GALILEO’S LOGOGRAPH.
Galileo was the first to observe a peculiarity in the planet Saturn, but his telescope had not sufficient refractive power to separate the rings. It appeared to him like three bodies arranged in the same straight line, of which the middle was the largest, thus, ⚬⚪⚬. He announced his discovery to Kepler under the veil of a logograph, which sorely puzzled his illustrious cotemporary. This is not to be wondered at, for it ran—
Smasmrmilmepoetalevmibvnienvgttaviras.
Restoring the transposed letters to their proper places, we have the following sentence:—
Altissimum planetam tergeminum observavi.
(I have observed the most distant planet to be threefold.)