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Both sacred and secular history confirms this truth. What the Holy Scriptures have to say about the years that the ancient Patriarchs lived up to, is proof positive that the first men studied the movements of the stars. For had they not taken account of the exact number of days that last the varying phases of the Moon which serve to conceal the months; and of the number of months during which the Sun little by little approaches the Zenith and afterwards distances itself from it, making the changing by increase and diminution of the days, which allow one to establish the length of the year, they could not have noted the number of years each Patriarch had lived, nor the times of their birth and death, as precisely as Moses records it in Genesis.

And there certainly was need in this first age of the world to observe the stars with a great deal of care, for by the circuмstances of the history of the Flood which are also reported in Genesis, one can see that the year from the time of the Flood was regulated following the movements of the Sun and Moon: which supposes an infinite number of observations. It is yet to be understood how all the application imaginable by the first men studying the sky could have gained them so much knowledge of the movements of the stars, unless their lives were longer than ours. By the living of such long lives gained for them great advances in astronomy. Josephus was of the opinion that so necessary was this science that that one of the reasons why God granted the first men such a long-lasting life, to facilitate for them the knowledge of the movements of the stars.

Nothing better helps to know the antiquity of astronomy, than what Ptolemy (120AD) reports of the observations of the skies by which Hipparchus (140BC) reformed this science two thousand years ago. Ptolemy says that those who were already called astronomers in the days of Hipparchus had observed that the Moon not only moves unequally both by longitude as well as be latitude but also that the extent of its inequality, since known as Apogee and Perigee, successively passes through all the degrees of the Zodiac, and that its greatest latitude as well in the north regions as in the regions of the south is transported by the flight of time, by all the degrees of this same circle, in such manner that at each revolution the Moon cuts across the Ecliptic in different degrees. That these astronomers, in order to discover the rules governing these inequalities, compared together many lunar eclipses by which means they sought to find the longest periods of time which being equal among themselves, each contained the same number of unequal months, that Hipparchus, to connect these long periods once found, had chosen from a great number of ancient observations those proper to his purposes; and that having compared them amongst themselves, he noticed that the Sun and the Moon starting from that same point in the sky, would meet 4267 times in 126007 days and one hour after the moon had made 4612 revolutions by the Zodiac with regard to the fixed stars, less seven degrees and one half, and that it made 4573 returns to the point of its apogee.  That nevertheless after this period of 4573 revolutions, the eclipses do not come back to the original size, but only after 5458 months. This witness by Ptolemy shows of course that some of these observations of the skies used by Hipparchus were very old. For a very long interval of time is required and a great number of observations as well to be able to conclude that these very long periods observed together by Hipparchus were uniform; it is not difficult to see the need for many observations to control this uniformity when one thinks that all the eclipses occurring from 2500 years ago to the present moment there are not two that would be out of conformity with the spaces of these long periods.

An objection that could render suspect the antiquity of these observations used by Hipparchus is that about 2200 years from the time this astronomer lived up to the Flood, which would appear to have buried all monuments of arts and sciences. But one must not be surprised that the memory of the astronomic observations made during the first age of the world, could have lasted even after the Flood, since Josephus recalls that the descendants of Seth to preserve for posterity the memory of the observations of the skies that had been made, sculpted the main ones on two columns, one of stone, the other of brick; that that of stone survived the Deluge, and that in his time one could see traces of it in Syria. It is therefore established that right from the first age of the world, men had already made great progress in the science of the movement of the stars. One could even say that they were more versed in this lore than they have been since the Flood, if it is true that the year used as a yardstick by the ancient Patriarchs was of the greatness of those composed by the great period of 600 years, as mentioned in the Antiquities of the Jews written by Josephus. We cannot find in the remaining monuments of all the other nations any vestige of this period of 600 years, one of the finest yet to be invented. For supposing the lunar month of 29 days 12 hours 44 minutes and 3 seconds, one finds that 219146 days and a half make 7421 lunar months; and this same number of 219146 days and a half gives 600 solar years each consisting of 365 days, 5 hours, 51 minutes and 36 seconds. If this is the year in use before the Flood, as there appears to be every chance of being so, it must be admitted that the ancient Patriarchs knew already with great precision the movement of the stars; for this lunar month accords, for one second out, with that which has been determined by modern astronomers; and the solar year is more exact than that of Hipparchus and Ptolemy, who assigned the year 365 days, 5 hours, 55 minutes and 12 seconds.

After the Deluge, mankind, having been dispersed throughout the world, the Kings of each people took great care to cultivate astronomy, as the historians of all nations attest. Uranus, King of the peoples that first inhabited the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, was considered to be of the race of the gods, because he had a special knowledge of the skies. Zoroastrian, King of the Bactrian is only so well-known because he excelled in astronomy. The first Kings of China acquired for themselves an immortal glory, for having made 4000 years ago, that is to say, shortly after the Flood, many astronomical observations, that the Chinese have conserved to this day. Finally, Pomethus, King of Scythia, son of ‘Japer’, that many famous authors hold to have been the same as ‘Japeth’ one of the sons of Noe, taught his ignorant and stupid people the science of the stars; which gave rise among the poets to the saying that he had stolen fire from Heaven, and had brought statues to life. The peoples had such great veneration for these great men that studied astronomy that they rendered them divine honours and dedicated to them temples and alters.

    But whatever one may make of all these stories whose chronology is perhaps not always very exact, it is certain that soon after the Flood, the Chaldeans observed the skies with much care. Philo attests that Thare, who was born in Chaldea over a hundred years before the death of Noe, was very much given up to astronomy and that he taught it to his son Abraham. Josephus adds that Abraham came to the knowledge of the true God in contemplating the stars; and that having passed from Chaldea into Egypt; he brought the science of astronomy there. This science was held in such esteem at this time that only Kings or Priests made profession of it. Perhaps this is why Virgil, speaking of Dido and Eneus, introduces Lopas who sings what Atlas, King of Mauritania had taught of the eclipses of the Sun and of the Moon, and of the situation and movements of the stars.

Astronomy being held in such esteem in Egypt, it is not surprising that it was taught to Moses who was raised as a Prince Royal of the care of the daughter of Pharaoh. Clement of Alexandria says that Moses made great progress in this science, and that he later taught it to the Jews. Thus astronomy having come from Chaldea into Egypt, passed from Egypt into Judea, and was in a short time carried into Phoenicia and into all the neighbouring countries.

Up to then astronomers hadn’t yet attempted to apply their speculations for use of navigation. But as the Phoenicians were as entrepreneurial as they were hard working, they began to use the observations of the skies to lead them on long distance voyages. So successful was their profiting from the advantages of astronomy, that they were able to carry commerce into far distant lands, made themselves into masters of the seas, established colonies in several places on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, and having entered the ocean, took hold of the Isle of Cadis and built there a very magnificent city. The reputation they had of excelling in navigation caused them to be called upon in various kingdoms to conduct the fleets of foreign princes. Salomon gave them the control of the fleet that he sent via the Red Sea into Ophir; whence they brought back much gold and a great store of the same goods that Europeans presently bring back from South Africa and the Indies. Nechao 11, King of Egypt, also employed them to conduct his fleet, which made a much longer voyage according to Herodote: for he says that having followed the coast of the Red Sea, it entered the ocean, crossed the Torrid Zone, made the tour of Africa and came back to Egypt via the Mediterranean Sea.

What made the Phoenicians so brave as to undertake long voyages is that they drove their vessels by the observations of one of the stars of the lesser Bear, which being near to this point which is immobile in the sky, and which is called the Pole Star, as the most proper of all for guiding navigation. The other people less gifted in Astronomy only observed the Great Bear in their travelling: but as this constellation is too far from the Pole Star to serve surely to guide for boats on long trips, they did not dare to venture so far forth at sea as to lose all sight of land; and if they were thrown by storm far out at sea, or by some unknown roadstead, they couldn’t read the sky so as to be able to tell where the tempest had left them; so they were obliged to wander or head for land then enquire of the local inhabitants  what route they had to take. Thus Virgil, having described the tempest that dispersed Aeneas’ fleet on the coast of Africa, has Aeneas disembark to go to seek someone to tell him the place where the storm had left him. Thus, the Greeks who were obliged to sail along the coast could never undertake long voyages, or made then only by taking a very long time; whence they have sung the praises of many a voyage which today appears very easy and very ordinary. The expedition of the Argonauts, who went from Greece to Colchidia, situated on the eastern coast of the Black Sea, appeared then to be such an extraordinary exploit that, to render it a perpetual remembrance, they put amid the constellations the figure of the ship that had made the voyage, whereas nowadays simple boats do it every day.

But when at last Thales brought from Phoenicia to Greece the science of the stars, he taught the Greeks to recognise the constellation of the lesser Bear, and how to use it for conducting navigation. He also taught them the theory of the movement of the Sun and the Moon, by which were explained the increasing and decreasing of days, determined the number of days of the solar year and not only explained the causes of eclipses but showed the art of predicting them, which he even put into practice, predicting an eclipse which occurred shortly after. The merit of such knowledge, so rare at the time, gave him the reputation of oracle of his days, and assigned him first among the seven Sages of Greece.

He had for a disciple Anaximander, whom Pliny and Diogneus credit with the invention of the sphere, that is, representing the earthly Globe, or as Strabon says, geographical maps. It is said that Anaximander also built at Lacedemonia a gnomon or pin of a dial, by which he observed the Equinoxes and Solstices, and that he determined the slant of the ecliptic more precisely than had been up to then; which was necessary in order to divide the Globe of the Earth into five zones, and to distinguish the climates that since have been used by geographers to make known the situation of all the places on earth.

The Greeks, on instructions received from Thales and from Anaximander, began to brave the open sea and sailed to many far-off countries, finding there many colonies.

The Phocéens fleeing from the tyranny of Persia, were the first to build long ships in which they sailed the Adriatic Gulf, passing to the seas of Toscany, of the Gauls and of Spain, and went as far as Tarsus on the shores of the ocean. Other peoples of Greece sent into other places many colonies, the most famous among which include the foundation of Tarentum, in that part of Italy known as Greater Greece, and that established by them on the coast of the Gauls at Marseille, which became one of the most famous cities of the world both by the sciences that flourished there, and by the great maritime power. Following their example the Corinthians having passed into Sicily, founded a colony at Syracuse, and other peoples of Greece, after King Amasis gave permission to move to Egypt, went to build the city of Naucrates, above one of the western mouths of the Nile.

Astronomy was soon rewarded for the benefits it had procured for navigation. As commerce opened up the rest of the world to the thinkers of Greece, they benefited from the great lights of conferences held with the priests of Egypt, who practiced the science of the stars. They also learned much from the philosophers of the sect of Pythagoras in Italy, who had made such great advances in this science, that they dared to reverse the belief commonly held by everyone concerning the order of nature, by attributing perpetual rest to the Sun, and movement to the Earth. They profited again by the commerce that they had with the Druids, who among many other things, according to Julius Caesar, taught the youth instructing them particularly concerning the movements of the stars, and the greatness of the sky and the Earth that is astronomy and geography.

Even though the ancient peoples of the Gauls, who have always taken more care to do great actions and to undertake great tasks than to write about them, haven’t left records to prove that they hadn’t worked less to the advantage of science than other nations that take all the glory for it, we do know that they were very adept in navigation. As proof we have place names of Galicea in Portugal, and of Celtiberia on the coast of Spain; the name of Celto-Scythians along the Black Sea, and Gallo-Grecia or Galitia in Asia Minor; these are eternal monuments to the origin of the conquerors of these lands and settlers.

But despite the neglect of the Gauls in writing their observations, there are enough to testify to their minds as well as to their physical powers. Strabon has conserved the memorial of famous observation made by Pytheas at Marseilles, more than two thousand years ago, concerning the projection of the Sun at a length of a stylus at the time of the solstice. If we knew the exact circuмstances of this observation, it would go far toward solving a famous question, which is to know whether the slant of the ecliptic is subject to any change. By making the comparison between the observations of this Pytheas with a similar one made by M. Gassendi in Marseilles 40 years ago, it would be easy to resolve this difficulty, which is one of the most important in astronomy. But alas we have only an extract, and quite a poor one at that, of the observation of Pytheas. It is therefore quite difficult to draw any conclusions for certainty. Only what is mentioned by Strabon is left of this observation, and he has drawn it from Hipparcus, who only mentions it in connection to geography; but as geographers are not expected to take the same careful measurements as astronomers, one can suspect that Hipparchus neglected the fraction that separates the findings as observed by Pytheas and of the observation of M. Gassendi. What is more, Hipparcus does not say straight out what projection Pytheas observed at Marseilles, but only that it is the same as that which has been since discovered at Constantinople. Several people of the Royal Academy that took observations greatly to assure us of the height of the Pole Star at Marseilles, obtained many times in different ways; but for the height of the Pole Star at Constantinople, answers cannot be given so precisely. Thus the observation of Pytheas, in the manner as recorded by Strabon, does not suffice to answer the question of the possible change in slant of the Ecliptic.     

Pytheas did not limit himself to making observations from his own country; the passion that inspired him to pursue astronomy and geography drove him across Europe from the Pillars of Hercules to the mouths of the Tanais. He pushed forward towards the Arctic Pole by way of the Western Ocean, and he observed that the further he advanced, the longer grew the days at the time of the Summer Solstice to the extent that in a certain clime there were only three hours of night-time, and further north only two; and that finally on the Isle of Thule the Sun rose again almost as soon as it had set, the Tropic remaining entirely above the horizon of this island, which modern relations teach us is also the case for Iceland and the northern parts of Norway. Strabon accused Pytheas of lying in this matter, as he had been told these lands are uninhabitable. He goes on to attack Eratos there, and Hipparcus, for believing in this as excessively credulous, for they reported the same concerning the Isle of Thule on the word of Pytheas. But since the discoveries of modern navigators have fully justified Pytheas, one can credit him to have been the first to follow the Pole Star northward into lands thought until then to be uninhabitable, and to have distinguished climes by difference of length of day and of night.

About the time of Pytheas, the intelligentsia of Greece having developed a taste for astronomy, several greats among them went at it with a will. Eudoxius, sometime disciple of Plato was not satisfied with what was taught in the schools of Athens: he went to Egypt to draw this science at its source, and having obtained a letter of recommendation of Agesilas King of Lacedomia, to Nectanebo King of Egypt, he stayed sixteen months with the astronomers of that country to take advantage of their conferences. On his return he wrote several books on Astronomy, and among others a description of the constellations that was put into poetic verse by Aratus some time later by order of King Antigones.

Aristorus, contemporary of Eudoxius, and disciple like him of Plato, used Astronomy to perfect the sciences of physics and geography. By the observations of the astronomers, he determined the figure and the size of the Earth. He demonstrated that it was spherical by the roundness of its shadow, which appears on the disc of the Moon during eclipses, and by the unequal height of the meridians that differ as one approaches or goes away from the Poles. By these same observations he demonstrated that the mass of the Earth is small in comparison to that of the stars: and as he was of the opinion that there were countries no one could survive in, he tried by shadows to distinguish the habitable countries from the ones he imagined to be uninhabitable. He taught that the proportion of length to width of the inhabitable world that is the land from the Pillars of Hercules to India, and from Ethiopia to Scythia, was a ratio of five to three.   

The book that is entitled ‘the World’ addressed to Alexander, said to have Aristotle for its author, demonstrates the vast range of knowledge of geography of the time. It contains a fairly accurate description of the principal parts of the Earth, which the author of this book divided into three parts for Europe, Asia and Africa. But the exact studies that Alexander took care to have made of his conquests, gave a much more perfect form of geography. He wanted these descriptions based not only on estimates of roadway, as was the practice until then, but even by actual measurements and by observations of the stars; and he sent Callisthene there to follow up these observations. Callisthene, having had this chance to go to Babylon, found there the astronomical observations made by the Babylonians over a period of one thousand nine hundred and three years, and he sent them to Aristotle.

Pliny has preserved for us the measurements that Alexander obtained from Diogenetes and by Betonus, of the distances of the cities and rivers of Asia, from the Caspian sea to the Indian Ocean; and as well the observations that Onesicritus and Nearquus made on the vessel that was expressly given to them to be able to reconnoitre the shores of the Indian Ocean and of the Persian Gulf. They measured the distances of the places, not only by estimates of the roadway but also by actually measuring in Stadia whenever possible: when the actual measurements could not be taken by observations of the positions of the stars: this led Polybus to say that one owed to Alexander’s conquest whatever was known of the East Indies, and to the Roman conquests one owed the ease with which one could since then go on to know likewise the rest of the world.

Alexander had conceived such a passion for new discoveries, that with no more enemies to fight, he endangered his person and his army to push forward as far as the ocean, with no other purpose than to go where none other had gone before. He declared to his army, that he was happy to die if need be, to discover countries that nature seemed to have hidden away.

After the death of Alexander, the Princes that succeeded him in the Kingdom of Egypt took such great efforts by their generosity to attract the most famous astronomers that Alexandria, the capital of their Kingdom, soon became so to say the city of astronomy. The famous Cononus made many observations there that have not however come down to our time. Aristyllis and Timocharis observed there the declination of fixed stars, whose knowledge is absolutely necessary for geography and for navigation. Eratosthenes in the same city made observations of the Sun, which helped him to measure the circuмference of the Earth, and Hipparcus, who also stayed in Alexandria, not only described one thousand twenty-two fixed stars and their movements around the Poles of the Ecliptic, but he set himself to establish the theory of the movements of the Sun and the Moon.

The Romans likewise while aspiring to attain empire of the world, took care in various places to have descriptions made of the main areas of the Earth. Scipio the African, in this way during the Carthaginian war, gave Polybus ships to search out the coasts of Africa, Spain and the Gauls. This historian so renowned for his books on the Punic wars, accomplished this commission with great exactitude; and afterwards he made a special voyage by land to measure the distances of all the places passed by Hannibal’s army when they crossed the Pyrenees and the Alps to enter into Italy.

Julius Caesar continued to have these measurements taken in various other places of the Roman Empire, and he employed Polycretus, Théodatus and Zénodrus in this great work. He himself described the Gauls and the British Isles in his commentaries, where he noted not only the limits and distances of places, but also fixed their situation and exposition with regard to the sky; and by means of his Clepsydra , he also verified that nights are shorter in the British Isles than in the Gauls.

Pompée for his part sustained correspondence with Possidonius, an expert astronomer and learned geographer who undertook to measure the circuмference of the Earth by observations of the skies made in various places along the same meridian, so as to reduce the degrees what the Romans had until then only measured by stadia and by miles.

To explain the difference of climate, it was observed that in sundry places it was the difference of length of shadows, especially at the time of the Solstices and the Equinoxes. For this purpose, Gnomons  and Obelisks  were raised over different parts of the Earth, as we learn from Plimy and from Vitrivius, who preserved for posterity many of these observations: the greatest Obelisks however were in Egypt. Julius Caesar and Augustus had some of them transported to Rome, both to serve as ornament and to give exact proportionate measurements of shadows. Augustus had one of the largest of these Obelisks measuring one hundred eleven feet in height without its pedestal, set up on the Champ de Mars. For it he had a base dug as deep as the Obelisk was high, and the Obelisks having been raised upon this foundation, he had drawn from the base a meridian line marked with gradation made of copper plates set in stone; to show the gaining of shadow or its diminution each day at Noon according to the different seasons. In order to announce this difference with greater precision, he had a ball put on the point of his Obelisk, which to this day is still in the Campo Marsio lying on the ground where it crosses the vaults of houses built upon its ruin. By comparing the shadows of the Obelisks with those that were observed in sundry other places on Earth, one acquired knowledge of the latitudes that is so necessary for the perfection of geography.

Augustus however, also had descriptions worked upon in other countries and in particular Italy, where the distances were marked by miles along the coasts and over the great highways: at last, under the emperor of the time of this Prince the general description of the world at which the Romans had worked during two centuries, was accomplished based on the memories of Agrippa, and was placed in the middle of Rome in a great portico built especially for it. The itinerary that is attributed to Emperor Antonius can pass for a résumé of this magnum opus. For this Itinerary is nothing but a collection of distances that had been measured throughout the extent of the Roman Empire. Under the reign of this wise Emperor, astronomy began to take on a new look. For Ptolemy, who could be called the restorer of this science, took advantage of the lights of those who had gone before, and joined to his own particular observations those of Hipparcus, of Timocharis and of the Babylonians. He made of these a complete body of science of the stars in an excellent book entitled ‘The Great Composition’, which includes theory and tables charting the movements of the Sun, of the Moon, of the other planets, and of the fixed stars. Geography owes as much to him as astronomy for he also made a description of the earthly globe, much more ample and exact than all the others that had been made up until then; having reduced the distances of all the places on Earth to degrees and to minutes, following the method that had been decided upon by Possidonius, he disposed these same places on the geographic tables according to the difference of their longitude and latitude, in the same way that he had following Hipparcus arranged the fixed stars. As basis for the new geography, he chose the observations of astronomers made in the principal cities of different provinces from Ireland to China, and by these observations he arrived at the latitude of these cities. Both reason and experience have proven this method of arranging countries according to their parallels and their meridians through observation of the stars, to be the most exact and reliable for the construction of geographic tables. Hence the best geographers have used it in setting up their maps the way they are now. Without this method pilots would never have succeeded in lengthy trips, and in particular for their voyages of discovery of the New World. One can thus conclude that it is thanks to astronomy that we owe the discovery of half the Earth, which had remained unknown up to the last century, together with all the commercial advantages that now benefit countries widely distant from each other.

Great works are never perfect right from their beginning, so it is not surprising that many things were found to be in need of revision in Ptolemy’s work on geography. Had he had the astronomic observations made with exactitude in places far apart from one another stretching over all the length of the Earth that were known in his time, he would have determined their places with much greater correctness than he actually did. But he was obliged to rely upon the relations of travellers and to their estimations of distances covered; so that having such uncertain data he could determine exactly neither the longitudes nor the latitudes. Thus there are many enormities made in his book on geography. He placed all the Isles of the Blessed along the same meridian, although they differ in longitude by several degrees; and he assigned them ten or twelve degrees latitude less than what they really do have. He also badly situated the most northerly parts of the British Isles on the western side, and the other neighbouring Isles. In the description of Asia, he gives the capital city of China three degrees latitude south, even though the most southerly quarters of China are situated at over twenty degrees north. He has this great Kingdom finished on the east at lands unknown and nevertheless it is certain that it is bordered by the ocean. He also gives at the limits of Africa more lands unknown; perhaps he hadn’t seen the observations of the southern parts of this third part of the world. Finally, the situation he gives to the great island of Taprobane in the Indian Ocean is so uncertain that it could be the Isle of Ceylon, or that of Sumatra, or that of Borneo.

Although there were many things to correct in Ptolemy’s geography, several centuries went by with no one set to work about it; either because no one had the capacity to do it, or rather more likely because no princes could be found who would fund the observations. For the Arab princes who conquered the countries where a special profession of astronomy and geography was maintained no sooner had professed the intention to perfect these sciences than it became manifest no one was qualified to come forward to do the job. Almamon Caliphe of Babylon then had translated from Greek into Arabic Ptolemy’s Great Composition, which in Arabic was known as the ‘Almagest’. By his orders many observations were made, by which it was established that the declination of the Sun was less by a third of a degree than Ptolemy has taught, and movement of fixed stars was not as slow as had been thought. By order of this prince a great extent of land under the same meridian was measured very exactly to determine the size of a degree of the circuмference of the Earth.

Thus, astronomy and geography were perfected little by little: but the art of navigation made a much more considerable progress in a short time by means of the compass. We do not know who invented this admirable instrument, nor exactly which way it began to be used. What we do know for a fact is that the French used the magnet for navigation long before the other peoples of Europe; as is easy to prove by our old French authors who wrote of it over four hundred years ago [1300AD]. At that time this invention was still very rudimentary; it is recorded that when they put a needle in a pitcher full of water, that being held over a [?], it freely turned towards the north. This is the sort of compass in use by the Chinese to this day, if one is to believe certain recent reports. Navigators seeing the importance of this invention, made many astronomical observations at the turn of the fifteenth century to test it, and verified that a needle (magnetised) and then balanced on a pivot does indeed turn by itself towards the Pole, and its direction can be used to study the regions of the world, and to know by which track of wind one must sail. It has since been observed by other tests, that the (magnetised) needle doesn’t always point due north, but slants sometimes to the east, sometimes westward; and that even this slanting changes at different times and places. But the means was found so precisely to know this variation, by observations of the Sun and the stars, that the (compass) can be used with confidence to find regions of the sky, even in overcast weather, so long as a short time before it has been rectified by observation of the stars.

Just about the same time that the compass began to be used, the Caliphs example spurred on the princes of Europe to provide for the advancement of astronomy. Emperor Frederic II (1194-1250), unable to stomach that Christians should have less knowledge of this science than the infidel, had translated from Arabic into Latin the infidel’s ‘Almagest’ of Ptolemy. John of Sacrobosco, professor of the University of Paris drew from it when composing his work on the sphere, on which the ablest mathematicians of Europe have made commentaries. In Spain, Alphonsus, King of Castille, went to royal lengths of expense to gather together all that could be of the most knowledgeable astronomers. At his orders they worked at reforming astronomy, and composed new tables, which being named after him all called Alphonsines. They did not achieve success at the first attempt at establishing a hypothesis governing the movement of the fixed stars, which they supposed to be too slow; but afterwards Alphonsus corrected their tables, which since have been augmented and diminished to a form more practical to various astronomers. This work aroused the curiosity of the experts of Europe: they straightaway invented various sorts of instruments to facilitate the observation of the stars; they calculated the Ephémérides, and made tables to discover at all times the slant of the planets, which was connected to the observation of the meridian heights, used to find the latitudes by land and by sea, they also worked at calculating eclipses, by the observation of which are found longitudes. Never had there been more chance of succeeding in navigation: and pilots took advantage of it. With the help of these benefits, they crossed unknown seas; and the success of these maiden voyages encouraged them to attempt fresh discoveries. All the peoples of Europe went at it with a will. The French were the first to show their courage and their skill: they occupied the Canaries, and they penetrated far into Guinea. The Portuguese took the Isle of Madeira and that of Cape Verde: and the Flemish discovered the Isles of the Azores.

These discoveries were only the prelude to that of the New World. Christopher Columbus basing himself on the knowledge he had of astronomy, and on what was said of the memories of a Basque pilot cast by storm upon an island of the Atlantic Ocean, undertook to cross this sea. He disclosed the proposition to various princes of Europe, of whom some neglected to take it up, because of other business more pressing, the others refused because they understood neither the importance of this expedition nor the reasons given by Columbus to suggest the feasibility. Thus the glory of the discovery of the New World was left to the King of Castille who since have derived from it immense wealth, which inspired in them plans for a universal monarchy, and put them in fair bidding position to rival the power and grandeur of France.

Columbus was well aware by the knowledge he had of the sphere and of geography, that sailing always towards the west always about the same parallel, he could not fail to discover lands, because if there were no new ones, necessarily with the earth being round as it is, he would reach by the shortest route the East Indies. In the travels he had made from Lisbon to Guinea going from the north toward the south, he had proven that a degree of the circuмference of the Earth contains fifty-six miles and two thirds, in agreement with the measurement determined by the astronomers of Almamon; as he had learned in the books of Ptolemy that going straight west, there were not more than one hundred eighty degrees from the Canaries up to the first lands of Asia. He then left the Canaries holding steady the front of his ships to the west and along the same parallel; and as he did not completely trust the compass, he took care always to observe the position of the Sun by day and of the fixed stars by night. This precaution kept him from straying: for those who have written his biography, say that the observations of the sky made him see with his telescope a variant that was unknown to him, and also helped him to realign himself unto the night course. 

After two months of navigation, he landed on the Isles of Lucayes; and from there he passed on to Hispaniola, to Cuba and to Santa Dominque, whence he brought back great riches to Spain. The same astronomy that helped him to discover these wealthy countries also helped him to settle there. For on his second voyage the ships were low in supply of food and the inhabitants of Jamaica having refused to give him any, he had the thought of menacing to darken the moon on a day he knew an eclipse was due; and as this same eclipse did come the day he had predicted, the frightened savages granted him all that he wanted.

While Columbus discovered the southern point of the world, the French discovered the northern part, and named it New France. Amerigo Vespucci continued the discoveries of Columbus, and he had the good fortune to give his name to the entire New World which has since then been called America.  He derived from these trips great advancement in astronomy, observing not only the latitudes of the places he discovered, but also their difference of longitude. He measured the length of days and nights to identify climates; he also made a description of the stars that he was able to see again towards the Antarctic Pole, and to guide his vessel he chose those that were nearest to the Pole.

The sailors of the King of Portugal who up to then had only travelled the west coast of Africa, then doubled around the Cape of Good Hope and opened the route to the East Indies where they made very great conquests. These long voyages gave the opportunity to make several fine discoveries of the Sky and on Earth.  Among others André Coursal gave the knowledge of many stars that are around the Antarctic Pole, of the two little clouds that surround it, and especially of the star that is the Polar, no further from the Pole than about eleven degrees. The ancient astronomers had believed there were no fixed stars about this Pole; and even Clavius had maintained based on the ancient catalogue of stars, or on some modern but inexact reports, that there were no stars closer to the Antarctic Pole than 29 or 30 degrees. However, it is a fact that there are so many bordering thereon, that they have been assigned as ten or eleven constellations.

These new discoveries brought up a great disagreement between the Kings of Portugal and Castille concerning the limits to be established governing their conquest. To settle this disagreement, a certain line was decided upon to serve as the border, and for this reason was called the line of demarcation.  But since the portion of this line had not been well determined, the disagreement that could have been settled had experienced astronomers been consulted flared up again some time and is still going on to this day.

The reports of the newly discovered countries and the astronomic observations made in these same places were the basis of new descriptions of the world which appeared at that time. Peter Apianus was one of the first to publish a general map of the old and new world. But this map was very imperfect, as most things are in their beginnings; for it represented South and North America as two islands separated one from the other and it marked an open passage to go from the North Sea to the southern one. It was soon acknowledged that South and North America are joined together by the Isthmus of Panama; but as for what concerns the passage believed by many to be going from the Northern to the South Sea, to date it has not been found, despite many trips to discover it. The navigators of King Francis I skirted all of New France, without finding any passage not only where one was drawn by maps of the time, but neither on any other coastline. The English then undertook several voyages closer to the Pole to go seek the joining of these two seas; but finally deterred by the ice flows that held them bound several months at sea, they lost hope of ever succeeding in the undertaking. Thus we still don’t know for sure whether the Northern Sea links up with that of the Indies by the Strait of Arian, or whether Asia and Europe form but one continent with the lands that have been discovered by the Arctic Pole.

There was greater success on the side of the Pole opposite for having recognised that North America is joined to the South by the Isthmus of Panama, the navigators have so well explored towards the South that they have found at last a passage to enter the Pacific Ocean, and to sail to the East Indies via the West.  Magellan was the first to succeed in this enterprise, having discovered the Strait that bears his name. Around 100 years later, Flemish navigator Le Marie discovered another Strait, a little further away but much easier to, which he too gave his name; and Bower coming after him, discovered yet another passage. By these Straits many sailors have since made tours around the world, and on returning to their country, it was found that they counted an entire day less than those who had never left, as must indeed be the case according to the principles of astronomy; because a tour around the world made following the course of the sun means losing a day. 

It is obvious that without the help of astronomy, these long sailings would never have succeeded. For they require sailors who are knowledgeable about the movements of the stars, and experienced in astronomic observations. When storms or currents bore a ship into an unknown climate, it would be impossible for sailors to get their bearings without tables of declensions of the sun and the fixed stars, to determine by observing the heights of stars and by these tables the latitudes of the places they have erred into and to know somewhat of the longitudes by observing the latitudes added to the estimation of the way. For the declension of the magnet being different according to the difference of times and places and rising up to 25 and sometimes up to 30 degrees, the use of the compass would not only be useless but even dangerous, unless there was a means of rectifying by observing the sky. In a word, whatever aids one might have, it is impossible to navigate on the open sea after a storm without knowledge of the stars. Rather the contrary, for one can do without other aids as long as one has knowledge of the stars. Should a sailor be shipwrecked in another country and have lost all the instruments used for travelling by sea, and even the compass, he does not for all that lose hope of getting back on course and arriving at his designed destination if he can just draw on some plank a quarter circle and divide it into degrees, to take the heights of some star whose declension he knows.

To get back to the progress made by astronomy and geography, these latter centuries France produced many illustrious men who have excelled in these sciences, because from time to time that country has had great Princes who took care to encourage the French by rewards to apply themselves to them. Charles V called The Wise had translated into French many books of mathematics by many learned persons. Among others, Nicolas Orsme who was one of the most learned mathematicians of his time according to the judgement of Picolo de la Mirande translated into our tongue A Treatise Of The Sphere and Aristotle’s book on The Sky And The World, and he was rewarded, it was said, in consideration of these translations, with the revenues of the diocese of Lisieux. This wise king also formed two chairs of mathematics in Master Gervais College in Paris to facilitate for his subjects the studies of these sciences. Under the following reign, Pierre Dailly, Chancellor of the University of Paris, who was Father Confessor to King Charles VI and later Bishop of Cambray, and lastly Cardinal, was one of the first to draw attention to the need to correct the Julian Calendar which by no longer being aligned to the sky, marked the Equinoxes nine days, and the new Moon’s four days later that should have been. He proposed to the Council of Constance the way to make this correction; and he wrote many books of astronomy that were very learned for his time.

After him, Jacques Fabry, commonly called Faber, by his works served very much to further in France knowledge of the sciences and particularly of astronomy. It must however be admitted that in the 15th Century astronomy did not make very much progress. But the following century the provision that King Francis I made of two Readers to teach mathematics in the capital city of his kingdom, and the rewards which he showered on those who studied it, encouraged many good minds to cultivate these sciences. Then Horance Finé, one of the Royal Readers newly appointed, made several geographic maps, composed various treatises on the sphere and on the theory of the planets, and worked at perfecting the instruments proper for observations.  William Pastel, the other Royal Reader, passed for a prodigy not only because of the knowledge he had of all the languages on earth, but also because of his great capacity in mathematics: He composed a treatise of cosmography and some other works concerning astronomy. These two Professors trained many learned students who in a short while outshone their own Masters. From this school there came forth John Pena and Paschal Duhamel who were later the Royal Professors of Mathematics, Elias Vinet, and many others. Ramus, who also was a Royal Professor, distinguished himself not only by his learned writings, but also by the setting up of a faculty that he founded to teach Mathematics independently of the ordinary theories and commonly received opinions. Fernel, who was since then first Physician of King Henry II made a name for himself by the great knowledge he had of Mathematics. In proof of which he brought a book to the light of day entitled Cosmotheory, in which he recounts the measurements he observed of one degree of the Earth with such accuracy that he approximated closer than any other to the measurement which has since been observed in the same place by the Academy Royal of Sciences.

Germany and the Northern Countries have also given many excellent astronomers since the 15th Century. Purbachius, and Regiomontanus his disciple, contributed greatly by their learned works to the perfection of astronomy. There followed Copernicus who produced the admirable book that he entitled On Revolutions, where he changed the ordinary hypothesis of movement of the first mobile to explain the appearances of the sky. He also treated the movements of planets more exactly than had been done up to then; and it was based on his principles that Reinholdus made the Pruténique Tables, and Magin those of the second mobiles based on which he composed the Ephemerides. The Landgrave of Hesse made several observations of his own, and he had Rotman make many others, the greatest part of which has been brought to light of day by Snellius. Besides this he made as thorough catalogue of the stars, revised according to the observations, which has been published by P. Curtius. But the famous Tycho-Brahe was far ahead of the astronomers that preceded him. Because the theory and the tables on the Sun and Moon, and many fine observations that he made, he also composed a new Catalogue on fixed stars with such exactitude that this work alone suffices to merit for its author the name some have given him of Restorer of Astronomy.