12-09-2016, 04:31 AM
(This post was last modified: 12-09-2016, 05:09 AM by Diane.
Edit Reason: remove ambiguity
)
Anton,
Here's a late (1596) astronomical compendium giving a list of the basic 15 stars.
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
For all sorts of reasons, I think you may find the astronomical line more fruitful than the astological or horoscopic, but in any case i don't envy you. Having worked through a related question some years ago, I must say that the orthography of Latins' "arab" star names is absolutely frightful.
PS - as a nice date-marker (because I'm not suggesting the Vms is about Dante),
Robert M. Durling, in his commentary on Dante's Paradiso cantos says re "fifteen stars... density of the air":
Like other introductory handbooks of astronomy, Alfragano's which Dante knew and repeatedly cites, gives a list of the fifteen brightest stars in the order of their ecliptical longitude. Many of them can be reliably identified e.g. Sirius, Rigel, Betelgeuse, Regulus, Antares and others, but not all. The fifteen brightest stars listed in modern handbooks are all brighter than +1, but Regulus is not among them, though it is bright enough" (p.254)
- so I guess sources from the 15thC or earlier might be the most reliable.
Ref: Dante Alighierii, Robert M.Durling, Paradiso, OUP (2011)
Cheers
Here's a late (1596) astronomical compendium giving a list of the basic 15 stars.
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
For all sorts of reasons, I think you may find the astronomical line more fruitful than the astological or horoscopic, but in any case i don't envy you. Having worked through a related question some years ago, I must say that the orthography of Latins' "arab" star names is absolutely frightful.
PS - as a nice date-marker (because I'm not suggesting the Vms is about Dante),
Robert M. Durling, in his commentary on Dante's Paradiso cantos says re "fifteen stars... density of the air":
Like other introductory handbooks of astronomy, Alfragano's which Dante knew and repeatedly cites, gives a list of the fifteen brightest stars in the order of their ecliptical longitude. Many of them can be reliably identified e.g. Sirius, Rigel, Betelgeuse, Regulus, Antares and others, but not all. The fifteen brightest stars listed in modern handbooks are all brighter than +1, but Regulus is not among them, though it is bright enough" (p.254)
- so I guess sources from the 15thC or earlier might be the most reliable.
Ref: Dante Alighierii, Robert M.Durling, Paradiso, OUP (2011)
Cheers