Book on the Universe

4

SEV DE COSMOGR.

Under the greater circles, sixty thousand paces. Two other circles, the next ones, are called tropics, and are the boundaries here of the longest days, and there of the shortest. The longest days are at the beginning of the fourth month, the shortest at the beginning of the ninth. 10. The oblique sphere declines from the equator only as much as the boundary of the longest and shortest days does from the medium ones, namely by 23 degrees. Therefore, the two smallest circles near the poles are as distant from the pole of the world or equator as the oblique sphere is distant from it, so that they are nothing other than the sign of the revolution of the pole of the oblique sphere itself. The Meridian circle is the greatest, divided into 360 degrees, passing through the poles of the world and through the middle of the heaven, placeable anywhere in the middle space between rising and setting, which when the sun reaches it, in the day it is noon: in the night it is midnight. It is divided into four times 90 degrees by the Horizon, which is also called the boundary, because it separates the seen part of the heaven from the unseen. This, however, also divides the equator into four times ninety degrees, except for those who live directly under the poles, to whom the Horizon and the equator always coincide. Under the oblique sphere, the seven planets are carried in such a way that the year is divided by it into 12 signs or months. The first sign, therefore, is at the vernal equinox. The second, after 30 degrees have passed. Thus, with 30 degrees assigned to each sign or month, 360 degrees are completed. I would wish, however, that all twelve be called either by numbers or by the months which are in the sacred books, for the reason that there are 12 various celestial influences, over which individual intelligences preside. The name from Janus, who is also Noah, should remain for the tenth month, January.