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Astronomical Images : Purported third motion of the Earth according to Copernicus

Vincenzo Maria Coronelli

Astronomical Images

<p style='text-align: justify;'>In his <i>Atlante veneto</i> of 1690, Vicenzo Coronelli (1650-1718) included a discussion of the world systems of Ptolemy, Copernicus, and Tycho Brahe. Accompanying this discussion of the 'Sistemi del mondo' were nine figures, presented together on a single bifolium (Plate 9); these figures were later reproduced in Coronelli's <i>Epitome cosmografica</i> (1693), where they were each printed onto a separate sheet. Figure VI, seen here, purports to illustrate the reasons behind a third motion of the Earth (after its diurnal and annual motion), as invoked by Copernicus to account for the precession of the equinoxes. However, this diagram shows the Earth at the four cardinal points in its orbit of the Sun, and its axis of rotation marked in order to emphasise that seasonal variations in light and heat are due to the fixity of the angle of its daily rotation to its annual orbit. Consequently, Coronelli's related textual explanation describes not precession itself but simply the phenomenon of the equinoxes and solstices. The inclusion of planetary models in these cosmographical works reflects the development of the genre in the early modern period. In attempting to describe the Earth in relation to the heavens, cosmographical texts often borrowed from the diagrammatic tradition of medieval spherical astronomy; for instance, the nested-sphere diagrams representing the heavens and the terrestrial Elements according to Aristotle. Planetary models, however, typically belonged to the tradition of <i>Theorica planetarum</i>; the depiction of world systems in Coronelli's texts therefore reflects the increasing scope of cosmography to include elements of planetary as well as spherical astronomy.</p>


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