BY CHRISTIAAN HUYGENS

OF ZUYLICHEM, SON OF CONSTANTIJN

THE SYSTEM OF SATURN.

A large decorative initial 'C' begins the main text. It is a woodcut or engraving featuring elaborate foliate scrollwork and floral motifs within a square frame.

WHEN Galileo had applied optical tubes original: "tubos opticos," the term then used for the newly invented telescope—that most noble invention of our Netherlands—to the contemplation of the heavens, and first revealed those most celebrated phenomena of the planets to mortals, among these, the things he published concerning the star of Saturn seem especially worthy of admiration. For the other discoveries, although they were certainly to be looked up to and highly valued, were not of such a kind that one had to search so urgently for the reasons why they appeared as they did. The changing shapes of Saturn, however, presented a certain new and hidden workmanship of nature, the explanation of which certainly neither Galileo himself, nor any of the astronomers in all the time since (if I may say so without offense), has managed to discern.

At first, he observed this planet shining not as a single sphere, but as if threefold original: "tergeminum", with two smaller stars closely attached to the larger central one on either side. Since this form persisted for nearly three years without any change, he had firmly convinced himself that just as Jupiter has four, so Saturn had been granted two companions original: "comites," a term used for satellites before "moon" was standardized; he believed, however, that they were endowed with no motion and would therefore always remain fixed to its sides in that same position.

But he was forced to change his opinion when Saturn appeared solitary, entirely destitute of its former retinue of satellites. When he had seen this with wonder and attempted to grasp the cause of the matter by conjecture, he made some prophecies regarding the time of its return, when that previous phase term: "phase" refers to the specific appearance or shape of a celestial body at a given time ought to be restored. But it was discovered that these things did not turn out then as he had hoped, nor was it found that Saturn [showed itself] with only a double variation of appearance...