Galileo's telescope
Google's home page is pointing out that today is the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's public demonstration of his telescope. This reminds me that last summer, at Reginald Foster's Latin class, I memorized the beginning of Galileo's book about his telescope, called Siderius Nuncius, the Starry Messenger.
Magna equidem in hac exigua tractatione singulis de natura speculantibus inspicienda contemplandaque propono. Magna, inquam, tum ob rei ipsius praestantiam, tum ob inauditam per aevum novitatem, tum etiam propter Organum, cuius beneficio eadem sensui nostro obviam sese fecerunt.
Great things indeed in this slim treatise and worthy of inspection and contemplation for all observers of nature do I set out. Great things, I say, not only because of the excellence of the matter itself, not only because of the previously unheard-of novelty, but also because of the Instrument by whose grace these things have made themselves apparent to our senses.
Magnum sane est, supra numerosam inerrantium Stellarum multitudinem, quae naturali facultate in hunc usque diem conspici potuerunt, alias innumeras superaddere oculisque palam exponere, antehac conspectas nunquam, et quae veteres ac notas plusquam supra decuplam multiplicitatem superent.
It is clearly a great thing, on top of the great multitude of fixed Stars, which could be seen with our natural abilities up to this point, to add and expose plainly to view innumerably many others, never before seen, and which are more than ten times as numerous as the old and previously known stars.
Pulcherrimum atque visu iucundissimum est lunare corpus, per sex denas fere terrestres semidiametros a nobis remotum, tam ex propinquo intueri, ac si per duas tantum easdem dimensiones distaret; adeo ut eiusdem Lunae diameter vicibus quasi terdenis, superficies vero noningentis, solidum autem corpus vicibus proxime viginti septem millibus, maius appareat, quam dum libera tantum oculorum acie spectatur: ex quo deinde sensata certitudine quispiam intelligat, Lunam superficie leni et perpolita nequaquam esse indutam, sed aspera et inaequali; ac, veluti ipsiusmet Telluris facies, ingentibus tumoribus, profundis lacunis atque anfractibus undiquaque confertam existere.
It is extraordinarily beautiful and pleasant to the eye to see the body of the Moon, which is almost 60 times the radius of the Earth distant from us, up so close as though it were only twice the Earth's radius from us; so that the diameter of the Moon appears about thirty times larger, the surface nine hundred times larger, and the volume of the Moon twenty-seven thousand times larger as when it is seen with the power of the naked eye: whereby anyone will then understand with the certainty of the senses that the Moon is by no means covered with a smooth and polished surface, but rather a harsh and uneven surface, and that like the face of the Earth itself it is thick with enormous hills, deep chasms, and everywhere full of intricate curves.
I didn't memorize any further than that, but I'll keep going:
Altercationes insuper de Galaxia, seu de Lacteo circulo, substulisse, eiusque essentiam sensui, nedum intellectui, manifestasse, parvi momenti existimandum minime videtur; insuperque substantiam Stellarum, quas Nebulosas hucusque Astronomorum quilibet appellavit, digito demonstrare, longeque aliam esse quam creditum hactenus est, iocundum erit atque perpulcrum.
Moreover to do away with the debates about the Galaxy, or Milky Way, and to reveal its essense to the senses, and even to the mind, hardly seems like it should be considered a small thing: and to show with a finger that the substance of the Stars which one of the Astronomers has so far called Nebulous is far different from what has thus far been believed, will be pleasant and thoroughly beautiful.
Verum, quod omnem admirationem longe superat, quodve admonitos faciendos cunctos Astronomos atque Philosophos nos apprime impulit, illud est, quod scilicet quatuor Erraticas Stellas, nemini eorum qui ante nos cognitas aut observatas, adinvenimus, quae circa Stellam quandam insignem e numero cognitarum, instar Veneris atque Mercurii circa Solem, suas habent periodos, eamque modo praeeunt, modo subsequuntur, nunquam extra certos limites ab illa digredientes. Quae omnia ope Perspicilli a me excogitati, divina prius illuminante gratia, paucis abhinc diebus, reperta atque observata fuerunt.
The truth which far exceeds all wonder and which first motivated us to inform all Astronomers and Philosophers, is this: that we have found four Wandering Stars, known or seen by no one before us, and which (like Venus or Mercury around the Sun) have their own periods around a certain famous and well-known Star, and first go before it, then follow behind it, never exceeding certain limits away from it. All these things were discovered and observed a few days ago with the help of a Glass invented by me (with divine grace first illumining).
Alia forte praestantiora, vel a me, vel ab aliis, in dies adinvenientur consimilis Organi beneficio; cuius formam et apparatum, necnon illius excogitandi occasionem, prius breviter commemorabo, deinde habitarum a me observationum historiam recensebo.
Other things perhaps even more important will eventually be discovered, by me or by others, with the aid of such an Instrument; whose form and apparatus, as well as the occasion of its invention, I will first briefly recount, and then I will describe the history of the observations I made with it.
