Star-Showers of Former Times. 369 



" A comet was visible in February, from 3 o'clock to 9 for 

 twenty five days at the same hour. * * * In Judea this comet was 

 seen fifty days decreasing. * * * Shortly after the Stars seemed 

 to rain down from Heaven." — Clark's Mirrour. — [Shorfs] Gen. 

 Chron. Hist, of the Air, &c. Yol. I, p. 107. 



The following passage (nearly identical with that above given,) 

 is quoted from Schnurrer's Die Krankheiten des Menschenge- 

 schlechts, 1825, (Bd. 1, s. 230,) by M. A. Erman, in Poggendorff's 

 Annalen der Physik, B. 48, s. 585, (1839.) 



"Anno 1106, pridie Idus Februar. apud Baram Italise stellae 

 visas sunt in coelo per diem, nunc quasi inter se concurrentes, 

 nunc quasi in terram cadentes." 



The foregoing is cited by Erman in support of his hypothesis 

 that the meteoric stream from which are derived the shooting 

 stars which at the present time are seen about the 10th of Au- 

 gust, intervenes between the earth and sun about the 6th of Feb- 

 ruary. The account does indeed seem to assert that the meteors 

 were seen in the day time, but it is evident that unless they were 

 at least as brilliant as the planet Venus, they would not be visible 

 in such circumstances. There was no eclipse of the sun on this 

 day. Perhaps the story may be cleared up by reference to the 

 Annates Boicorum of Aventinus, from which many fearful prod- 

 igies are quoted in the Magdeburgh Ecclesiastical History, as hap- 

 pening at this time. Without the quotation from Claris Mir- 

 rour, it would he doubtful whether the number of meteors seen 

 at this time was larger than usual. 



(27.) A. D. 1122. April 4. In the year of our Lord 1122, on 

 the day before the nones of April, at the fourth watch of the 

 night, while the brethren were chanting the Synaxis nocturnalis, 

 innumerable stars were seen falling, and as it were raining down, 

 throughout the world." 



" Hoc interea tempore, anno Dominicae Incarnationis ejus mil- 

 lesimo centesimo vicesimo secundo, pridie Nonas Aprilis, quarta 

 vigiha noctis, cum Fratres nocturnalem Synaxim decantarent, 

 stellsB de Coelo innumerabiles cadere, et quasi pluere visse sunt, 

 ubique per totum orbem terrarum." — Chro7iica Sacri Monasterii 

 Casinensis, lib. 4, cap. Ixxix, in Muratori, Rer. It. Scr. t. iv, p. 

 546. 



1122. Stellae innumerae quasi pluere visas sunt pridie Non. 

 Aprilis hora matutina. — Arionymi Monachi Cassinensis Breve 

 Chronicon ; in Muratori, Rer. It. Scr. t. v, p. 61, 



