The Starry Messenger

began to shine with a small light; until, as the Moon was already moving toward its setting, that triangular shape extended, and having now become larger, it was joined with the rest of the luminous part. Like a huge promontory, still occupied by the three bright peaks already mentioned, it broke out into the dark bay. At the extreme corners also, both the upper and the lower, certain bright points emerged, entirely separated from the rest of the light; just as is seen depicted in the same figure referring to an accompanying diagram in the original manuscript. There was a great abundance of dark spots in both corners, but especially in the lower one; of these, those which are closer to the boundary of light and shadow terminator: the dividing line between the lit and unlit parts of a planetary body appear larger and darker; those further away, however, are less dark and more faded. Always, however, as we also mentioned above, the blackish part of the spot itself faces the location of the Solar irradiation, while a brighter rim surrounds the blackish spot on the side turned away from the Sun and facing the dark region of the Moon. This Lunar surface, where it is marked with spots like the blue eyes of a peacock's tail, is rendered similar to those glass vessels which, while still hot, are plunged into cold water and acquire a fractured and wavy surface, for which reason they are commonly called Ice Cups: a type of "crackle glass" or "frosted glass" known as ghiaccio in 17th-century Venice. Truly, the large spots of the same Moon are by no means seen to be interrupted in a similar way, or filled with hollows and protrusions; rather, they are more even and uniform; for they abound only in some brighter patches here and there. Thus, if anyone wished to revive the old opinion of the Pythagoreans The followers of Pythagoras, who suggested the Moon was an inhabited world like Earth—namely, that the Moon is like a second Earth—its brighter part would more fittingly represent the land surface, while the darker part would represent the water. For my part, I have never doubted that if the terrestrial globe were seen from afar and bathed in Solar rays, the land surface would present itself as brighter and the water as darker.