Giordano Bruno: De Umbris Idearum (1582 First Edition)

as the Lion original: "Leo"; likely referring to the zodiac sign Leo, associated with the Sun's strength. When he rises, the workers of darkness gather in their dens, but man and the animals of light go forth to their work. He invites the latter to labor; he pushes the former into rest. Toward him the lupine original: "lupinus"; a plant believed to follow the sun and the heliotrope original: "Elitropia"; literally 'sun-turner' turn themselves, but from him the herbs and flowers of the night turn away. He lifts up thinned vapors into the form of a cloud, but casts down those condensed into water upon the earth. To some he imparts a perennial and continuous light; to others, a light of changing turns. The non-erring intellect teaches that he stands still; however, the fallacious sense persuades us that he moves. He rises for this part of the rotating earth exposed to him; he sets at the same time for the part positioned otherwise. He apparently circles the horizons which they call arctic through the differences of right and left; but to many others he seems to traverse an upper and a lower arc. He appears larger to the earth when it holds the high point of its circuit; but smaller when it holds the lowest point (as being further removed from him). In some portions of the semi-circle he is absent slowly; in others, however, quickly. He is made more Northern for the earth leaning toward the South; but more Southern for the earth hastening toward the North. For those having a straight horizon, he receives a width into equal spaces on either side; but for those holding an oblique one, into unequal spaces. He himself, within the two middle parallels of this mass, in the spaces