[417] See statement of Herrera, p. 175.
[418] Francis I.
[419] Now the declination of the ecliptic, which answers to the poles of the eighth sphere of Pigafetta, is 23 deg. 28 min. 30 sec. Note, Milan edition.
[420] Supposing that the surface of the globe under the equator were half land and half sea, and then giving to each league three and a half miles, we should have 22,050 miles for the circumference of the earth: a measure very little differing from that which results from giving to each degree at the equator sixty Italian miles, by which the circumference is 21,600 miles. Note, Milan edition.
[421] The guard stars are β and γ of Ursa Minor, which form a triangle with the pole and pole star; now γ of the belt of Cassiopeia is used. Note, Milan edition.
[422] This means the arm of the instrument used; it might be the meteoroscope of Regiomontano, which had a cross in the middle: or an astrolabe like it; or the common astrolabe with a dioptron, or mediclino, as Pigafetta calls it, placed on the equator. Note, Milan edition.
[423] That is the meridian line from the pole to the equator. Note, Milan edition.
[424] Though the radius of the circle which the pole star goes round is now little more than a degree and a half, in the time of Pigafetta it was 3 deg. 17 min. 37 sec., so that if he reckoned it at 3 deg. 30 min. it is wonderful that he should have made so small an error, notwithstanding the imperfection of his instruments. Note, Milan edition.
[425] These three methods are probably those which, according to Castañeda, Faleiro taught to Magellan. Note, Milan edition.
[426] That is to say, the knot where the orbit of the moon cuts the ecliptic. Note, Milan edition.