Immediately below the Primum Mobile place the heaven of the fixed stars (and, that the idea might be clearer), revolving separately on the same poles on which the Primum Mobile revolves. Through this heaven, the filaments of the little nets, etc., seem to the eyes of you on earth as if they shine. In this heaven, you should conceive in their fixed places, the fixed stars, a proportionate, inviolable distance from each other, and, indeed, if you will, the heavenly images, etc., depicted, and all carried along at the same time with their heaven by one motion.
Conceive a straight line running from the center of the earth to that sign "o" noted in the semicircle of the supreme immobile heaven. On this line, greatly below the heaven of the fixed stars, place the center of the solar epicycle, holding an area in common with the ecliptic and subject to absolutely no motions, but at such a distance from the center of the earth that the semidiameter of the earth has little, if any, proportion with the distance of the solar epicycle from the earth. Around the sun, moving continually in this epicycle (its immobile palace) through the degrees of the anomaly, you can revolve, with motions proportionate to the system, the five planets: Mercury and Venus (the nearest barons of the sun), then Mars, Jupiter and, most remote, Saturn, with its respective satellites, etc., eccentrically surrounding the earth itself and the moon in their immense ambit and wandering by their proper motions through the zodiac.
Nevertheless, not far from the earth you should imagine fabricated, as from most refined crystal, the heaven of the moon everywhere equidistant from the center of the earth and revolving separately on the same poles (prolonged even to this place) on which the Primum Mobile and the heaven of the fixed stars revolve. In the middle of this, that is, in some point equally removed from the poles, you place the center of the lunar epicycle, movable also by the common rotation of the lunar heaven. I refrain from the other movements of the moon in latitude, etc., as also those of the five planets, etc., which the theory in no way excludes, lest by a variety of congested motions explained too abundantly, either you might be confused about the fundamental concept of the system or, while adorning the theory and trying to embellish the least things more widely, you might reject also the things which are capital.
Here you already have the whole machine, but still inert and to be animated for the first time by motions accommodated to the system. Nevertheless, before I assign motion to the individual parts of the world, so that the thing might later appear more clearly to you, I arrange all things thus: first, as if by hand, I turn the Primum Mobile until the Boreal magnetic point comes to the level or the area of the semicircle described in the supreme immobile convexity; then I turn the heaven of the fixed stars until, for example, the heel of Castor (a star of the third magnitude), almost in the ecliptic and indeed in our time not far distant from the solstitial colure, likewise falls nearly at the level of the aforesaid semicircle. Later, I turn the lunar heaven until I bring the center of the lunar epicycle to the same level. Then, I turn the earth until some predetermined city, for example, Trent, situated in the northern zone with a latitude of about forty-six degrees, is brought to the oft-mentioned level.
From things arranged in this way and from what has gone before, it is evident (with the motions of the luminaries in epicycles left out, however, lest you be distracted by the explanation) that at Trent, just as in the whole northern hemisphere, it is the summer solstice; and, conversely, in the southern hemisphere, it is the winter solstice. The reason is because the northern magnetic point together with the northern half of the earthly axis is at its highest point towards the sun, immovably residing in a line sent through the level of the highest semicircle; and, conversely, the southern magnetic point with the corresponding half of the axis is most removed from the same. It further follows, that noonday and the new moon coincide, and the heel of Castor almost reaches the summit, etc.
Now, beginning from this hypothetical situation of the whole world as from the root of the motions, I move all things in their circles so that the earth turns on its axis with a revolving motion from west to east in each 24 hours of median time. The lunar heaven completes one circle around its poles likewise from west to east in the time of 29 terrestrial revolutions, hours 12.44.3.13.1. The sphere of the fixed stars on the same poles revolves once from east to west within 365 revolutions of the earth, hours 6.9.29.1. The Primum Mobile on the poles (common to the heaven of the fixed stars and the heaven of the moon), is moved once in the same way from east to west, a little faster, however, than the heaven of the fixed stars, yet within 365 revolutions of the earth, hours 5.48.56; that is, within a median astronomical year.
Now, behold for yourself a new world supported on new poles and provided with new motions and laws. Now you, reader and lover of the stars, turn it, and revolve it as long as it pleases you, and compare it astronomically and physically with the Copernican or the Tychonian systems or with whatever one pleases you more, and judge which one seems more consonant with nature when all things are examined. But if you aren't able to reconcile this theory with some astronomical observations or physical experiments and think it should be eliminated from the group of theories, see that I might know this while life is still my companion, so that I might think with you, if this is possible. Also, so that, in gratitude for the detected or perhaps hidden error, I might speak or write, and you won't have to shout in vain in bold ridicule and with no applause after the fleeing shades of the dead and the mute ashes. But, if you object that the daily motion of the revolving earth and the annual motion of its whirling axis do not sufficiently agree with certain texts of Sacred Scripture, and if those things which the Copernicans and the Longomontanists say do not convince you, then reject my whole system as an old wives' tale.
There is a break in the story of Borghesi and Bertolla for the next five years. The second clock may have been the last project on which the priest and the clockmaker worked together, for very good reasons. The two clocks must have represented a considerable financial investment in materials and in time, and neither of the men was in sufficiently affluent circumstances to undertake the luxury of such a hobby without some form of recompense. The publication of the two little volumes must have also been done at Father Borghesi's expense. The income of the parish priest in a small mountain village could not have been equal to the relatively great costs of the projects that had been completed. It seems probable that the priest attempted to sell his clocks to a wealthy patron, perhaps the Baron of Cles, or he may have attempted to obtain some form of recompense for the continuation of his research. However, no records can be found of such patronage if it existed. If Borghesi had received financial assistance while the projects were in progress, he would certainly have made adequate mention of the patron's name and assistance in one or the other of the two volumes which he published. [17]