en doutera.”

And thus Ristoro:—

“L’angola, che guidi li marinari, chè per la virtu
del cielo è tratta e rivolta alla stella la quale è
chiamata tramontana.”[287]