Complete Works, Volume Four

...of the heavenly bodies themselves: it seems it can be understood without difficulty from the preceding Figure.

Furthermore, if you see some inner circle representing the Earth, as if you have the Horizon of any given region; and besides point B, where it is intersected by the Meridian to the North, and point A, to the South, you note ten other points, five toward the east and five toward the west—namely C, D, E, F, G, H, I, K, L, M—where it is intersected by the Equinoctial, the Tropics, and the Polar circles: and then from these twelve points you imagine as many winds blowing toward point N, the center of the horizon or the location of the observer himself; one can understand from there how the ancients determined the regions of the Heaven How the ancients determined the regions of the Heaven, from which the Winds arrived (except that the points designated by the Polar circles were initially inconsistent for the reason already explained).

Namely, from point B, they called the blowing wind the North Wind original: "Απαρκτιαν Septentrionem": from point A, the South Wind original: "Νοτον, Austrum": from point C, the East Wind original: "Απηλιωτην, Subsolanum": from point D, the West Wind original: "Ζεφυρον, Favonium": from point E, the North-East Wind original: "Βορεαν, Καικιαν, Aquilonem": from point F, the North-West Wind original: "Αργεστην, Σκιρωνα, Ολυμπιαν, Ελλησποντιαν, Caurum, seu Corum": from point G, the South-East Wind original: "Ευρον, Vulturnum": from point H, the South-West Wind original: "Λιβα, Africum": from point I, the North-North-East Wind original: "Μεσην", called by some the Boreas, by some the Aquilo, and by others the Caecias: from point K, the North-North-West Wind original: "Θρασκιαν", called by some the North-West Wind original: "Corum": from point L, the South-South-East Wind original: "Φοινikιαν, Ευρονοτον", called by some the South-East Wind original: "Vulturnum": from point M, the South-South-West Wind original: "Λιβονοτον, Altanum".

I pass over how the moderns, and especially Sailors, are accustomed to distinguish 32 Winds (by dividing the horizon into 32 equal parts). They care only for four of these points as Cardinals (B, A, C, D), naming the Winds that blow from them in the Mediterranean Sea as the North original: "Tramontana", South original: "Ostro", East original: "Levante", and West original: "Ponente": and in the Ocean as North, South, East, West. Those blowing from the points midway between these are called, in the Mediterranean, the North-East original: "Greco", North-West original: "Maestro", South-East original: "Sirocco", and South-West original: "Garbino" or "Lebechio": and in the Ocean, North-east, North-west, South-east, South-west. Those blowing again from the intermediate points are named with compound words, such as North-North-East original: "Tramontana-Greco", North-North-West original: "Tramontana-Maestro", etc.; North-north-east, North-north-west, etc., always beginning from those which blow from the Cardinal points. Finally, those blowing from the points intermediate again, through the eighth-parts of the quadrants, are named in this way: North by East original: "Quarta di Tramontana-Greco", North by West original: "Quarta di Tramontana-maestro", North-East by North original: "Quarta di Greco-tramontana", etc.; North by East, North by West, North-East by North, etc., always beginning from those which blow from the eight primary points.

CHAPTER XVII.

On Climates, and the variety of the Earth's Inhabitants because of the Parallels.

Gassendi's Observations.

A decorative woodcut initial V features a landscape with a building and lush foliage.
SINCE the distinction of Zones was not sufficient for the ancients to mark the variety of positions of regions on this side of the Equator: they therefore thought that more parallels should be employed, by which certain smaller Zones, as it were, would be subdivided. These were called Climates original: "Climata", as if you were to say "Inclinations" or deflections from the position of the Right Sphere The "Right Sphere" refers to the orientation where the celestial equator passes through the zenith..

When they limited each Climate by two parallels, starting the measurement from the Equator, they arranged them so that in the parallel further from the Equator, the longest day of the year was half an hour longer than in the shorter one. However, they did not account for a "first" Climate where the longest day was 12 and a half hours, as if that region were entirely uninhabitable. Instead, they held as the first Climate that one where the longest day was thirteen hours; as if the Torrid Zone, approaching closer to the Temperate Zone, began to be inhabited there.

They were not accustomed to distinguish more than seven Climates, because these abundantly included all the regions known at that time. They indicated these by the names of certain famous places included in each, calling them Through Meroë, Through Syene, etc. original: "Δια Μεροης, Δια Συηνης"; that is, as if passing through Meroë, through Syene, through Alexandria, through Rhodes, through Rome, through the Black Sea, and through the Dnieper River original: "Borysthenem".

But modern authors, because the Earth is now known far and wide, distinguish 24 Climates. This is because of the 24 half-hours, or 12 hours, by which the longest day increases from the Equator all the way to the Polar circle, where the Climates end as the longest day exceeds the normal measure.

I pass over the fact that each Climate is usually divided into two parts, or even smaller Zones, by placing another parallel between them, so that the difference of the longest day between the ends is one quarter of an hour. They called such small Zones, or halves of Climates, Parallels Parallel: here used as a technical term for a subdivision of a climate zone (by a specific use of the word). Consequently, it is clear that 48 such divisions can now be distinguished.

By this reasoning, since in this City Gassendi refers to Paris., for example, the longest day is 16 hours, it is clear why the city can be said to be located at the end of the eighth Climate, and at the same time at the end of the sixteenth Parallel.

Although astronomers no longer designate locations by Climates and Parallels, but by Polar Elevations; or even (among Geographers) by the Latitudes of the places themselves, or their distances from the Equator.

It should be added that if you imagine any number of distinct Parallels on the Sphere, you can then conceive how each of the Earth's inhabitants has their own counterparts. They call these the Periœci original: "Περιοikους", as if to say "those living around"; the Antœci original: "Αντοικους", as if "those living opposite"; and the Antipodes original: "Αντιποδας", as if "inhabitants of the opposite earth." However, those living directly under the Poles (because they are not on any parallel) have only Antipodes, or Antichthones A term for those on the opposite side of the world..

For in other cases, those are called Periœci to each other who are under the same Parallel, but specifically those who are on opposite sides of the meridian (that is, in different halves from pole to pole). Antœci are those under parallels equally distant on this side and beyond the Equator, but located on the same side of the meridian. Antipodes, or Antichthones, are those situated under equidistant points on both sides of the Equator, but on opposite sides of the meridian.

It is well known that for this diversity of the inhabitants' position...