CLEOMEDES

ON THE CYCLICAL THEORY OF METEORS original: "Κυκλικῆς θεωρίας μετεώρων"

FIRST BOOK.

A woodcut or ornamental header appears here, above the beginning of the text.

Chapter 1.

[On the world and the void outside it, and that the center of the world is at once also the bottom.]

p. 1 Blf.

Since "world" is used in many ways, the present discourse concerns the world according to its arrangement, which is defined thus: The world is a system consisting of heaven and earth and the natures within them. This contains all bodies, with nothing existing simply outside of it, as is demonstrated elsewhere; it is not, however, infinite, but finite, as is clear from the fact that it is governed by nature. For it is impossible for anything infinite to have a nature; it is necessary for nature to master that which it belongs to. And that it has a nature governing it is evident, first from the order of its parts, and then from the order of things occurring.

The following notes are in Latin and refer to textual variants in manuscripts M, L, and N. 1\. The author's name seems to have taken up a much larger erased space than what is now supplied by a more recent hand; the first letter seems to have been E: E... Cleomedes, Cyclical Theory, First of two. M. 2\. "Of meteors" omitted in L. 4\. The chapter inscription is omitted in M. 5\. "On the world" N. 7\. The syllable "le" with a lacuna is missing in M. 8\. "the" omitted in M. Formerly it was "is," afterwards "n."