Tommaso Campanella

Page 11

In the recess of the wall, which is adorned with numerous large doors, there are immovable seats, placed as it were between the inside columns supporting the temple. Portable chairs are also present, many in number and well-adorned. Nothing is seen over the altar but a large globe, upon which the heavenly bodies are painted, and another globe upon which there is a representation of the earth. Furthermore, in the vault of the dome there can be discerned representations of all the stars of heaven from the first to the sixth magnitude A system used by ancient astronomers to rank the brightness of stars, where first magnitude is the brightest., with their proper names and their power to influence terrestrial things marked in three little verses for each. There are the poles and greater and lesser circles according to the right latitude The angular distance of a place north or south of the earth's equator. of the place, but these are not perfect because there is no wall below. They seem, too, to be made in their relation to the globes on the altar. The pavement of the temple is bright with precious stones. Its seven golden lamps hang always burning, and these bear the names of the seven planets In the 17th century, this included the Sun and Moon alongside Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn..

At the top of the building, several small and beautiful cells surround the small dome, and behind the level space above the bands or arches of the exterior and interior columns there are many cells, both small and large, where the priests and religious officers dwell to the number of forty-nine.