|
Until the advent of Copernicus, all knowledge about the universe had to be made to fit into the framework of the Ptolemaic model in which the Earth was firmly the centre of everything. The illustration on folio 169 of this 15th-century French codex conforms to the Ptolemaic model. The planets followed eccentric patterns of their own, each with its individual crystal sphere, but stayed within the parameters of the Zodiac. Here, in pictorial form, are shown Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, Mercury, the Sun and the Moon.
Bartholomeus Anglicus (Barthelemy l'Anglais, 1203-72) was a 13th-century scholar of Paris, a member of the Franciscan order. He was the author of the compendium 'De proprietatibus rerum', dated 1240, an early forerunner of the encyclopedia.
|
