915

On history of astronomy.

Cicero says in [his book] De Divinatione that Astrology has been practised five hundred seventy thousand years before the Trojan war.

57000.

[Footnote: The statement that CICERO, De Divin. ascribes the discovery of astrology to a period 57000 years before the Trojan war I believe to be quite erroneous. According to ERNESTI, Clavis Ciceroniana, CH. G. SCHULZ (Lexic. Cicer.) and the edition of De Divin. by GIESE the word Astrologia occurs only twice in CICERO: De Divin. II, 42. “Ad Chaldaeorum monstra veniamus, de quibus Eudoxus, Platonis auditor, in astrologia judicio doctissimorum hominum facile princeps, sic opinatur (id quod scriptum reliquit): Chaldaeis in praedictione et in notatione cujusque vitae ex natali die minime esse credendum.” He then quotes the condemnatory verdict of other philosophers as to the teaching of the Chaldaeans but says nothing as to the antiquity and origin of astronomy. CICERO further notes De oratore I, 16 that Aratus was “ignarus astrologiae” but that is all. So far as I know the word occurs nowhere else in CICERO; and the word Astronomia he does not seem to have used at all. (H. MULLER-STRUBING.)]

Taken from The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci edited by Jean Paul Richter, 1880.

Notebooks of Leonoardo da Vinci
XIV: Anatomy, Zoology and Physiology.
. . .
895,
896,
897,
898,
899,
900,
901
Explanation of the lumen cinereum in the moon.
902
On the spots in the moon.
903,
904,
905,
906,
907
On the moon’s halo.
908
On instruments for observing the moon.
909,
910
On the light of the stars.
911,
912,
913
Observations on the stars.
914
On history of astronomy.
915
Of time and its divisions.
916,
917,
918