[631] “Nor does it avail anything to say that that declination could not take place because of approaching nearer the earth through eccentricity; for if this elevating virtue were in the moon, since agents act the more powerfully the nearer they are, she would elevate there rather than here.” Qu. xx. 65-71.
[632] Note on this passage in “Temple” Dante.
[633] Studies in Dante, ii. p. 339.
[634] Nearest Earth.
[635] Qu. vii. 4, 6, and xxiii. 52.
[636] “Orbis” and “sphæra” are used indifferently by Alfraganus to indicate the celestial spheres: thus, in ch. xii. he says “Orbes, qui stellarum omnes motus complectantur, numero esse octo,” and on the next page, “unamquamque harum sphærarum octo.”
[637] “The upper and lower apsides of the eccentrics of Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars, have a certain declination from the zodiac, the former to the north, the latter to the south, the amount always remaining constant: and it is just the same with the moon.” El. Ast. xviii. par. 6.
[638] In the edition of Golius ch. vii. par. 5, the position of greatest distance is called the perigee, of least the apogee, but this mistake is corrected in the next paragraph.
[639] “The moon’s declination in the zodiac from the equator towards the south pole is as great as towards the north.” Qu. xx. 61-63.
[640] The deferent was the equator of her orb or sphere.