LUP_Kendal_Bede_02_ONT
BEDE
ON THE NATURE OF THINGS
A POEM OF BEDE THE PRIEST
In brief chapters, I, Bede, the servant of God, Have lightly touched on the varied natures of things
And on the broad ages of fleeting time. You who study the stars above, Fix your mind's gaze, I pray, on the Light of the everlasting day. /190/
THE CHAPTERS OF ON THE NATURE OF THINGS
1. The Fourfold Work of God 2. The Formation of the World 3. What the World Is 4. The Elements 5. The Firmament 6. The Varied Height of Heaven 7. Upper Heaven 8. The Heavenly Waters 9. The Five Circles of the World 10. The Regions of the World 11. The Stars 12. The Course of the Planets 13. Their Order 14. Their Orbits 15. Why Their Colours Change 16. The Circle of the Zodiac 17. The Twelve Signs 18. The Milky Way 19. The Course and Size of the Sun 20. The Nature and Place of the Moon 21. Method for Determining the Course of the Moon through the Signs of the Zodiac 22. The Eclipse of the Sun and the Moon 23. Where there Is No Eclipse and Why 24. Comets 25. The Air 26. The Winds 27. The Order of the Winds 28. Thunder 29. Lightning 30. Where Lightning Is Not and Why
ON THE NATURE OF THINGS
31. The Rainbow 32. Clouds 33. Rains 34. Hail 35. Snow 36. Signs of Storms or Fair Weather 37. Pestilence 38. On the Dual Nature of the Waters /191/
39. The Ocean's Tide 40. Why the Sea does Not Grow in Size 41. Why It Is Bitter 42. The Red Sea 43. The Nile 44. That the Earth Is Bound by Waters 45. The Position of the Earth 46. That the Earth Is Like a Globe 47. The Circles of the Earth 48. More on the Same Subject: the Art of Using Sundials
49. Earthquake 50. The Fire of Mount Etna 51. The Division of the Earth End of the Chapters of The Nature of Things /192/
THE BOOK OF THE NATURE OF THINGS
1. The Fourfold Work of God1 The divine power, which created and governs all existing things, can be understood in four different ways:2 First, that all these things were not made but are eternal in the dispensation of the Word of God,3 who, as the Apostle testifies, predestined us4 for his kingdom before the times of the world.5
Second, that the elements of the world were made all at the same time in unformed matter, when he who lives eternally created everything at once.6
Third, that the same matter is formed into a heavenly and an earthly creation, partly from existing causes, and partly from causes not yet existing,7 but each thing coming into existence by the distinct workings of the first six days.
Fourth, that the temporal constitution of the whole world is brought about in the natural course of things by the seeds and primordial causes8 of this same creation, wherein the Father and the Son work right up to the present, and God even feeds the ravens9 and clothes the lilies.10
2. The Formation of the World At the very beginning of creation, heaven, earth, the angels, air, and water were made from nothing. Indeed, light was made on the first day /193/ and 1 Cf. Augustine, Confessiones 12.7-8; Junilius, De partibus 1.19 (PL 68, 23–24).
2 See Commentary.
3 Augustine, DGAL 6.10 (CSEL 28.1, 182.18-19).
4 Eph. 1:5.
5 2 Tim. 1:9; Titus 1:2. See Commentary.
6 Ecclesiasticus 18:1, quoted in Augustine, DGAL 6.10 (CSEL 28.1, 182.19-20).
7 Augustine, DGAL 6.10 (CSEL 28.1, 182.20-21). Augustine is distinguishing between instantaneous and diachronic creation from rationes seminales – a distinction Bede later takes up in DTR 5 (ed. Jones, 286–87; The Reckoning of Time, trans. Wallis, pp. 20–21).
8 Augustine, DGAL 6.10 (CSEL 28.1, 182.23-24).
9 Luke 12:24.
10 Luke 12:27. Plummer, BOH 1, xxxviii, stressed the importance of Bede's insistence on natural law in this sentence. We think rather that the key idea here is God's providence as a continuation of creative action.
ON THE NATURE OF THINGS
it was made from nothing. On the second, the firmament was made in the midst of the waters. On the third, the visible form of sea and earth was made,11 together with those things that adhere to the earth by the roots.12
On the fourth, the lights of heaven were made from the light that was made on the first day. On the fifth, swimming and flying things were made from the waters. On the sixth, the rest of the animals were made from the earth, and man13 was created, in the flesh of course from the earth, but in the soul from nothing. He was placed in paradise, which God had planted from the beginning.14 On the seventh God rested, not from the governance of creation, since in him we live, and move, and are,15 but from the creation of new material. /194/ 3. What the World Is The world is the entire universe, which consists of heaven and earth,16 rounded out of four elements into the appearance of a complete sphere:17 out of fire, by which the stars shine; out of air, by which all living things breathe; out of the waters, which barricade the earth by surrounding and penetrating it; and out of earth itself, which is the middle and lowest portion of the world. It hangs suspended, motionless, with the universe whirling around it.18 But heaven is also called by the word 'mundus', meaning 'elegant',19 from its perfect and absolute elegance;20 for it is called 'cosmos' by the Greeks from its adornment.21 /195/ 4. The Elements The elements differ from one another both by nature and by position. For earth, since it is the heaviest substance and that which cannot be supported by another substance, holds the lowest place among created things. Water is as much lighter than earth as it is heavier than air. If perchance air is
11 Junilius, De partibus 2.2 (PL 68, 25).
12 Augustine, De Genesi ad litteram imperfectus liber 11.35 (PL 34, 234).
13 Junilius, De partibus 2.2 (PL 68, 25).
14 Gen. 2:8.
15 Acts 17:28.
16 Isidore, DNR 9.1 (Fontaine, Traité, p. 207).
17 Pliny, NH 2.2.5.
18 Pliny, NH 2.4.11.
19 The Latin noun mundus can mean 'world' or 'the heavens'; the adjective mundus means
'elegant'.
20 Pliny, NH 2.3.8.
21 Isidore, Etym. 13.1.2.
BEDE: ON THE NATURE OF THINGS AND ON TIMES
introduced under the water in any vessel, it at once escapes to the upper parts, since it is lighter.22 Likewise fire that is kindled by matter constantly seeks its natural place above the air; but, lest it reach that place, it vanishes into the mild23 air, by the circumfusion of which it is suppressed.24
These elements nevertheless are so mingled with each other by a certain affinity of nature that dry and cold earth is associated with cold water; cold and moist water is associated with moist air; moist and hot air is associated with hot fire; /196/ and hot and dry fire is associated with earth.25 Hence we not only see fire in the earth but also clouds and earthy bodies in the air.
5. The Firmament26 Heaven is of a fine and fiery nature, and round and arranged on all sides at equal distances from the centre of the earth. Hence it appears to be vaulted and centred wherever it may be viewed. Those who are knowledgeable about the world have stated that it revolves daily with indescribable swiftness,27 so that it would destroy itself if it were not restrained by the countervailing course of the planets. They make this claim upon the evidence of the stars, which always revolve in a fixed course with the northern stars making tighter circles around the axis.28 They call its extremities, around which the sphere of heaven revolves, the poles, which shrivel with the icy cold.29
One of them, mounting up in the north /197/ is called the North Pole; the other, sloping downwards to the south30 and directly opposite the land [of the northern hemisphere], is called the South Pole, which holy Scripture calls
'the chambers of the south'.31
22 See Commentary.
23 A ninth-century glossator (Berlin, Phillipps 1832; our DNR, no. 10) glosses mollem as aquaticum (see DNR apparatus, CCSL 123A, 195), which seems right. Lower air (the air immediately surrounding and blanketing the earth) was understood to be suffused with water, and just as terrestrial fire had to be fed with matter it was extinguished by water.
24 Ps.-Isidore, DOC 4.5-6 (Díaz y Díaz, pp. 106–8; PL 83, 922).
25 Ambrose, Hex. 3.4.18 (CSEL 32, 71.18–72.10); Isidore, DNR 11.2 (Fontaine, Traité, p. 215).
26 The firmament is distinguished from the upper heaven which is above it (see ch. 7, below).
27 Pliny, NH 2.3.5-6.
28 Augustine, DGAL 2.10 (CSEL 28.1, 48.3-4).
29 Cf. Isidore, Historia de regibus, Prologue [encomium to Hispania] (PL 83, 1057):
[Hispania], nec glaciali rigore tabescis, '[Spain], you do not shrivel with icy cold'. See
Commentary.
30 Vergil, Georg. 1.241.
31 Job 9:9.
ON THE NATURE OF THINGS
6. The Varied Height of Heaven But the world 32 does not rise up at this higher pole so that these stars may be visible everywhere. The fact is that the same stars that are thought to be higher up by those who are nearest them seem to be submerged by those who are distant. And just as this pole now seems high to persons placed on this slope, so to those who crossed over to that downward slope of the earth other stars rise up, and the ones which had been lofty in this place set,33 as the curvature of the earth blocks the intervening view,34 to such an extent that the seven stars,35 which hang from our perspective from the pole, appear in some places in India only for fifteen36 days in the year.37
7. Upper Heaven The heaven of the upper orbit set apart by its own boundary and /198/ located at an equal distance in every direction [from the earth at the centre] is the dwelling place of the angelic powers. These, in order to visit us, take ethereal bodies for themselves so that they can be like men even in eating, and they lay aside the same when they return there. God tempered this heaven with icy waters lest it set fire to the lower elements. Hence he established the lower heaven not with uniform but with complex motion, calling it the 'firmament' on account of its support38 of the upper waters.39
8. The Heavenly Waters Some people maintain that the waters placed above the firmament, lower indeed than the spiritual heavens but nevertheless superior to every corporeal creation, /199/ were reserved for the inundation of the Flood, but others claim more correctly that they were suspended to temper the fire of the stars.40
32 Mundus, i.e., the heavenly sphere, not the earth.
33 Pliny, NH 2.71.179.
34 Pliny, NH 2.71.177.
35 I.e., the Little Bear.
36 Pliny, NH 2.75.184.
37 In other words, in the upper latitudes of the northern hemisphere, the Little Bear is high overhead; further south, it is closer to the horizon.
38 sustentationem, GSg, Giles, Migne, Isidore; sustentionem, Jones.
39 Isidore, DNR 13.2 (Fontaine, Traité, p. 225).
40 Ps.-Isidore, DOC 3.4-5 (Díaz y Díaz, pp. 102–4; PL 83, 920–21). The 'others' are
Ambrose (Hexameron 2.3) and Jerome: see Picard, 'Bede and Irish Scholarship', p. 141.
BEDE: ON THE NATURE OF THINGS AND ON TIMES
9. The Five Circles of the World The world is divided by five circles.41 In accordance with these divisions some regions are inhabited by reason of their moderate temperatures, and some are uninhabitable because of their excess of cold or heat.42 The first is the northern zone, uninhabitable from the cold, the stars of which never set from our sight.43 The second is the summer solstitial, extending from the highest part of the zodiac toward our northern region, temperate and habitable.44 The third is the equinoctial, occupying the middle circuit of the zodiac, torrid and uninhabitable.45 The fourth is the winter solstitial, extending from the lowest part /200/ of the zodiac toward the southern pole, temperate and habitable.46 The fifth is the southern zone around the southern pole, which is hidden [from our sight] by [the bulge of] the earth,47 uninhabitable by reason of the cold.48
The three middle circles mark the differences of the seasons,49 since the sun occupies one50 at the summer solstice, another51 at the equinox, and 41 Isidore, DNR 10.1 (Fontaine, Traité, p. 209). See Commentary.
42 Isidore, Etym. 3.44.1.
43 Pliny, NH 2.71.177; Isidore, DNR 10.1 (Fontaine, Traité, p. 209). I.e., the North Frigid zone from North Pole to the Arctic Circle.
44 Pliny, NH 2.70.177; Isidore, DNR 10.2 (Fontaine, Traité, p. 209). I.e., the North Temperate zone from the Arctic Circle to the Tropic of Cancer. The 'highest part of the zodiac' = the point at which sun's path (the ecliptic) touches the Tropic of Cancer at the summer solstice.
45 Pliny, NH 2.70.177; Isidore, DNR 10.1-2 (Fontaine, Traité, p. 209). I.e., the Torrid zone on either side of the equator from the Tropic of Cancer to the Tropic of Capricorn. The assertion that the Torrid zone was uninhabitable continued to be made up to the fifteenth century, when it was repeated by Pierre d'Ailly in his Imago Mundi. Columbus jotted a note in the margin of his copy refuting the assertion on the basis of his own observation of the large population of the Portuguese trading citadel of Mina on the Gold Coast of Africa. See Morison, Admiral of the Ocean Sea, p. 41.
46 Pliny, NH 2.70.177; Isidore, DNR 10.1-2 (Fontaine, Traité, p. 209). I.e., the South
Temperate zone from the Tropic of Capricorn to the Antarctic Circle. The 'lowest part of the zodiac' = the point at which sun's path (the ecliptic) touches the Tropic of Capricorn at the winter solstice.
47 Bede makes his meaning clearer in DTR 34, where he states that the southern zone 'is always hidden from us because the Earth blocks it out' (Wallis, The Reckoning of Time, p. 98).
Cf. Pliny, NH 2.71.177-78, for extended treatment of the effect of the earth's curvature.
48 Isidore, DNR 10.1-2 (Fontaine, Traité, p. 209). I.e., the South Frigid zone from the Antarctic Circle to the South Pole.
49 Pliny, NH 2.70.177.
50 The Tropic of Cancer.
51 The equator.
ON THE NATURE OF THINGS
the third52 at the winter solstice.53 For the outermost ones54 always lack the sun.55 Hence the sea is found to be frozen one day's sail to the north from the island of Thule.56
10. The Regions of the World There are four quarters, that is, regions, of the world: the eastern from sunrise at the summer solstice [21 June] to sunrise at the winter solstice
[21 December]; the southern from there57 to sunset at the winter solstice; the western from there58 to sunset at the summer solstice; and then the northern59 from sunset at the summer solstice to sunrise of the same region
[at the summer solstice].60
Of these, the eastern and western regions are called /201/ the gates of heaven.61 They are thought to be equal only for people placed in the middle of the earth,62 for the day of the winter solstice is shorter for those living in the north, and the longer day of the summer solstice, spreading out its rising and setting, diminishes the other regions.63 Likewise for people in the south64 each of the aforesaid days being less extreme [in variation]65 changes the above-mentioned difference, although everywhere the setting of the winter solstice corresponds to the rising of the summer solstice upon the same line.66 And therefore in the same way the setting of the sun always matches each and every rising of the sun after six months.67
52 The Tropic of Capricorn.
53 Marking the beginning of summer, of spring and fall, and of winter, respectively.
54 The Arctic and Antarctic Circles.
55 Possibly, in the sense that they never receive the vertical rays of the sun as the Tropic of Cancer does at the summer solstice, the Tropic of Capricorn at the winter solstice, and the equator at the two equinoxes, which is the point made in the previous sentence.
56 Cf. DT 7 and DTR 31 and 34.
57 I.e., from sunrise at the winter solstice.
58 I.e., from sunset at the winter solstice.
59 Isidore, Etym. 3.42.1 (the italicized words only).
60 Pliny, NH 2.79.188 (the italicized words only).
61 Isidore, Etym. 3.40.
62 I.e., halfway between the North Pole and the equator.
63 See Commentary.
64 I.e., below 45° N.
65 I.e, as you go south, the longest day of the year gets shorter and the shortest day longer.
66 See Commentary and Figure 2 (p. 144).
67 Cf. Pliny, NH 2.69.176. This sentence restates and generalizes the preceding one. See
Commentary.
BEDE: ON THE NATURE OF THINGS AND ON TIMES
11. The Stars The stars, borrowing their light from the sun, are said to turn with the world since they are fixed in one place, as opposed to being carried unfixed, with the world standing still. The exception is those /202/ that are called planets, that is, wanderers.68 The brightness of the full moon and the eclipse of the sun prove that they are concealed by the advent of the day and never sink from the sky,69 although we see particles of fire fallen from the ether being carried by the winds, and resembling the light of a wandering star,70 which forecast the imminent rise of violent winds.71 But some stars are productive of moisture released in liquid form, others of congealed moisture in the form of frost or of compacted moisture in the form of snow or of icy moisture in the form of hailstorms, others of a breeze of gentle warmth, others of heat, others of moisture, others of cold. It is not only the planets, like Saturn, whose transits bring rain, but also certain stars that are fixed to the heavens, since they have been stimulated by the approach of the planets or by their rays, like the Little Pig in the forehead of Taurus, which for this reason the Greeks call the Hyades from the word for rain. And indeed some stars are stimulated spontaneously at fixed times, like the rising of the Haedi,
/203/ and of Arcturus which ascends on 13 September with a tempestuous hailstorm,72 and like73 stormy Orion,74 and Canicula which, giving off excessive heat, rises on 18 July.75
12. The Course of the Planets Seven stars, which are called wanderers,76 hang between heaven and earth, separated by fixed intervals.77 They move in a course contrary to the world,
68 Isidore, DNR 22.1 (Fontaine, Traité, p. 255).
69 Isidore, DNR 24.1 (Fontaine, Traité, p. 261). Isidore's fuller explanation is that some stars disappear at night when the moon is full and that some appear during the day when the sun is eclipsed.
70 Isidore, DNR 25.1 (Fontaine, Traité, p. 263).
71 Pliny, NH 2.36.100. That shooting stars 'forecast' high winds is clearer from Pliny's wording than it is from Bede's.
72 Pliny, NH 2.39.105-6; cf. NH 2.47.124 (Pliny states that the rise of Arcturus occurs 11 days before the autumnal equinox, i.e., 11 days before the 8th kalends of October or September
24).
73 et ut, G2Sg, Giles, Migne; et, Jones.
74 Vergil, Aeneid 1.535.
75 Pliny, NH 2.40.107; cf. NH 2.47.123 (oddly, Pliny gives the date of the rise of Canicula as 15 days before the kalends of August [17 July] rather than the 15th kalends of August [18 July]).
76 I.e., moon, Mercury, Venus, sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.
77 Pliny, NH 2.4.12.
ON THE NATURE OF THINGS
that is, to the left, with the world always advancing to the right.78 And although they are borne along by it with a constant revolution of great speed and are precipitated toward the west, nevertheless they are observed to go with an opposite motion through their own several tracks,79 wandering now lower, now higher,80 on account of /204/ the obliquity of the zodiac.
But, impeded by the rays of the sun, they become irregular, or retrograde, or stationary.81
13. Their Order The highest of the planets is the star of Saturn,82 freezing cold by nature,83 completing a circuit of the zodiac in thirty years.84 Next is the star of Jupiter, temperate, completing its circuit in twelve years. Third is the star of Mars, blazing hot, completing its circuit in two years. In the middle is the sun, completing its circuit in 365 days and a quarter.85 Beneath the sun is Venus, which /205/ is also called Lucifer and Vesper, completing its circuit in 348 days. It never recedes further from the sun than 46 degrees.86 Next to it is the star of Mercury, with a circuit swifter by nine days. Sometimes it shines before the rising of the sun, sometimes after its setting. It is never remoter from the sun than 22 degrees.87 Last is the moon,88 accomplishing its course in 27 and 1/3 days, thereafter lingering in company with the sun for two days.89
At the maximum the stars of Saturn and of Mars do not appear in the sky for 170 days, the star of Jupiter for 36 days or at the minimum for ten days less, of Venus for 68 days or at the minimum for 52, of Mercury for 13 days or at the most 18.90 For moving with the sun, they are hidden; they are
78 See Commentary.
79 Pliny, NH 2.6.32-33.
80 Isidore, DNR 22.2 (Fontaine, Traité, p. 255).
81 Isidore, Etym. 3.66.3; DNR 22.3 (Fontaine, Traité, p. 255).
82 Pliny, NH 2.6.32.
83 Cf. Pliny, NH 2.6.34.
84 Cf. Pliny, NH 2.6.32.
85 Pliny, NH 2.6.34-35.
86 The modern value is roughly 48°.
87 Pliny, NH 2.6.36-39. The modern value for maximum elongation is roughly 27°.
88 Pliny, NH 2.6.41.
89 Pliny, NH 2.6.44 (the phrase non conparere in caelo belongs with the next sentence, not this one, as a comparison with Pliny texts shows). 27 1/3 days = the zodiacal lunar month
(sidereal period); 29½ days = the regular lunar month (synodic period). See ch. 21 below.
90 Pliny, NH 2.15.78. Pliny gives the maximum for Mercury as 17, but some MSS read 18.
BEDE: ON THE NATURE OF THINGS AND ON TIMES
never more than eleven degrees from the sun when they rise,91 and indeed they sometimes rise seven degrees from it.92
14. Their Orbits All of the planets have their individual orbits, which in the case of the stars the Greeks call 'apsidae' ['arcs'], and they differ from those of the world, because the earth is the centre of the sky /206/ between the two vertices that the Greeks called 'poles', and also of the zodiac which is placed obliquely between them. And all these latter93 are always in agreement with the precise measurement of a pair of compasses. Therefore, the arcs of the planets arise from a unique centre for each, and for that reason they have diverse orbits and dissimilar motions, since it is necessary that the inner arcs be shorter.
Therefore, the arcs that are highest above the centre of the earth are those of Saturn in Scorpio, Jupiter in Virgo, Mars in Leo, the sun in Gemini, Venus in Sagittarius, Mercury in Capricorn, and of the moon in Taurus,94 at the midpoints of each; and the arcs that are lowest and nearest to the centre of the earth are opposite. Thus it happens that the planets seem to be propelled more slowly when they are carried along the highest circuit, not because they accelerate or retard their natural motions, which are fixed and unique to each of them, but because it is necessary that lines drawn from the peak of the arc come together at the centre, like the spokes of a wheel, and the same motion is felt to be at one time greater and at another time lesser, depending upon the proximity of the centre.95
Moreover, that their motion increases as long as they are in the vicinity of the earth and diminishes as they move away on high is proved especially by the greatest altitudes /207/ of the moon.96 If you wish to know more fully about these matters, read Pliny the Elder from whom I have taken these extracts.
91 Pliny, NH 2.12.59. Pliny specifically restricts this statement to the three outer planets.
92 We have not found any source for Bede's final statement in this sentence.
93 I.e., the five circles of the world (see ch. 9) and the circle of the zodiac.
94 Lunae in Tauro, G2Sv2; Giles; Migne; om. Jones. Some editors of Pliny (Mayhoff,
Rackham) incorporate the words Lunae in Tauro into their text of NH 2.13.64 on the strength of this reading in at least 13 Bede manuscripts (our DNR, nos. 4, 11, 64–66, 78, 92, 99, 101,
127–28, 135, 136a). See Jones, CCSL 123A, 174 (hand-list no. 3, Angers, 476).
95 Pliny, NH 2.13.63-64.
96 Pliny, NH 2.13.68.
ON THE NATURE OF THINGS
15. Why Their Colours Change Assuredly, each of the planets has its own colour. Saturn is white, Jupiter is shining, Mars is fiery, Lucifer is cheery,97 Vesper glistens, Mercury beams, the moon is alluring, and the sun glows at sunrise before it becomes day.98
But the variation of their altitudes tempers their colours, since as they ascend they take on the likeness of the planets into whose air they have come, and the circle of another's path tinges the planets approaching on either side, a colder circle to pallor, a hotter one to redness, a windy one to chillness, while the sun and the conjunctions of their arcs and their outermost orbits turn them to gloomy darkness.99
16. The Circle of the Zodiac The Zodiac, or Signbearer, is an oblique circle, consisting of twelve signs, through which the planets are carried. What lies beneath it /208/ is the only habitable part on earth, the remaining parts beneath the poles lie waste.100
Only the planet Venus passes beyond it by two degrees.101 The moon also wanders through its entire width, without ever passing beyond it. The planet
Mercury differs very broadly from these in its wanderings, but nonetheless in such a way that it wanders not more than eight out of twelve degrees (for the zodiac is that many degrees in width); and these eight not equally, but two in its middle, and four above it, and two below it. Finally, the sun is carried unevenly in the middle of the zodiac between two degrees in a wavy, dragonlike motion,102 the planet Mars is carried through four degrees in the middle, Jupiter along the middle and two degrees above it, and Saturn is carried through two degrees like the sun.103
97 gaudens, Bede; candens, 'bright white', Pliny.
98 Where Bede has postea dies, 'before it becomes day', Pliny reads post(ea) radians,
'afterwards radiant'. Lucifer = Venus as the morning star; Vesper = Venus as the evening star.
99 Pliny, NH 2.16.79.
100 Technically the region of the earth that lies 'beneath' the zodiac extends from the Tropic of Cancer in the north to the Tropic of Capricorn in the south. Here, however, all the region of the earth between the Arctic and the Antarctic circles is considered to be 'beneath' the zodiac.
Only the regions from the poles to the polar circles are outside this zone.
101 In modern terms, the zodiac by definition embraces the paths of all the planets (except
Pluto), extending about 8° on either side of the ecliptic. Pliny and Bede put the width of the zodiac at 12° (see below).
102 The ecliptic is the apparent path of the sun, so there is no apparent sense in which the sun's course can be said to be wavy or to be carried between two degrees. Since Bede knew perfectly well that the sun's course was undeviating, it is unclear why he quotes Pliny to this effect here and repeats Pliny's idea in DTR 26. See Wallis, The Reckoning of Time, p. 77, n. 239.
103 Pliny, NH 2.13.66-67.
BEDE: ON THE NATURE OF THINGS AND ON TIMES
17. The Twelve Signs The twelve signs took their names either from factors connected to the course of the year or from the fables of the pagans. For the pagans assign
Aries [the Ram] to the month of March on account of Jupiter Ammon; hence also in its image they depict the horns of a ram. They assign Taurus [the Bull] to April on account of the same Jupiter because according to fable he was transformed into a bull, Castor and Pollux [Gemini] /209/ to May as an emblem of virtue, then Cancer [the Crab] to June when the sun turns again toward its lower orbits, because when a crab is struck, it is accustomed to direct its course backwards, and Leo [the Lion] which Hercules killed, to July on account of the strength of heat. They take Virgo [the Virgin] for August because at that time the earth which is burned out by the heat of summer produces nothing, Libra [the Scales] for September on account of the equality of day and night, Scorpio [the Scorpion] and Sagittarius [the Archer], who was deformed by his horse legs, for October and November on account of the lightning of those months. They assign Capricorn [the Goat] to December on account of the she-goat nurse of Jupiter. Its extremities are depicted in the semblance of a fish, because the final days of this month are rainy. They assign Aquarius [the Water Bearer] to January and Pisces [the Fishes] to February because they are rainy months. In respect to the individual signs their thirty degrees are considered truly three decades because the sun courses /210/ through them in thirty days and ten and a half hours, beginning always from the middle of the month, that is, from the day of the 15th kalends.104
18. The Milky Way The Milky Way is a rather white shape across the middle of the highest point of the sky. It is commonly said to shine in this way because of the radiance of the sun which runs in it.105 But this is erroneous, since it is never touched by the sun except in part of Sagittarius and Gemini, in which the zodiac intersects the Milky Way.
104 De causis, pp. 665–67; Isidore, Etym. 3.71.23-32. Bede's wording derives from De causis, which in turn is based partly on Isidore, but Bede evidently took some phrasing directly from Isidore. See Commentary.
105 Cf. Isidore, Etym. 13.5.7. Bede here corrects Isidore without naming him, as di Pilla,
'Cosmologia', pp. 141–42, and McCready, 'Bede and the Isidorian Legacy', p. 52 and nn.
41–42, point out.
ON THE NATURE OF THINGS
19. The Course and Size of the Sun They say that the fire of the sun is fed by water,106 and that the sun is larger by far than the moon,107 but that the moon is greater than the earth.108 Hence the sun appears /211/ to be of one and the same size to all, because the distance of its exceeding height makes it seem to us as if it were a cubit in diameter109 – otherwise it would appear larger to the Indians when rising and to the Britons when setting. While it is by nature fiery, it also increases its heat by the exceeding swiftness of its motion.110 By its varied course it divides the days and months, the seasons and years, and by approaching and withdrawing it distributes the temperature of the air for the reckoning of the seasons,111 lest, if it always tarried in the same region, heat should destroy some part, and cold some other.
20. The Nature and Place of the Moon The moon is said neither to diminish nor to increase, but rather, illuminated by the sun112 on the side which it has toward it, to turn the bright or the dark side gradually to us either by receding from the sun or by approaching it.113
/212/ And indeed as the day grows longer, they say that the new moon is seen bent backwards and ascending to the north, since it is superior to the sun, but as the day grows shorter that it is upright and cast down to the south, and when it is opposite to the sun that it is always full, being elevated with respect to the low sun and low with respect to the elevated sun.114 They say that it shines for an additional 47½ minutes each day from the day after the new moon to the full moon, and by the same amount less back to the new moon, but that within 14 degrees of the sun it is always hidden.115 And they
106 Isidore, Etym. 3.49.
107 Cf. Isidore, Etym. 3.48.
108 Cf. Pliny, NH 2.8.49. Isidore, Etym. 3.48, on the contrary, states that the earth is larger than the moon. Isidore's statement appears to be taken directly from Cassiodorus, Instit. 2.7, c.
1218. This is another instance of Bede's silently correcting Isidore. Of course, in hindsight we know that Isidore was right and Pliny and Bede wrong. See below, ch. 22.
109 Isidore, Etym. 3.47.
110 Isidore, Etym. 3.49.
111 Isidore, Etym. 3.51.2.
112 Augustine, Enarrationes in Psalmos 10.3.28-29 (CSEL 93/1A, 222); cf. DTR 25.15
(CCSL 123B, 357); Wallis, The Reckoning of Time, p. 75.
113 I.e., as the moon moves away from or towards conjunction with the sun.
114 Pliny, NH 2.60.151 (curiously, Pliny is talking about rainbows, not the moon, but the principle is the same). For an explanation of the astronomical facts that Bede is presenting in this difficult sentence, see Commentary.
115 Pliny, NH 2.11.58.
BEDE: ON THE NATURE OF THINGS AND ON TIMES
say that the last /213/ and the first day of the moon is visible on the same day or night in no other sign than Aries.
21. Method for Determining the Course of the Moon through the Signs of the Zodiac116 The moon traverses the zodiac thirteen times in twelve [synodic] lunar months, which means that it runs through each individual sign in two days, six hours, and bes,117 that is, 8/12 of one hour.118 Therefore, if you want to know what sign the moon is located in, take the day of the moon that you wish to calculate from: as for example119 the 12th. Multiply by 4, which makes 48. Divide by 9 (9 times 5 is 45120). Therefore, because five signs have been traversed since the new moon appeared (which is certainly always lighted in the same constellation as the sun121), the twelfth moon is now in the sixth sign. Thus, if the remainder is one, you know that six hours of this next sign have been completed; if two, twelve; if three, eighteen; if four, a whole day; if eight, eight times six hours, that is, two days have been added.
But always remember to subtract two of these hours for every three signs.
For it is very tiresome to divide the hours in each sign step by step into twelfths.122 Hence, in the present example, although after dividing by nine there is a remainder of three, the twelfth moon will fill out, not 18, but 16 hours of the sixth sign. And indeed as long as this moon arises at the begin116 Cf. DTR 17.
117 Bes was a technical term for 2/3 of a unit. Bede evidently felt that his audience would not understand it without explanation. Neither does he expect his readers to use it for the purpose of calculation.
118 The calculation for a single sign is evidently a backward calculation from a measured zodiacal lunar month (sidereal period) (= the time it takes the moon to make one complete circuit of the zodiac) of 27 1/3 days (27 1/3 days divided by 12 = 2 days and 6 2/3 hours), which figure Bede takes from Pliny (see ch. 13 above). The modern figure for the sidereal period of the moon is 27.32166 days (Chartrand, Field Guide, p. 634). The zodiacal lunar month contrasts with the regular lunar month (synodic period), measured from full moon to full moon, of 29½ days. The modern figure for the synodic period of the moon is 29.53059 days (Chartrand, Field
Guide, p. 634). Thirteen zodiacal lunar months of 27 1/3 days = 355 1/3 days. Twelve regular lunar months of 29½ days = 354 days.
119 utpote in the sense of utputa (see N2CL). See DTR 17.6.
120 quadragies quinquis was apparently a kind of schoolboy numerical jargon for quadraginta quinque. Bede records the form quinquis in The Reckoning of Time 4 (DTR 4.30, ed. Jones, p. 185). Cf. Wallis, The Reckoning of Time, p. 17, n. 30.
121 The new moon is always (more or less) in the same direction from the earth as the sun
(known technically as 'conjunction'), and therefore in the same sign or constellation.
122 Bede's explanation of bes above as 8/12 of an hour implies dividing the hour into units of twelfths.
ON THE NATURE OF THINGS
ning or in the middle of any sign whatever, the computation is easy; but if it arises at some other time, you must remember to subtract or add to the results as many parts [of the sign] as the moon, when it was lighted in the first sign, either took away or retained.123
You reckon nine hours of the moon for every five days of the sun.124 /214/ 22. The Eclipse of the Sun and the Moon They tell us that the sun is hidden by the intervention of the moon, and the moon by the interposition of the earth.125 But eclipses of the sun occur only at the last or the first day of the moon, which is called a 'conjunction', and eclipses of the moon only at the full moon.126 And the whole sun could not be occluded by the moon coming between the earth, if the earth were greater than the moon.127 Moreover eclipses of both heavenly bodies take place yearly at fixed days and hours below the earth; and yet even when they occur above the earth they cannot be discerned everywhere, sometimes on account of clouds, more often because the earth's sphere blocks the vault of the heavens.128 And sometimes /215/ an eclipse of the moon takes place in the fifth month after the previous one, and an eclipse of the sun in the seventh month. The latter is eclipsed twice in thirty days above the earth, but this is seen by different peoples.129 Sometimes both heavenly bodies have
123 Since the moon advances through a sign in just a little more than one day (1 day and 3 1/3 hours), the calculation will give the (approximate) right answer whether you count the days of the moon from a new moon just entering the sign or from a new moon half way through the sign (if it were the 12th day of the moon in the former case, it would be the 11th day in the latter). But if the new moon enters the sign at some other point, say a quarter of the way through the sign or a quarter of the way before the sign, you have to subtract or add the appropriate number of hours accordingly.
124 This is Bede's calculation of the ratio of the zodiacal lunar month (27 1/3 days) to the solar year (365¼ days): i.e., the moon advances through the zodiac as far in nine hours as the sun advances in five days (the ratio is 3:40). He does not reveal how he derived this ratio.
Perhaps he began with a normalized solar year of 365 days, and then observed that five days is 1/73 of 365. That being the case, what is 1/73 of 27 1/3 days? The answer is eight hours and 59+ minutes. 27 1/3 days = 656 hours; nine hours X 73 = 657 hours. The approximation is very close. (In DTR 18, Bede calculates with the slightly less accurate ratio of 1:13.)
125 Pliny, NH 2.7.47.
126 Pliny, NH 2.10.56.
127 Pliny, NH 2.8.49. The logic of Pliny's argument for the relative size of the earth and the moon is faulty, but Bede accepts it. See above, ch. 20, and Commentary.
128 Pliny, NH 2.10.56.
129 Pliny explicitly states that Hipparchus discovered these facts about eclipses. However, if by super terras, 'above the earth', Pliny means the northern hemisphere, he misunderstands or misrepresents what Hipparchus probably said. Rackham, in the Loeb edition of Pliny,
BEDE: ON THE NATURE OF THINGS AND ON TIMES
been eclipsed in [an interval of] fifteen days.130 Once long ago, the moon was eclipsed at sunset in a strange fashion, while both heavenly bodies were visible above the earth.131 But in order that an eclipse might not occur every month, the width of the zodiac carries the moon higher or lower.132
23. Where there Is No Eclipse and Why Inhabitants of the East do not experience eclipses of the sun and moon in the evening, nor do those inhabiting the West experience eclipses in the morning,133 because of the obstruction of the earth's sphere. For, although night and day are the same over the whole world,134 they do not occur at the same time over the whole world, as the contrary position of the sphere
[of the heavens] brings night or its revolution brings day.135 For in the time of Alexander the Great the moon was eclipsed in Arabia136 at the second hour of the night, just as the same eclipsed moon was rising in Sicily. And Campania experienced an eclipse of the sun, which was on the 30th of April in the consulship of Ipsanius and Fontegius,137 between the seventh and the eighth hour of the day, while Armenia experienced it between the tenth and the eleventh hour.138 /216/ explains that 'one eclipse [is visible] to the inhabitants of the northern hemisphere, the other to those of the southern'. That this is what Hipparchus meant is made clear by Ptolemy's discussion in the Almagest 6.7 (ed. Toomer, pp. 295–96).
130 Based on the fact, stated above, that a solar eclipse can only happen at conjunction (at the time of the new moon) and a lunar eclipse only at full moon (the 15th day of the moon). The phenomenon invoked by Bede – namely a solar eclipse and a lunar eclipse occurring within two weeks of one another (the solar eclipse at the new moon, the lunar eclipse 14 days earlier or later at the full moon), and visible from the same location – is possible, though quite rare. Pliny records such an event in the reign of Vespasian in AD 71 (NH 2.10.57). Another noteworthy example is the solar eclipse of 4 October 590 (recorded in Gregory of Tours) and the partial lunar eclipse of 18 October 590 (recorded in Fredegar) both of which were visible in Francia: see Schove, Chronology of Eclipses and Comets AD 1–1000, pp. 103–5.
131 Pliny, NH 2.10.57. A lunar eclipse occurring precisely at moonrise and sunset, if viewed from an elevated position with flat horizons, might leave the viewer with the mistaken impression that both sun and moon were momentarily visible at the same time.
132 Cf. Pliny, NH 2.7.48.
133 Pliny, NH 2.72.180.
134 I.e., at a given latitude, the length of any particular day or night will be the same anywhere in the world.
135 Pliny, NH 2.73.181.
136 Pliny says 'at Arbela', the town in Assyria where Alexander defeated Darius.
137 C. Vipstanus Apronianus and C. Fonteius Capito, AD 59.
138 Pliny NH 2.72.180.
ON THE NATURE OF THINGS
24. Comets Comets are stars with flames like hair. They are born suddenly,139 portending a change of royal power or plague or wars or winds or heat.140 Some of these move in the manner of the planets, others remain immobile. Almost all are found towards the North, not in any particular part of it, but chiefly in the radiant part which takes the name of the Milky Way.141 The briefest period of time that they have been observed is seven days, the longest is eighty.142
Hairy tails are sometimes found scattered upon the planets and the other stars. But a comet is never143 found in the western part of the sky.144
25. The Air Air is everything resembling empty space that pours forth the breath of life beneath the moon.145 It is capable of sustaining the flight of birds, and clouds and tempests.146 It is also where the aerial powers, which have been hurled down in torment from their celestial seat, await the Day of Judgement in order that they may be condemned more harshly.147 From it, when they appear to men, they take for themselves aerial bodies which resemble their just deserts. For above the moon, which advances along the boundary
/217/ between the air and the ether, the vicinity of which Mount Olympus is said to reach up and touch, all things are pure and filled with the light of day. However, the stars are seen by us at night like other lights shining out of the darkness.148 But the clear upper air is assigned to heaven, while the lower air, which assumes bodily shape with moist vapours, is assigned to the earth, where there are fire, hail, snow, ice, and stormy winds, which are ordered to praise the Lord from the earth.149 But sometimes this lower
139 Pliny, NH 2.22.89; Isidore, Etym. 3.71.17.
140 Isidore, DNR 26.13 (Fontaine, Traité, p. 273); Pliny, NH 2.23.91.
141 Pliny, NH 2.23.91.
142 Pliny, NH 2.22.90.
143 Rackham, the Loeb editor of Pliny (LCL 330, 234 note c), emends Pliny's numquam,
'never', to nonnumquam, 'sometimes', which may well be what Pliny wrote. But Bede's manuscript of Pliny clearly read numquam in agreement with the manuscripts that survive.
144 Pliny, NH 2.23.92.
145 Pliny, NH 2.38.102.
146 Augustine, DGAL 3.2 (CSEL 28.1, 64.16); De Genesi contra Manichaeos 1.15.24
(CSEL 91, 90).
147 Ps.-Isidore, DOC 6.7 (Díaz y Díaz, p. 124; PL 83, 927).
148 Pliny, NH 2.7.48. Isidore, Etym. 14.4.13, observes that Mount Olympus 'rises up to such heights that neither clouds nor wind are perceived on its peak' (trans. Barney et al., The Etymologies, p. 290). This may be the source of Bede's remark.
149 Augustine, DGAL 3.10 (CSEL 28.1, 73.12–74.2); Ps. 148:7-8.
BEDE: ON THE NATURE OF THINGS AND ON TIMES
air is also called heaven: hence Peter says that the heavens perished in the Flood, when the tempestuous air was converted into waves.150 And the starry heavens of these aerial regions are called the heavens of heavens,151 as if being the superior of the inferior.
26. The Winds Wind is air moved and agitated, as can be proved with a small fan.152 And it is understood as being nothing else than a flow of air,153 which, as Clement says, after being as it were compressed and channelled, is forced by the ordinance of God from certain high mountains and squeezed out into winds
/218/ to quicken crops and temper the heat.154 And they receive their various names from the various parts of the sky.155
27. The Order of the Winds Four of the winds are the cardinals. The first of these, Septentrio [N], which is also called Aparctias, blows straight from the Pole, generating cold and clouds. On its right side156 is Circius [NNW], which is also called
Thrascias,157 generating snow and hail. On its left is Aquilo [NNE], also called Boreas, which condenses the clouds.
The second cardinal wind is Subsolanus [E], also called Apeliotes, which brings thunder in the East. It is a temperate wind. On its right is
Vulturnus [ENE], also called Caecias,158 which dries everything up; on its left is Eurus [ESE],159 which generates clouds.
The third cardinal wind is Auster [S], which is also called Notus. It is moist, hot, and full of lightning. On its right is Euroauster [SSE],160 a hot wind. On its left is Euronotus [SSW], which is temperately warm. Because the southern winds blow from the nether regions,161 they generate greater
150 Cf. 2 Peter 3:6.
151 Ps. 148:4.
152 Isidore, DNR 36.1 (Fontaine, Traité, p. 293).
153 Pliny, NH 2.44.114.
154 Isidore, DNR 36.2 (Fontaine, Traité, p. 293). The 'Clement' quoted by Isidore is pseudo-Clement of Alexandria, Recognitions 8.23.
155 Isidore, Etym. 13.11.1.
156 These directions are given from the viewpoint of the winds thought of as facing us.
157 In Pliny, NH 2.46, Thrascias is the NNW wind and Circius is a WNW wind peculiar to the province of Narbonne.
158 In Pliny, Vulturnus is SE, but Caecius is, as Bede has it, ENE.
159 In Pliny, Eurus is the Greek name for Vulturnus [SE].
160 This wind is unknown to Pliny.
161 Isidore, DNR 37.1-3 (Fontaine, Traité, pp. 295–97); cf. Pliny, NH 2.46.119-120.
ON THE NATURE OF THINGS
storms at sea than northern winds. And therefore especially destructive earthquakes happen after south winds.162
The fourth cardinal wind is Zephyrus [W], also called Favonius, which dispels winter and produces flowers. On its right is Africus [WSW], which is also called Libs. It is a stormy wind, generating thunder and lightning; on its left is Corus [WNW], also called Argestes, which generates rain clouds in the East, /219/ fair weather in India.163
Moreover, there are certain winds that are peculiar to separate nations and do not advance beyond a definite limit, like Sciron among the Athenians, which deviates slightly from Argestes, or Circius among the Narbonnese, which does not reach even to the city of Vienne in the same province.164
And in addition to these there are two which no matter in what location are breezes rather than winds – 'aura' and 'altanus'; for 'aura' is a gentle motion of the air on land, and 'altanus' at sea.165
28. Thunder They say that thunder is produced by the crash of clouds, when gusts of winds conceived in their interior, stirring restlessly about in the same place and violently bursting out somewhere by the innate power of their mobility, resound with a great roar like four-horse teams bursting out from their stalls,166 or like a bladder which although small nevertheless emits a great noise when it bursts.167
29. Lightning Lightning is born from the rubbing together of clouds like clashing flints. It occurs simultaneously with thunder, but the sound penetrates the ears more slowly than /220/ the flash penetrates the eyes.168 For certainly the striking together of all things creates fire.169 Some say that when air absorbs water into itself from the depths as vapour and fire from the upper regions as heat the horrid-sounding clashes of thunder are born from their collisions; and they say that if fire wins out it is injurious to crops, but if water, that it is
162 Pliny, NH 2.48.128. Pliny imagines the south wind as being subterranean and therefore especially destructive.
163 Isidore, DNR 37.4 (Fontaine, Traité, p. 297).
164 Pliny, NH 2.46.120-21.
165 Isidore, Etym. 13.11.16-18.
166 Isidore, DNR 29.1 (Fontaine, Traité, p. 279).
167 Isidore, Etym. 13.8.2.
168 Isidore, DNR 30.1-2 (Fontaine, Traité, p. 281).
169 Isidore, Etym. 13.9.1.
BEDE: ON THE NATURE OF THINGS AND ON TIMES
beneficial.170 And therefore the power of lightning's fire to penetrate is the greater, because it is made of finer elements than the fire that we are accustomed to use.171
30. Where Lightning Is Not and Why Lightning is rare in winter and in summer, because in winter the frigid air extinguishes whatever fiery vapour it receives, while in summer the hot and rarefied vapours are seldom condensed into clouds, without which lightning does not occur. This principle protects Scythia and Egypt from lightning.
Italy is subject to this principle,172 where on account of the milder winter and rainy summer it is always in some measure spring or autumn.173
31. The Rainbow The rainbow with its four colours is formed in the air from the directly opposed sun and the clouds.174 /221/ This happens when the tip of a ray of the sun that was beamed into a hollow cloud is repulsed and the ray is reflected back toward the sun,175 like wax giving back the image of a ring. The rainbow takes its fiery colour from the sky, its purple colour from the waters, its blue colour from the air, and its colour green as grass from the earth.176
Moreover, it is rarer in summer than in winter; and it is rarely seen at night, except at the full moon, when of course it is reflecting the moon's light.177
32. Clouds Clouds are massed together into a ball drop by drop out of condensed air, which, lifting the vapours of the waters of the land and the sea with the levity of smoke,178 supports itself aloft by its own power as long as the vapours
170 Ps.-Isidore, DOC 7.9-10 (Díaz y Díaz, p. 132; PL 83, 930).
171 Isidore, Etym. 13.9.2.
172 Pliny states explicitly, what Bede implies, that the principle makes thunderstorms more frequent in Italy.
173 Pliny, NH 2.51.135-36.
174 Isidore, DNR 31.1-2 (Fontaine, Traité, p. 285).
175 Pliny, NH 2.60.150.
176 Isidore, DNR 31.1-2 (Fontaine, Traité, p. 285). Bede compresses Isidore's simile of the wax almost to the point of unintelligibility. The clouds, reflecting back the rays of the sun, take on the sun's round shape (the rainbow), the way wax takes the impress of a ring. See McCready,
'Bede and the Isidorian Legacy', pp. 43–44. Eckenrode, 'Venerable Bede as a Scientist', p.
497, notes that whereas Isidore sees only two colours plus black and white, Bede sees four.
177 Cf. Pliny, NH 2.60.150-51.
178 For the adjective fumalis, which Bede takes from Ps.-Isidore, and which is not recorded in OLD, Blaise, Latham, Niermeyer, or Souter, see Harvey and Power, The Non-Classical
Lexicon of Latinity I: Letters A–H.
ON THE NATURE OF THINGS
consist of very tiny drops.179 In this way, either decocted by the fire of the sun or altered by the current of the air, the vapours become fresh, even as we, by infusing sea water into the soil or fresh water into sea plants, are accustomed to transform [fresh or salty] savour into its opposite.180
33. Rains Rains are formed from the little drops of the clouds. As they coalesce into bigger drops, no longer supported by the nature of air, sometimes driven by the wind, /222/ sometimes dissolved by the sun, they fall down in the form of rain to the earth.181 But we call gentle and steady rains 'showers', and sudden and violent ones 'storms'.182
34. Hail Hailstones are coagulated in the air from drops of rain, and frozen by the harshness of cold and wind.183 But they are melted more quickly than snow, and they fall more often during the day than at night.184
35. Snow Snow is formed from the vapour of water that, being forestalled by cold, is not yet condensed into drops.185 It is said not to fall on the high sea.186
36. Signs of Storms or Fair Weather The sun, spotted at sunrise, or hiding behind a cloud, forecasts a rainy day.187
If it turns red, it forecasts a clear day; if it grows pale, stormy weather; if it seems flattened, so that, shining in the middle, it emits rays to the south and /223/ north, wet and windy weather; if it sets pale into black clouds, a north wind. If the sky is red in the evening, it forecasts a fair day; if in the morning, it signifies stormy weather.188 Lightning in the north and thunder
179 Ps.-Isidore, DOC 7.5 (Díaz y Díaz p. 130; PL 83, 929).
180 Isidore, DNR 33.1-2 (Fontaine, Traité, p. 289).
181 Ps.-Isidore, DOC 7.5 (Díaz y Díaz, p. 130; PL 83, 929).
182 Isidore, Etym. 13.10.3.
183 Ps.-Isidore, DOC 7.6 (Díaz y Díaz, p. 130; PL 83, 930).
184 Pliny, NH 2.61.152.
185 Ps.-Isidore, DOC 7.6 (Díaz y Díaz, p. 130; PL 83, 930).
186 Pliny, NH 2.106.234.
187 Isidore, Bede's source (see n. 188 below), explicitly takes this observation from Vergil,
Georg. 1.441-43. Bede's omission of this fact is therefore deliberate.
188 Isidore, DNR 38.4-5 (Fontaine, Traité, pp. 301–3). 'Red in the morning, sailors take warning; red at night, sailors delight'. Cf. Matt. 16:2-3.
BEDE: ON THE NATURE OF THINGS AND ON TIMES
in the southeast portends a storm,189 and a breeze from the south, heat.190
If the moon when four days old191 is red like gold, it forecasts winds. If it grows dark with spots at the top of its crescent, it forecasts the beginning of a month of rains; if the full moon has spots in the middle, clear weather.192
Likewise, when water on a nighttime voyage sparkles at the oars, there will be a storm. And when dolphins leap very frequently from the waters, the wind will rise from the direction in which they are carried, and the clouds, having been scattered from that place, will reveal the sky.193
37. Pestilence Pestilence is born from air that has been corrupted on account of the deserts of men either by excessive drought or rains.194 When the air has been absorbed by breathing or eating, it engenders pestilence and death. Hence we very often observe that the whole of the summer season is transformed into tempests and wintry blasts. These are called 'storms' when they come in their own season, but when they come at other times they are called
'portents' or 'signs'.
38. On the Dual Nature of the Waters All things that are seen on earth /224/ are formed and reformed by the dual nature of the waters. For salt water nourishes food in the sea for mortals on land, and fresh water is more properly suited for nourishing food in the air195 and for slaking thirst. But the question is, which of these is natural? Each is understood to be natural as long as they are both able to be turned back into one another – fresh water when it is diffused through the ashes of marine plants, salt water when it is diffused through soil.196
It is a fact that the land masses are divided by numerous sea straits, which not only demarcate the boundaries of nations but also enrich all provinces with reciprocal wealth through trade.197
189 Isidore, DNR 38.2 (Fontaine, Traité, p. 301).
190 Isidore, DNR 38.5 (Fontaine, Traité, p. 303).
191 Isidore, DNR 38.3 (Fontaine, Traité, p. 301).
192 Isidore, DNR 38.2 (Fontaine, Traité, p. 301).
193 Isidore, DNR 38.1 (Fontaine, Traité, p. 299).
194 Isidore, DNR 39.1 (Fontaine, Traité, p. 303); Etym. 4.6.17.
195 in aere, G2Sg; aere, Giles, Migne, Jones.
196 See ch. 32 above.
197 Ps.-Isidore, DOC 9.1-4 (Díaz y Díaz, pp. 146–48; PL 83, 935–36).
ON THE NATURE OF THINGS
39. The Ocean's Tide The ocean's tide follows the moon, as if it is forced out by its exhalation and flows back when its impulse is withdrawn.198 It is seen to flow and ebb twice daily, always with a delay of 3/4 plus 1/24 of one hour,199 and its whole course is divided into 'ledones' and 'malinae', that is, into lesser tides and greater tides.200 The lesser tide, beginning from the fifth and from the twentieth day of the moon, flows in /225/ as many hours as it flows out.
But the greater tide, beginning from the thirteenth and from the twentyeighth day of the moon, which is swifter in flood and slower in ebb, goes on for seven days and twelve hours. It always exhibits the first and the fifteenth day of the moon in its middle,201 and it surges up more strongly than usual at the equinoxes and the solstices.202 And every eight years at a very precise203 revolution of the moon the tides are brought back to the beginnings of their motion and to the same increases.204 When the moon holds a northerly course, the tides are always gentler than when, having deviated to the south, it exerts its power by a nearer course.205
40. Why the Sea Does Not Grow in Size Because the sea is not increased by the inflow of rivers, they say that the fresh flow206 is naturally consumed by the salt waters, or that it is carried off
/226/ by the winds or by the heat of the sun, as we prove in lakes and ponds that are dried up in a brief period of time, or even that it reflows by a hidden passage into their own springs and runs back by the usual way through their own streams.207 But fresh waters flow above sea waters, because they are lighter; the latter certainly, being of a heavier nature, better sustain the waters poured over them.208
198 Isidore, DNR 40.1 (Fontaine, Traité, p. 307).
199 I.e., the tide is retarded 19/24 of an hour or 47½ minutes per day. Bede takes this figure from Pliny, NH 2.11.58 (see ch. 20, above), although Pliny does not apply it to the tides. In DTR 29, Bede gives the figure of four puncti or 48 minutes.
200 The ledones and the malinae are the tides over a period of a week straddling the neap tide and the spring tide, respectively. See Wallis, The Reckoning of Time, p. 309.
201 Ps.-Isidore, DOC 9.4-5 (Díaz y Díaz, p. 148; PL 83, 936).
202 Ps.-Isidore, DOC 9.7 (Díaz y Díaz, p. 150; PL 83, 937); cf. Pliny, NH 2.99.215: but Pliny asserts that the tides are weak (inanes) at the solstices, and in DTR 29 Bede follows Pliny.
203 certissimo, Giles, Migne, Jones; centesimo, Pliny (NH 2.99.215).
204 See Commentary.
205 Pliny, NH 2.99.215.
206 fluentum, Isidore, Giles, Migne, GMSg; fluentem, Jones.
207 Isidore, DNR 41.1-2 (Fontaine, Traité, pp. 309–11).
208 Pliny, NH 2.105.224.
BEDE: ON THE NATURE OF THINGS AND ON TIMES
41. Why It Is Bitter They say that the sea, which is watered by so many rivers and rains, remains salty, because,209 after the fresh and clear water has been drawn out by the sun, whose fiery power attracts it very easily, the whole sea is left denser and more bitter, and therefore the surface water of the seas is fresher than the depths.210
But it is said that the nutriment of the moon is in fresh waters just as that of the sun is in the sea.211
42. The Red Sea The Red Sea takes its name from the rosy colour, which nevertheless it does not naturally have. But it is tinged by its neighboring shores, which are ruddy, with the colour of blood. And therefore red lead and other pigments used in paintings are gathered from there, and red gems. Moreover, the Red
Sea is divided into two gulfs. Of these the Persian trends to the north, while the Arabian,212 which is 115 miles distant from the Egyptian Sea,213 trends to the west. /227/ 43. The Nile The Nile River, which arises between the East and the South, is utilized in place of rains by Egypt, where heavy rains and rain clouds are repelled by the heat of the sun. For in the month of May its mouths through which it flows into the sea are blocked by the wind blowing from the West which heaps up the sand and holds back the waters. At this time, gradually swelling and propelled backwards, the Nile irrigates the plains of Egypt. But when the wind ceases and the accumulation of sand is burst through, the river is restored to its channel.214
209 Isidore, DNR 42.1 (Fontaine, Traité, p. 311).
210 Pliny, NH 2.103.222.
211 Pliny, NH 2.104.223. 'Nutriment' (alimentum) refers to Pliny's description of the sun's and the moon's power to suck water in or out of the sea or land.
212 Isidore, Etym. 13.17.2-5. Isidore earlier identifies the Arabian Gulf with the Red Sea
(13.17.1). He seems to confuse the two gulfs at the head of the Red Sea (modern: 'Gulf of Suez' and 'Gulf of Aqaba') with the Red Sea thought of as a gulf and the Persian Gulf. Bede's
Arabian Gulf is certainly the Gulf of Suez, which is roughly 100 miles from the Mediterranean. His Persian Gulf would logically have to be the Gulf of Aqaba, although he may have been as confused as Isidore about the difference between the Gulf of Aqaba and the (modern)
Persian Gulf.
213 Pliny, NH 2.68.173.
214 Isidore, DNR 43.1-2 (Fontaine, Traité, p. 313); cf. Lucretius, DRN 6.712-28 (Lucretius
ON THE NATURE OF THINGS
44. That the Earth Is Bound by Waters The Creator encircled the globe around the middle with water, which inclined toward the centre of the earth from every direction and labouring toward the interior could not fall off. In consequence, since the parched and thirsty earth was unable to cohere on its own and without moisture, and the waters in turn were unable to remain without the sustaining earth, they were joined in a mutual embrace, with the one opening her bosom and the other permeating the whole, within, without, above, below, by means of veins running throughout like bonds, and even bursting out in the highest mountain ranges.215
45. The Position of the Earth The earth is fixed on its own foundation. The deep like a /228/ garment is its clothing.216 For just as the abode of fires is only in fire, of waters only in water, of air only in air, so the place of the earth is only in itself, with everything else enclosing it. Nature contains it and denies it any place to fall.217
Situated in the centre or pivot of the world, the earth, being heaviest,218 holds the lowest and central place in creation, since water, air, and fire as it were by the levity of their nature and likewise by their situation rank above it.
46. That the Earth Is Like a Globe We say 'the sphere' of the earth, not because it has the shape of a perfect sphere, in view of so great a disparity of mountains and plains, but because, if all of its perpendicular lines219 were enclosed within a circumference, it would make the figure of a perfect sphere.220 And therefore it happens that the stars of the northern region always appear to us, but never those of the southern region; and in turn these northern stars are not seen by those people, because they are blocked by the globe of the earth. The country of the Troglodytes221 and neighbouring Egypt do not see the Great and Little was unknown to Bede [see Appendix 4], but this is a particularly interesting place to trace the flow of information from antiquity to the early Middle Ages).
215 Pliny, NH 2.65.165-66.166.
216 Ps. 103:5-6 (104:5-6).
217 Pliny, NH 2.65.162.
218 grauissima, GMSg, Migne; gratissima, Giles, Jones.
219 'I.e. imaginary radii drawn from the centre to the topmost point of each protuberance on the earth's surface'. H. Rackham, ed., Pliny, NH, LCL, vol. 1, p. 294 (note).
220 Pliny, NH 2.64.160.
221 I.e., Ethiopia.
BEDE: ON THE NATURE OF THINGS AND ON TIMES
Bear, nor does Italy see Canopus.222 [ … ,] although a part of this same sphere greater by nearly a half from east to /229/ west than from south to north is inhabited, since heat prevents access southward and cold northward.223
47. The Circles of the Earth The earth is divided by eight circles224 in accordance with the variation in the length of the days. The first circle stretches from the southern part of India through the neighbouring peoples of the Red Sea and the maritime shores of Africa to the Pillars of Hercules. At this latitude at noon on the day of the equinox a gnomon of seven feet casts a shadow four feet long, whereas the longest day has 14 equinoctial hours.225
The second goes from the west of India through the Medes226 and the Persians, Arabia, Syria, Cyprus, Crete, Lilybaeum.227 It also borders on the northern parts of Africa. A gnomon of 35 feet at the equinox makes a shadow
23 feet228 long, whereas the longest day has 14 and 2/5 hours.229
The third arises from the part of India nearest to the Imaus.230 It extends through the Caspian Gates,231 the Taurus,232 Pamphylia, Rhodes, the Cyclades, Syracuse, Catania,233 and Cadiz234; [a gnomon of a 100 inches235
222 Pliny, NH 2.71.177-78.
223 The apparent lack of concord between this and the preceding clause suggests the possibility of scribal omission, although no manuscript evidence for this has been discovered to date.
224 I.e., parallels of latitude.
225 Pliny, NH 6.39.212. The figures in the last sentence correspond roughly to 30°N (a gnomon/shadow ratio of 7:4 = 29°45'N [for more on the gnomon/shadow ratio, see below, p.
101, n. 266]; Maximum Daylight [MDL] of 14 hours occurs at 30°49'N). However, the Strait of Gibraltar (Pillars of Hercules) is approximately 36° N. The Mediterranean coast of Africa varies from about 30° to 36° N. Most of modern India and all of the Red Sea are south of 30°
N. An equinoctial hour is 1/24 of the day.
226 Where Bede has per Medos, Pliny reads per medios Parthos.
227 A town and promontory on the western coast of Sicily (modern Marsala) at 37°48'N.
228 xxiii, Bede; xxiiii, Pliny.
229 Pliny, NH 6.39.213. A gnomon/shadow ratio of 35:23 (Bede) = 33°19'N; a gnomon/ shadow ratio of 35:24 (Pliny) = 34°27'N; MDL of 14 hours, 24 minutes occurs at 35°28'N.
230 A western range of the Himalayas between the Caspian Sea and the Ganges.
231 A pass on the west coast of the Caspian Sea at 42° N.
232 A high mountain range in southern Turkey.
233 Both Syracuse and Catania are on the east coast of Sicily – Syracuse at 37°04'N and Catania at 37°31'N.
234 At 36°32'N.
235 c unciae, Pliny; cunctae, Bede.
ON THE NATURE OF THINGS
/230/ casts a shadow of 77 inches,]236 while the longest day has 14 and 1/2 hours, plus 1/30 of an hour.237
The fourth extends from the other slope of the Imaus through Ephesus,238 the sea of the Cyclades,239 the northern parts of Sicily, the eastern parts of Narbonese Gaul, and the maritime parts of Africa240 to the west; a gnomon of 21 feet has corresponding shadows of 16 feet, while the longest day has
14 and 2/3 hours.241
In the fifth circle from the entrance of the Caspian Sea242 are contained the Bactrians,243 Armenia, Macedonia, Taranto,244 the Etrurian Sea, the Baleares, and the middle of Spain.245 A gnomon of seven feet corresponds to shadows of six. The longest day has 15 hours.246
The sixth circle includes the Caspian peoples, the Caucasus, Samothrace, the Illyrians, Campania, Etruria, Marseille,247 the middle of the province of Tarragona in Spain; and from there it extends through Portugal.248 A gnomon of nine feet makes a shadow of eight. The longest day has 15 and 1/9 hours.249
236 lxxuii, Pliny; xxxuiii, Bede. Our translation of the bracketed clause follows Pliny.
The readings cunctae and xxxuiii in the received text of Bede make no apparent sense. The misreading cunctae for c unciae suggests that it is a copyist's error at an early stage of transmission. Roman numerals are notoriously unstable. We note that the St-Gall MSS G and Sg both read uiii for xxxuiii, with signs of erasure before the first numeral.
237 Pliny, NH 6.39.214. A gnomon/shadow ratio of 100:77 = 37°36'N; MDL of 14 hours,
32 minutes occurs at 36°53'N.
238 At 37°55'N.
239 Where Bede has mare Cicladum, Pliny reads Icarium mare, Cycladum.
240 Where Bede has Africae maritima … ad occasum, Pliny reads Hispaniae maritima a Carthagine Noua et inde ad occasum. It seems unlikely that Bede could have been responsible for substituting Africa for Spain at this point after stating above that the second parallel 'borders on the northern parts of Africa'.
241 Pliny, NH 6.39.215. A gnomon/shadow ratio of 21:16 = 37°19'N; MDL of 14 hours,
40 minutes occurs at 38°15'N.
242 This is very vague. Possibly Pliny refers to the westernmost extension of the Caspian sea at roughly 44°30'N.
243 Bactri, EMSg; Bactrii, Jones; Bactria, Pliny. Bactria was a region in what is now northern Afghanistan.
244 At 40°28'N.
245 Reading Hispania media with Pliny; Jones (following Giles and Migne) prints Hispania
Media.
246 Pliny, NH 6.39.216. A gnomon/shadow ratio of 7:6 = 40°36'N; MDL of 15 hours occurs at 41°25'N.
247 At 43°18'N.
248 Lusitaniam, AGNSg, Giles, Migne, Pliny; Lusianam, Jones.
249 Pliny, NH 6.39.217. A gnomon/shadow ratio of 9:8 = 41°38'N (this, as Bede tells us
BEDE: ON THE NATURE OF THINGS AND ON TIMES
The seventh circle begins from the other shore of the Caspian Sea,250 and goes through the remoter parts of Thrace, Venice, Cremona, Ravenna,251
Transalpine Gaul, the Pyrenees, and Celtiberia.252 A gnomon of 35 feet makes 36 feet of shadow, while the longest day has 15 and 3/5 hours.253
The eighth extends from the river Don through Lake Maeotis254 and the country of the Sarmatae, the Dacians and part of Germany, and the provinces of Gaul. The longest day has 16 hours.255
The ancients put two circles before these: one extends through the Isle of Meroë256 and the city Ptolemaida on the Red Sea,257 where the longest day has 12½ hours258; /231/ the other extends through Syene259 in Egypt, where the day has 13 hours.260 And they put two circles after: the first through the Hyperboreans261 and Britain with a longest day of 17 hours262; the other the Scythian circle, from the Rhiphaean mountain ranges263 to Thule, in which the days are continued without interruption and alternately the nights.264 in the next chapter, is the gnomon/shadow ratio of Rome); MDL of 15 hours, 6 2/3 minutes occurs at 42°24'N.
250 The northern shore of the Caspian Sea, if this is what is meant, reaches 47° N.
251 Venice, Cremona, and Ravenna are at 45°26'N, 45°08'N, and 44°25'N, respectively.
252 A region in Spain between the Tagus and the Ebro rivers.
253 Pliny, NH 6.39.218-19. A gnomon/shadow ratio of 35:36 = 45°49'N; MDL of 15 hours,
36 minutes occurs at 46°18'N.
254 The Sea of Azov.
255 MDL of 16 hours occurs at 49°03'N.
256 The Isle of Meroë (insula Meroë) was a region of the ancient kingdom of Meroë
(northern Sudan). The region was south of the city of Meroë, which was at 16°54'N. However, both Pliny and Bede understand this to be an island in the Nile (see On Times 48: below, p.
101). Bede gives the MDL of the city of Meroë as 12 hours, 53 minutes (see On Times 7: below, pp. 110–11).
257 Pliny states that Ptolemaida was built for the purpose of hunting elephants; Bede makes it a city.
258 MDL of 12½ hours occurs at 8°34'N.
259 The modern city of Aswan at 24°05'N.
260 MDL of 13 hours occurs at 16°44'N.
261 A mythical northern people; Isidore, Etym. 14.8.7, speaks of the Hyperborean mountains of Scythia.
262 MDL of 17 hours occurs at 54°31'N. As it happens, Bede's monastery of Jarrow was located at 54°59'N, where the MDL is 17 hours, six minutes. See On Times 7 (below, p. 111 and n. 30).
263 Imaginary mountains of northern Scythia.
264 Pliny, NH 6.39.219-20. For Thule, see On Times 7 (below, p. 111) and Commentary on On Times 7 (below, pp. 170–71).
ON THE NATURE OF THINGS
48. More on the Same Subject: the Art of Using Sundials At midday in Egypt on the day of the equinox, the pin of a sundial, which is called a gnomon,265 casts a shadow a little more than half the length of the gnomon. In the city of Rome the shadow is shorter than the gnomon by one-ninth. In the town of Ancona the 35th part of the gnomon remains [when compared with its shadow]. In the part of Italy which is called the Veneto the shadow is equal to the gnomon at these same hours.266
Likewise it is said that at Syene five thousand stades beyond Alexandria267 /232/ no shadow is cast at noon on the day of the summer solstice.
The same is also true in India beyond the river Hyphasis.268 And they say that among the Troglodytes269 this happens on the 45th day before and after the solstice with shadows being cast to the south during the 90 days in the middle. But also [they say that] in Meroë, an island of the Nile, five thousand stades from Syene, shadows vanish twice in the year, when the sun occupies the 18th degree of Taurus and the 14th of Leo.270
49. Earthquake They say that an earthquake is caused by the wind, which, having been shut up in the earth's cavernous sponge-like innards, rushes through them with a terrifying roar, and labouring to escape, shudders violently with varied rumblings, and endeavours to discharge itself by shaking open a gap.271
Hence hollows in the earth are associated with these quakes, seeing that they have the capacity for wind, but sandy and solid places lack it.272 For 265 gnomonem, Giles, Migne; gnomon, AN; gnomen, Jones.
266 Pliny, NH 2.74.182. I.e., the gnomon/shadow ratio in Egypt is 2:1; in Rome, 9:8; in Ancona, 35:34; in the Veneto, 1:1. That is, according to these figures (tangents of 2/1, 9/8,
35/34), the sun's height above the horizon at noon on the day of the equinox in Egypt would be 63°26'; in Rome, 48°21'; in Ancona, 45°49'; in the Veneto, 45°. These heights correspond to latitudes of 26°34'N for Egypt; 41°39'N for Rome (actual 41°53'N); 44°11'N for Ancona
(actual 43°37'N); and 45° for the Veneto.
267 simili modo [tradunt in siene, added in second hand] quod est supra alexandriam, Sg,
Pliny; Sieni oppido quod est [altered from quidem] supra Alexandriam, G; Simili modo quod est supra Alexandriam, Jones; Simili quidem modo est super Alexandriam, Giles, Migne. I.e., roughly 625 miles south of Alexandria. As noted above, Syene (Aswan) is at 24°05'N, just a few miles north of the Tropic of Cancer at 23°27'N.
268 Modern Beas. In fact the Beas flows into the river Sutlej at roughly 29° N, considerably north of the Tropic of Cancer.
269 A people of Ethiopia.
270 Pliny, NH 2.75.183-84. Bede would have understand the 18th degree of Taurus to be 4
May and the 14th of Leo to be 31 July (see Wallis, The Reckoning of Time, Appendix 1).
271 Isidore, DNR 46.1 (Fontaine, Traité, p. 319).
272 Isidore, DNR 46.3 (Fontaine, Traité, p. 321).
BEDE: ON THE NATURE OF THINGS AND ON TIMES
earthquakes do not occur except when the sky and the sea are calm and the wind is hidden in the veins of the earth; and what is thunder in a cloud is an earthquake on earth, and what is a bolt of lightning in a cloud is a fissure on earth.273 Earthquakes are also accompanied by inundations of the sea, which is evidently infused with the same wind or drawn in by the depression as the earth subsides.274 /233/ 50. The Fire of Mount Etna The land of Sicily, which is full of hollow places and strewn with sulphur and bitumen, lies almost wholly open to winds and fires. As wind contends with fire within, it often belches forth smoke or vapours or flames from many places. And when the wind exerts greater pressure, it will even throw up a mass of sands or stones.
This is why the very long lasting fire of Mount Etna endures like the fires of hell. They say this fire is nourished by the waves of the Aeolian Islands,275 as the tumult of waters taking the air down with itself into the deepest depths gasps for a long time, until, having been diffused through the veins of the earth, it ignites the kindling materials of fire. Hence, when sailors in the distance are terrified by the low roaring of the waves, which the heaving of the sea batters with a sucking whirlpool, the dogs of Scylla are fabled to be barking.276
51. The Division of the Earth The whole circle of lands,277 girded by the Ocean, is divided into three parts:
Europe, Asia, and Africa. It takes its starting-point from the West and the Straits of Cadiz,278 where the Atlantic Ocean bursting in floods into the interior seas. For one entering from this direction, Africa is on the right, and Europe is /234/ on the left. Asia is between them, and is comparable in 273 Pliny, NH 2.81.192.
274 Pliny, NH 2.86.200. residentis, Bede; terrae sidentis, Pliny. Although Bede's abbreviated language can be understood, Pliny's phrase makes the meaning transparent and clearly underlies residentis (wherever the corruption occurred).
275 The Lipari Islands, off the north coast of Sicily.
276 Isidore, DNR 47.1-3 (Fontaine, Traité, p. 321–23).
277 The orbis terrarum, the 'circle of lands', is the classical term for the earth. Pliny probably means nothing more by it than the world. Bede, however, must understand it more literally as referring the three continents arranged in the shape of a disc, because he is quite clear that the earth is a sphere and because he adds the qualification that the circle of lands is surrounded by the ocean.
278 The Straits of Gibraltar.
ON THE NATURE OF THINGS
size to the other two taken together. Its boundaries are the rivers Don and Nile. The Straits of the Ocean [i.e., of Gibraltar], which we have mentioned, extend 15 miles in length, and five in width.279
Therefore Europe is spread out from the West to the North, and Asia from the North through the East as far as the South, and from there Africa is spread out from the South as far as the West.280
HERE ENDS THE BOOK OF THE NATURE OF THINGS
279 Pliny, NH 3.1.3. The Straits are about eight miles wide at their narrowest point.
280 Isidore, DNR 48.2 (Fontaine, Traité, p. 325); Etym. 14.2.2; Augustine, DCD 16.17.
Augustine and Isidore, unlike Bede, give these directions in counter-clockwise order.