DESCRIPTIO GLOBI INTELLECTUALIS. 277 



view here suggested received a fuller development ; they 

 adopted the doctrine of Alpetragius, a Latin translation 

 of whose Theorica Planetarum was published at Venice 

 in 1581. Alpetragius professes that he found the com- 

 plication of the Ptolemaic system intolerable, and that 

 the foundation of his own is much simpler. " Apparet 

 sensu quod quilibet planeta revolvitur singulo die super 

 circulis aequidistantibos ab sequinoctiali ; attamen diu- 

 turnitate temporis et revolutione planetae multis revolu- 

 tion ibus ex periodis diurnis, videtur ille planeta mover! 

 a puncto in quo visas est primum aequinoctialis et re- 

 spectu motus similis ei postponi in longitudine et decli- 

 nare a suo primo loco in latitudine," of which the reason 

 is that it does not really revolve in circles parallel to 

 the equator, " sed est revolutio girativa dicta laulabina 

 ex declinatione planetee a loco suo in latitudine." 1 Of 

 this the reason is twofold : the planet's orb moves more 

 slowly than the prime mover in consequence of its es- 

 sential inferiority, an inferiority which increases in the 

 case of different planets with their nearness to the 

 earth ; and its poles revolve on two small circles par- 

 allel to the equator. Alpetragius goes on to apply 

 these hypotheses to each of the planets. It is needless 

 to point out of how little value his speculations neces- 

 sarily are. Such as they are however, the Telesians, 

 as we learn from Tassoni, 2 were content to accept them. 

 Of the astronomical writings of the Telesians I have 

 not been able to find any account. None of those who 

 are mentioned by Spiriti appear to have published any- 

 thing on the subject. However this may be, the au- 

 thority of Tassoni is sufficient to show that the school 

 of Telesius rejected the Ptolemaic system and especially 

 the notion that the planets &c. have a proper motion 



1 Alpetraffiu?, fo. 14. v. 2 p en sieri diversi. ii. 4. (Venipp. 10-30.1 



