Dante and the early astronomers — Dante Alighieri — John Shaqi
Dante and the early astronomers
Dante Alighieri · en
Ristoro d’Arezzo, Della Composizione del Mondo colle sue Cagioni.
(Narducci, Milan, 1864).
Scartazzini, A Companion to Dante, translated by Butler.
” La Divina Commedia (edizione minore, with notes).
Schaubach, Geschichte der Griechischen Astronomie bis auf
Eratosthenes.
Schiaparelli, I precursori di Copernico nell’ Antichità.
” I Primordì dell’ Astronomia Babilonese.
” I Progressi dell’ Astronomia Babilonese.
” L’Astronomia nell’ antico Testamento.
” Le Sfere Omocentriche di Eudosso, di Callipo,
e di Aristotile.
” Origine del Sistema Planetario Eliocentrico presso
i Greci.
Temple Classics, Dante, (Divine Comedy, Convivio, Latin Works, with
translations and notes).
The Panchasiddhântikâ of Varâha Mihira. Translated from the
Sanscrit, and edited by Thibaut and M. S. Dvivedi.
Toynbee, Paget, Articles on Dante’s Obligations to Alfraganus,
Albertus Magnus, Orosius, and Dante’s theories regarding
the markings on the Moon (in _Romania_ and _Giornale
Storico della Letteratura Italiana_).
” Dante Dictionary.
” The Life of Dante (Oxford Biographies).
Tozer, An English Commentary on Dante’s Divina Commedia.
Wicksteed, The Early Lives of Dante.
Wicksteed and Selfe, Villani’s Chronicle.
Witte, Dante-Forschungen.
* * * * *
All quotations from Dante’s works are taken from Moore’s _Tutte le
Opere di Dante Alighieri_, 3rd edition, Oxford 1894.
Astronomical data are chiefly taken from Young’s _Manual of Astronomy_,
and the _Nautical Almanac_.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
INTRODUCTION 1
PART I.
ASTRONOMY FROM PRIMITIVE TIMES UNTIL THE AGE OF DANTE.
I. APPARENT MOVEMENTS OF THE HEAVENLY BODIES AS SEEN
FROM EARTH 9
II. THE BEGINNINGS OF ASTRONOMY. Gnomons and
clepsydras; the constellations and the calendar;
astrology and star-worship; early cosmogonies 25
III. GREEK ASTRONOMY: FIRST PERIOD.
B.C. 900 to B.C. 350
1. Homeric Greece; First Notions of Astronomy 51
2. Thales and Anaximander: Earth flat, heaven a
series of hemispheres 55
3. Later Flat Earth Systems: the Universe a sphere 60
4. Pythagoras and his Followers: Earth round,
Earth in Motion 66