Astronomical Myths: Based on Flammarions's "History of the Heavens"
John Stuart Mill · en
A veritable muddle! The angels placed with the heroes of
mythology, the immortal virgins with Venus and Andromeda, and the Saints
with the Great Bear, the Hydra, and the Scorpion!
[Illustration: FIG. 16.--HEAVENS OF THE MIDDLE AGES.]
Another such richly illuminated manuscript in the library at Ghent,
entitled Liber Floridus, contains a drawing similar to this under the
title _Astrologia secundum Bedum_. Only, instead of the earth, there is
a serpent in the centre with the name Great Bear, and the twins are
represented by a man and woman, Andromeda in a chasuble, and Venus as a
nun!
Several similar ones might be quoted, varying more or less from this;
one, executed in a geographical manuscript of the fifteenth century, has
the tenth sphere, being that of the fixed stars, then the crystalline
heaven, and then the immovable heaven, "which," it says, "according to
sacred and certain theology, is the dwelling-place of the blessed, where
may we live for ever and ever, Amen;" "this is also called the empyreal
heaven." Near each planet the author marks the time of its revolution,
but not at all correctly.
[Illustration: PLATE VII.--HEAVENS OF THE FATHERS.]
The constructors of these systems were not in the least doubt as to
their reality, for they actually measured the distance between one
sphere and another, though in every case their numbers were far from the
truth as we now know it. We may cite as an example an Italian system
whose spheres were as follows:--Terra, Aqua, Aria, Fuoco, Luna,
Mercurio, Venus, Sol, Marte, Giove, Saturno, Stelle fixe, Sfera nona,
Cielo empyreo. Attached to the design is the following table of
dimensions which we may copy:--
Miles.
From the centre of the Earth to the surface 3,245
" " " " inner side of the
heaven of the Moon 107,936
Diameter of Moon 1,896
From the centre of the Earth to Mercury 209,198
Diameter of Mercury 230
From the centre of the Earth to Venus 579,320
Diameter of Venus 2,884
From the centre of the Earth to the Sun 3,892,866
Diameter of the Sun 35,700
From the centre of the Earth to Mars 4,268,629
Diameter of Mars 7,572
From the centre of the Earth to Jupiter 8,323,520
Diameter of Jupiter 29,641
From the centre of the Earth to outside of Saturn's
heaven 52,544,702
Diameter of Saturn 29,202
From the centre of the Earth to the fixed stars 73,387,747