Born 672 or 673, died 735. This great work, Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum, giving an account of Christianity in England from the beginning until his own day, has been recognized as a masterpiece by the scholars of all ages and countries. An authoritative edition was published by Plummer, two vols., Oxford, 1896. ↩
William of Auvergne, the celebrated philosopher and theologian, was born at Aurillac in Auvergne towards the end of the twelfth century, and died at Paris, of which city he had in 1228 been consecrated Bishop, in 1249. Although not a “Summa Theologica,” his De Uniuerso is a practical endeavour to found a science of reality on principles opposed to those of the Arabian commentators upon and perverters of Aristotle. His theological works are particularly interesting as devoting much attention to a refutation of the Manichees, whose heresies had been recently revived. There is a good study by Valois, Guillaume d’Auvergne, Paris, 1880. ↩
Claudius Prolemaus was a celebrated mathematician, astronomer, and geographer. Of the details of his life nothing appears to be known beyond the facts that he was certainly at Alexandria in AD 139, and since he survived Antoninus Pius he was alive later than March, 161. His “Geography,” Γεωγραφικὴ ὑφήγησις, is very famous, but perhaps even more celebrated was the Μεγάλη σύνταξις τῆς ἀστρονομίας, usually known by its Arabic name of Almagest. Since the Tetrabiblus, the work on astrology, was also entitled σύνταξις, the Arabs, to distinguish between the two, called the greater work μεγάλη, and afterwards μεγίστη; the title “Almagest” is a compound of this last adjective and the Arabic articles. The work is divided into thirteen books, of which VII and VIII are the most interesting to the modern astronomer, as they give a catalogue of the stars. The best edition of the Almagest is considered to be that by Halma, Paris, 1813–16, two vols., 4to. ↩
“Sapiens homo dominabitur astris.” This famous tag is continually quoted. Cf. Tomkis’ Albumazar (acted at Cambridge, March, 1615), I, 7, where Albumazar says:
Indeed th’ Aegyptian Ptolemy, the wise,
Pronounc’d it as an oracle of truth,
Sapiens dominabitur astris.
In Book III, Epigram 186, of John Owen’s first published volume, we get:
“Fata regunt reges; sapiens dominabitur astris.”
Sir Sampson Legend in Congreve’s Love for Love, produced at Lincoln’s Inn Fields, 30 April, 1695, II, I, bantering old Foresight, who loudly acclaims the influence of the stars, throws at him: “I tell you I am wise; and sapiens dominabitur astris; there’s Latin for you to prove it.” According to W. Aldis Wright’s note on Bacon’s Advancement of Learning, II, XXIII, 12: “Mr. Ellis says this sentence is ascribed to Ptolemy by Cognatus.” The reference is to Cognati’s collection of Adages, which together with the Adagia of Erasmus and other famous repertories of saws and proverbs may be found in the volume Adagia compiled by Joynaeus. Joannes Nevizanus, Sylva Nuptialis, II, 96, notes: “Dicit tamen Bal. in c.j. at lite pand. quod sapiens dominabitur astris.” Bal. is Baldus, Baldo degli Ubaldi (b. 1327), the most famous canonist of his day and Professor utriusque iuris at the Universities of Padua, Perugia, and Piacenza, who wrote ample glosses on the Corpus Iuris Ciuilis. Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy, quotes “sapiens,” etc., and A. R. Shilleto in his notes says that it is also cited by Jeremy Taylor, and that C. G. Eden, his best editor, could not trace the origin of the phrase. ↩
S. John Damascene, Doctor of the Church, was born at Damascus about 676, and died some time between 754 and 787. The quotation is from “Ἔκδοσις ἀκριβὴς τῆς ὀρθοδόξου πίστεως,” which is the third part of the most important of all his works, Πηγὴ γνώσεως, Fountain of Wisdom. This third part, “The Orthodox Faith,” to which reference is made here, must be considered the most notable of all writings of S. John Damascene, and it is in this treatise that he discloses so comprehensive a knowledge of the astronomy of his day. It may be pointed out that Sprenger regards the authority of S. John far too
