THE FIRST BOOK ON THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE STARS BY JULIUS FIRMICUS MATERNUS JUNIOR, A NOBLE OF SICILY, DEDICATED TO MAVORTIUS LOLLIANVUS. original: "Matheseos" — though it looks like "Mathematics," in this period the term referred specifically to the study of the stars, including both astronomy and astrology. "V. C." stands for Vir Clarissimus, a title for a member of the Roman senatorial class.

P R E F A C E.

LIBRARY OF THE CITY OF LYON

A large ornate woodcut initial letter 'O'. Inside the letter, a scholar or astronomer is depicted sitting at a desk with an open book, gesturing upwards towards the sky. The background shows an arched window or alcove.

Long ago I promised you, Mavortius—you who are my pride—that I would publish these books, but quite often a wavering modesty held me back. A doubtful trepidation called me away from this zeal for writing, especially since the fragility of my own talent could not conceive of knowing anything that it judged worthy of your ears. For I remembered that all too bold promise, which was beyond my strength, in which I had pledged that I would dedicate to you the entire discipline of divine Astrology. original: "Matheseos" As I hesitated, my mind was frequently invaded now by a pale face, now by a sort of rustic fear.

For when you were established in the high offices of the province of Campania Mavortius Lollianus served as the governor (consularis) of Campania around 334–337 CE.—an administration in which your nobility shines with the highest dignity of honor—the harshness of the winter frosts came upon you. This persuaded you to step away from your affairs and, exhausted by the variety of a long and laborious journey, to relax both your mind and your limbs for a little while. You turned aside most pleasantly to me first, here on these Sicilian shores, to those very studies to which each of us has been bound since early youth. Here, you strove to relieve the exhaustion of my aging, weary, and fatigued body with the loyal and most sacred comforts of friendship.

However, when health was restored and had called me back to my former state through your consolations and remedies, we took turns recounting our past deeds and calling to mind the charms of a lighter age; we shared noble and varied stories with one another in conversation. But after we had talked of our own actions and progress, you inquired of me (as you remember) about the situation of all Sicily, where I live and where I was born, and you sought out everything that the ancient myths have handed down, along with an explanation of their true reasoning.

You asked what Scylla In myth, a sea monster; in reality, a dangerous rock or whirlpool in the Strait of Messina. means in herself, or what Charybdis is; what causes the turbulent confusion of the waves rushing together in the straits, which the separate and divided seas join at a certain time and space of the hours through the opposing collision of the waves. You asked what causes the fires that break out from the peak of Etna; what is their nature or substance, and from what origin such great fires are produced and breathed out without the loss of the mountain itself. You asked about the nature of the lake shown near the bed of the Symaethus river, which is named Palicus; The Lake of Naftia, known for its volcanic carbon dioxide springs which caused the water to "boil" and smell of sulfur. a lake always foul with a lurid thickness, growing dark with leaden foams and, hissing with a noisy "marriage," original: "coniugio" — likely referring to the two craters or "brothers" within the lake bubbling together. whistling with a sharp murmur.

You also recollected and inquired with me about all the other wonders of the Sicilian province that both Greek and Roman literature have handed down to you from your earliest years. Finally, you turned the flow of your speech and the order of your discourse to the Sphere of Archimedes, A famous mechanical planetarium or orrery attributed to the mathematician Archimedes of Syracuse, which demonstrated the movements of the sun, moon, and planets. showing me the prudence and learning of your divine talent.

You asked: what do those nine globes signify? What do the five Zones do, which are colored by different kinds of nature? What do the twelve signs of the Zodiac achieve? What is produced by the eternal wandering of the five stars? The "wandering stars" are the planets: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, and Mercury. What of the sun’s daily courses and yearly returns? What of the moon’s swift motion and the constant increases or losses of its light? By how many revolutions is that "Greater Year" completed, of which they speak, which restores these five stars—and the moon and sun as well—to their original places and beginnings; a cycle that is terminated in a circuit of one thousand, four hundred and sixty-one years? This refers to the Sothic Cycle, a period used in ancient Egyptian and Greek astronomy to align the calendar with the stars. What reason creates the Milky Way? What causes the eclipse of the sun and moon? Why does the rotating whirling of the sky never move the Great Bear original: "septentriones" — the seven stars of the Big Dipper/Ursa Major. to the west, nor restore it to the east? What part of the earth lies under the North Wind, and what part under the South? What reason suspends the earth itself, placed in the middle, by a balanced moderation of equality? To what extent does the Ocean, which they call the Atlantic Sea, surround the space of the land in the manner of an island with its waves...