Cotemporary with the Emperor Frederick II. was Alphonso X. King of Castile, surnamed _the Wise_. This prince was the first who manifested a desire of correcting the _Tables of Ptolemy_. In the year 1240, even during the life of his father, he drew to Toledo the most experienced astronomers of his time, Christians, Moors, or Jews; by whose labours he at length obtained the _Alphonsine Tables_, in 1252 (the first year of his reign:) which were first printed at Venice, in 1483. He died in the year 1284. ----- Coeval with that sovereign, was Johannes de Sacro-Bosco,[51] a famous English ecclesiastic, who was the first astronomical writer that acquired celebrity in the thirteenth century. Very nearly about the same time, appeared also that prodigy of genius and learning, Friar Bacon:[52] and from that period, down to our own day, there has been a succession of illustrious philosophers: whose names have justly been renowned, for the benefits they have conferred on mankind; names which reflect honour on the countries to which they respectively belong. Many of those benefactors of the world were honoured with marks of high distinction, by their sovereigns and cotemporaries; and their fame will descend to the latest posterity. ----- Footnote 51: His name was _John Holywood_; deduced, according to a practice prevalent in his time, from the place of his nativity, which was Halifax, a town in the west-riding of Yorkshire, in England, where he was born in the year 1204. It was formerly named _Holy-wood_; and was, probably, so called in _Sacro-Bosco’s_ day: but the more ancient name of that place was Horton, or _Hair_-town; and Halifax signifies _Holy-hair_.—This great man was the inventor of the sphere; and wrote a work, entitled _De Sphærâ_, which was very celebrated. He died at Paris, in 1256. Footnote 52: He died in 1294, at the age of eighty years. -----