''De Astronomica'', or the ''Astronomy'', also known as ''Poeticon Astronomicon'',
/ref> is a book of stories whose text is attributed to "Hyginus
Gaius Julius Hyginus (; 64 BC – AD 17) was a Latin author, a pupil of the scholar Alexander Polyhistor, and a freedman of Caesar Augustus. He was elected superintendent of the Palatine library by Augustus according to Suetonius' ''De Gramma ...
", though the true authorship is disputed. During the Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass id ...
, the work was attributed to the Roman historian Gaius Julius Hyginus
Gaius Julius Hyginus (; 64 BC – AD 17) was a Latin author, a pupil of the scholar Alexander Polyhistor, and a freedman of Caesar Augustus. He was elected superintendent of the Palatine library by Augustus according to Suetonius' ''De Gramma ...
who lived during the 1st century BC. However, the fact that the book lists most of the constellations north of the ecliptic in the same order as Ptolemy
Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of import ...
's ''Almagest
The ''Almagest'' is a 2nd-century Greek-language mathematical and astronomical treatise on the apparent motions of the stars and planetary paths, written by Claudius Ptolemy ( ). One of the most influential scientific texts in history, it cano ...
'' (written in the 2nd century) has led many to believe that a more recent Hyginus or Pseudo-Hyginus created the text.
The text describes 47 of the 48 Ptolemaic constellations, centering primarily on the Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
and Roman mythology
Roman mythology is the body of myths of ancient Rome as represented in the literature and visual arts of the Romans. One of a wide variety of genres of Roman folklore, ''Roman mythology'' may also refer to the modern study of these represent ...
surrounding the constellations, though there is some discussion of the relative positions of stars. The first known printing was in 1475, attributed to "Ferrara."
The ''De Astronomica'' was not formally published until 1482, by Erhard Ratdolt in Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...
. This edition carried the full title ''Clarissimi Viri Hyginii Poeticon Astronomicon Opus Vtilissimum.'' Ratdolt commissioned a series of woodcuts depicting the constellations to accompany Hyginus's text. As with many other star atlases that would follow it, the positions of various stars are indicated overlaid on the image of each constellation. However, the relative positions of the stars in the woodcuts bear little resemblance to the descriptions given by Hyginus in the text or the actual positions of the stars in the sky.
References
Citations
Bibliography
* Condos, Theony, ''Star Myths of the Greeks and Romans: A Sourcebook, Containing The Constellations of Pseudo-Eratosthenes and the Poetic Astronomy of Hyginus'' (Grand Rapids I Phanes Press, 1997) .
* Hard, Robin (transl.), ''Eratosthenes and Hyginus: Constellation Myths, with Aratus's Phaenomena'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015) .
External links
High-resolution images of some pages from the Ratdolt edition
{{DEFAULTSORT:Poeticon Astronomicon
Greek mythology