Sir John Herschel, Treatise on Astronomy, Ch. XIII, says:—
“The Julian rule made every fourth year, without exception, a bissextile. This is, in fact, an over-correction; it supposes the length of the tropical year to be 365¼ d., which is too great, and thereby induces an error of 7 days in 900 years, as will easily appear on trial. Accordingly, so early as the year 1414, it began to be perceived that the equinoxes were gradually creeping away from the 21st of March and September, where they ought to have always fallen had the Julian year been exact, and happening (as it appeared) too early. The necessity of a fresh and effectual reform in the calendar was from that time continually urged, and at length admitted. The change (which took place under the Popedom of Gregory XIII) consisted in the omission of ten nominal days after the 4th of October, 1582 (so that the next day was called the 15th, and not the 5th), and the promulgation of the rule already explained for future regulation.”
It will appear from the verse of Dante, that this error and its consequences had been noticed a century earlier than the year mentioned by Herschel. Dante speaks ironically; naming a very long period, and meaning a very short one. ↩
Dante here refers either to the reforms he expected from the Emperor Henry VII, or to those he as confidently looked for from Can Grande della Scala, the Veltro, or greyhound, of Inferno I 101, who was to slay the she-wolf, and make her “perish in her pain,” and whom he so warmly eulogizes in Canto XVII of the Paradiso. Alas for the vanity of human wishes! Patient Italy has waited more than five centuries for the fulfilment of this prophecy, but at length she has touched the bones of her prophet, and “is revived and stands upon her feet.” ↩
The Primum Mobile, or Crystalline Heaven, continued. ↩
Milton, Paradise Lost, IV 505:—
“Thus these two,
Imparadised in one another’s arms,
The happier Eden, shall enjoy their fill
Of bliss on bliss.”
That Crystalline Heaven, which Dante calls a volume, or scroll, as in Canto XXIII 112:—
“The regal mantle of the volumes all.”
The light of God, represented as a single point, to indicate its unity and indivisibility. ↩
Iris, or the rainbow. ↩
These nine circles of fire are the nine Orders of Angels in the.three Celestial Hierarchies. Dante, Convito II 16, says that the Holy Church divides the Angels into, “three Hierarchies, that is to say, three holy or divine Principalities; and each Hierarchy has three Orders; so that the Church believes and affirms nine Orders of spiritual beings. The first is that of the Angels; the second, that of the Archangels; the third, that of the Thrones. And these three Orders form the first Hierarchy; not first in reference to rank nor creation (for the others are more noble, and all were created together), but first in reference to our ascent to their height. Then follow the Dominions; next the Virtues; then the Principalities; and these form the second Hierarchy. Above these are the Powers, and the Cherubim, and above all are the Seraphim; hese form the third Hierarchy.”
It will be observed that this arrangement of the several Orders does not agree with that followed in the poem. ↩
Barlow, Study of the Divina Commedia, p. 533, remarks:—
“Within a circle of ineffable joy, circumscribed only by light and love, a point of intense brightness so dazzled the eyes of Dante that he could not sustain the sight of it. Around this vivid centre, from which the heavens and all nature depend, nine concentric circles of the Celestial Hierarchy revolved with a velocity inversely proportioned to their distance from it, the nearer circles moving more rapidly, the remoter ones less. The poet at first is surprised at this, it being the reverse of the relative movement, from the same source of propulsion, of the heavens themselves around the earth as their centre. But the infallible Beatrice assures him that this difference arises, in fact, from the same cause, proximity to the Divine presence, which in the celestial spheres is greater the farther they are from the centre, but in the circles of angels, on the contrary, it is greater the nearer they are to it.”
Because the subject has not been investigated and discussed. ↩
The nine heavens are here called corporal circles, as we call the stars the heavenly bodies. Latimer says:—
“A corporal heaven, … where the stars are.”
The Primum Mobile, in which Dante and Beatrice now are. ↩
The nearer God the circle is, so much greater virtue it possesses. Hence the outermost of the heavens, revolving round the earth, corresponds to the innermost of the Orders of Angels revolving round God, and is controlled by it as its Regent or Intelligence. To make this more intelligible I will repeat here the three Triads of Angels, and the heavens of which they are severally the Intelligences, as already given in Note 1240.
| The Seraphim, | Primum Mobile. |
| The Cherubim, | The Fixed Stars. |
| The Thrones, | Saturn. |
| The Dominions, | Jupiter. |
| The Virtues, | Mars. |
| The Powers, | The Sun. |
| The Principalities, | Venus. |
| The Archangels, | Mercury. |
| The Angels, | The Moon. |
Aeneid, XII 365, Davidson’s Tr.:—
“As when the blast of Thracian Boreas roars on the Aegean Sea, and to the shore pursues the waves, wherever the winds exert their incumbent force, the
