NOTES. Cl 



which lasted three hours, and after the obscuration had passed away the 

 solar disk remained of a peculiar colour. "Fuit eclipsis Solis 11 

 Kal. Octob. fere tres horas : Sol circa meridiem dire nigrescebat." 

 Martin Crusius, Annales Svevici, Francof. 1595, T. i. p. 2? 9 ; 

 Schnurrer, Th. i. S. 219. 



1096. On the 3d of May solar spots were seen with the naked eye : 

 Signum in Sole apparuit V. Non Marcii feria secunda incipientis 

 quadragesimse. Joh. Staindelii, presbyteri Pataviensis, Chronicon 

 generale, in CEfelii Rerum Boicarum Scriptoris, T. i. 1763, p. 485. 



1206. On the last day of February, according to Joaquin de Villaba 

 (Epidemiologia Espanola Madr. 1803, T. i. p. 30), there was com- 

 plete darkness for 6 hours : " el dia ultimo del mes de Febrero hubo 

 un eclipse de sol que duro seis horas con tanta obscuridad como si 

 fuera media noche. Siguieron a este fenomeno abundantes y conti- 

 nuas lluvias." Schnurrer, Th. i. S. 258 and 265, speaks of an almost 

 similar phenomenon in June 1191. 



1241. Five months after the Mongol battle of Leignitz : " obscuratus 

 est Sol (in quibusdam locis ?), et factse sunt tenebrse, ita ut stellee vide- 

 rentur in coelo, circa festum S. Michaelis hora nona." Chronicon 

 Claustro-Neoburgense (of the Neuburg Convent near Vienna, con- 

 taining the years 218 to 1348 A.D.), in Fez, Scriptores rerum Aus- 

 triacarum," Lips. 1721, T. i. p. 458. 



1547. -The 23d, 24th, and 25th of April, therefore a day before and 

 a day after, as well as the actual day, of the battle of Muhlbach, in 

 which the Prince Elector John Frederic was taken. Kepler says, 

 (in Paralipom. ad Vitellium, quibus Astronomise pars optica traditur, 

 1604, p. 259) " refert Gemma, pater et films, anno 1547 ante con- 

 flictum Caroli V. cum Saxonise Duce Solem per tres dies ceu sanguine 

 perfusum comparuisse, ut etiam stellse plerseque in meridie conspice- 

 rentur." (So, also, Kepler, de Stella nova in Serpentario, p. 13). 

 Great doubt exists as to the cause : " Solis lumen ob causas quasdam 



sublimes hebetari " perhaps there may have been materia cometica 



latius sparsa. The cause cannot have been in our atmosphere, be- 

 cause stars were seen at noon." Schnurrer (Chronik der Seuchen, 

 Th. ii. S. 93) is inclined to believe, notwithstanding the visibility of 

 stars, that it was an " Hohenrauch," or a foreign admixture in the at- 

 mosphere, because the Emperor Charles V. complained before the battle 

 VOL. III. / 



