The Sphere of the World with Commentaries

is called the motion of the prime mover, that is, of the ninth sphere or the ultimate sky, which returns from the east through the west back into the east; this is also called the rational motion, in likeness to the motion of reason which is in the microcosm, that is, in man, namely when consideration is made by the creator through the creatures into the creator, stopping there. The second motion of the firmament and the planets is contrary to this, from the west through the east returning again into the west, which motion is called irrational or sensual, in likeness to the motion of the microcosm, which is from corruptible things to the creator, returning again to corruptible things. It is therefore called the girdle of the first motion because it girds or divides the prime mover, namely the ninth sphere, into two equal parts, equidistant from the poles of the world. Whence it is to be noted that the pole of the world which always appears to us is called the septentrional, arctic, or boreal pole. It is called septentrional from the septentrio, that is, the Lesser Bear, which is said from septem (seven) and trion which is bos (ox), because the seven stars which are in the Bear move slowly in the manner of an ox, since they are near the pole. Or those seven stars are called septentriones, as if "seven plow-oxen," in that they plow the parts around the pole. Indeed, it is called arctic from arctos, which is the Greater Bear. For it is next to the Greater Bear. It is called boreal, however, because it is in that part from which the Boreas (north wind) comes. The opposite pole is called the antarctic, as if placed against the arctic. It is also called the meridional because it is on the side of the meridian. It is also called the austral, because it is in that part from which the Auster (south wind) comes. These two stable points in the firmament are therefore called the poles of the world, because they terminate the axis of the sphere, and the world revolves toward them, of which one always appears to us, while the other is always hidden. Whence Virgil in the first of the Georgics: "This zenith is always sublime to us, but the dark Styx and the profound shades see that one beneath our feet."

ON THE ZODIAC CIRCLE.

There is another circle in the sphere which intersects the equinoctial and is intersected by the same into two equal parts, and one half of it declines towards the north, the other towards the south; and this circle is called the zodiac from zoe which is life, because according to the motion of the planets beneath it is all life in