[A3]. Lalande observes that Mr. Bailly has gone back, in his astronomical researches, to the first traditions of an antedeluvian people, among whom there remained scarcely any traces of such knowledge; and that he has presented us, in his work, with ingenious conjectures and probabilities; or, more properly, appearances of truth, (“vraisemblables,”) written with many charms of extensive information. But, according to Mr. Lalande himself, all the ancient astronomy down to the time of Chiron, which was about fourteen centuries before the Christian era, may with probability be reduced to the examining of the rising of some stars at different times of the year, and the phases of the moon; since, long after that period, as this great astronomer remarks, the Chaldeans and Egyptians yet knew nothing of either the duration or the inequalities of the planetary movements. W. B.
[A4]. See the preceding note.
[A5]. Some of the constellations appear to have been named, even before the time of Moses, who was born 1571 years before Christ: but, probably, most of them received their names about the time of the Argonautic expedition, which took place in the year 1263, B. C
Hesiod and Homer who were co-temporaries, or, at least, flourished nearly at the same time, that is to say, about nine centuries before the Christian era, mention several of the constellations; and, among the rest, the Bear and the Hyades: and it is noticed by Mr. Lalande, that La Condamine says the Indians on the river Amazons gave to the seven stars in the Hyades, the name of the Bull’s-head, as we do; and that Father Lasitau tells us, the Iroquois called that assemblage of stars to which we give the name of the Bear, by the same name; and named the polar star “the star that does not move.”
These are interesting facts. There is not the least resemblance, whatever, in the two constellations which have been mentioned, to the animals whose names they bear. Is it not, then, a matter of great curiosity, as well as one which may prove important in its result, to enquire, why two great tribes of uncivilized men, (supposed, by some, to be aborigines,) in the northern and southern sections of the western hemisphere, should apply the same denominations to two assemblages of stars, by which those constellations were known to Hesiod and Homer, if not earlier, and at least twenty-five hundred years before? W. B.
[A6]. Hipparchus (of Nicæa, in Bithynia,) was a very celebrated mathematician and astronomer of antiquity. Mr. Lalande styles him the most laborious and most intelligent astronomer of antiquity, of whom we have any record; and asserts, that the true astronomy which has come down to us, originated with him. He divided the heavens into forty-eight (some say forty-nine) constellations, and assigned names to the stars. He is also said to have determined latitude and longitude and to have computed the latter from the Canaries; and he is supposed to be the first who, after Thales, calculated eclipses with some degree of accuracy: but he makes no mention of comets. Hipparchus died one hundred and twenty five years before the Christian era. W. B.
[A7]. Friar Bacon is said to have been almost the only astronomer of his age; he informs us that there were then but four persons in Europe who had made any considerable proficiency in the mathematics.
[A8]. Regiomontanus was born in the year 1436, at Kœnigsberg, a town of Franconia, subject to the house of Saxe-Weimar. His real name was John Müller: but he assumed the name of Regiomontanus from that of the place of his nativity, which signifies Regius Mons.
This astronomer, who was greatly celebrated in his time, was the first, according to Lalande, who calculated good Almanacks; which he had composed for thirty successive years; viz. from 1476 to 1506. In these (which were all published at Nuremberg in 1474, two years before his death,) he announced the daily longitudes of the planets, their latitudes, their aspects, and foretold all the eclipses of the sun and moon; and these ephemerides were received with uncommon interest by all nations. After noticing these, Lalande mentions the ephemerides which are published annually at Bologna, Vienna, Berlin, and Milan; but he pronounces the Nautical Almanack, of London, to be the most perfect ephemeris that was ever published. Regiomontanus compiled several other works, which greatly promoted his reputation, He died in 1476, at the age of forty years. W. B.
[A9]. See some interesting particulars respecting this great man in Lord Buchan’s account of the Tomb of Copernicus, and in the note thereto, inserted in the Appendix. W. B.