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Astronomical Images : Platonic armillary sphere

Maurus Fiorentinus

Astronomical Images

<p style='text-align: justify;'>This is an Italian edition of Sacrobosco's <i>Sphaera</i> with theological annotations by Maurus Fiorentinus (Mauro da Firenze; 1493-1556). The work was dedicated to Cosimo I de' Medici. Maurus advocates that human knowledge should aspire to contemplate on the enigma of divine Creation 'For now we see through a glass, darkly' (1 Corinthians 13). Drawing on Cusanus's <i>De docta ignorantia</i>, Maurus uses the sphere as the symbol of divinity, following the 'Platonic theologians'. God's goodness is at the centre, surrounded by four circles representing the ideas in the angelic mind, reason or intelligible forms in the human mind, <i>semina rerum</i> of nature, and sensible forms. At the top is beauty.</p>

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