N00277:200
Kometographia. Or A discourse concerning comets; wherein the nature of blazing stars is enquired…
Kometographia. Or A discourse concerning comets; wherein the nature of blazing stars is enquired into: with an historical account of all the comets which have appeared from the beginning of the world unto this present year, M.DC.LXXXIII. : Expressing the place in the heavens, where they were seen, their motion, forms, duration; and the remarkable events which have followed in the world, so far as they have been by learned men observed. : As also two sermons occasioned by the late blazing stars. / By Mr. Increase Mather, teacher of a church at Boston in New-England. ; [Three lines of Scripture texts]Kometographia. Or A discourse concerning comets; wherein the nature of blazing stars is enquired into: with an historical account of all the comets which have appeared from the beginning of the world unto this present year, M.DC.LXXXIII. : Expressing the place in the heavens, where they were seen, their motion, forms, duration; and the remarkable events which have followed in the world, so far as thay have been by learned men observed. : As also two sermons occasioned by the late blazing stars. / By Mr. Increase Mather, teacher of a church at Boston in New-England. ; [Three lines of Scripture texts]
printed by S.G. for S.S. i.e, 1683
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
A. D. 1577. This year a notable blazing Star amazed the World for three Months together. Those famous Mathematicians Michael Mastlin, Cornelius Gemma, and Tycho Brahe, have written ⟨p. 102⟩largely and learnedly concerning that Comet. It was seen first on the ninth of November, in the beginning of Capricorn, passing through that sign and Aquarius, to the midst of Pisces. The Star was equal to Venus in magnitude, being a compact solid body▪ and like a little Moon, shining as the purest Silver. The stream differed in colour from the Star, for it was red and fiery, in breadth five Degrees, and in length thirty. Towards the body of the Star, the rays were more condensed, but the longer they were distended they appeared to be more scattered and diffused abroad, which argued that the Stream was procreated by some external light penetrating through the body of the Star; and it was observed to be opposite to the Sun, yet so as that the form of it was bending like a Bow, whose convexity was towards the Zenith, and concavity towards the Horizon. Both Gemma and Tycho found that this Comet was higher then the Moon. According to Tycho's observation, the true Diameter of the Star was 368. Mill. Germ. so that its proportion to the Earth was as 3 to 14. The Longitude of the Comets tail he found to be 96 Semidiameters of the Earth. He concluded it was not in the Airy but in the Ethereal World, because it did admit of no sensible Parallax. On November 10. the Parallax was 19 12 which was diminished every day until it came to two minutes, and that was a demonstration that the ⟨p. 103⟩Comet ascended higher and higher. At the first it was distant from the Earth 173 Semidiameters, but at last 1733. h. e. it ascended as high as the Sun it self. As for Events, the King of Persia died by poison. The great Turk was slain in Battle, and seventy thousand with him. The King of Portugal would needs venture into Mauritaniae that so he might restore Mahomed to the Kingdom which his Uncle Abdelmeleck had detruded him from; in that memorable Battle the King of Portugal was slain, and the greatest part of the Nobility with him. Abdelmeleck though he obtained a victory died that day of an Apoplexy. Mahomed was drowned in the Marshes, so that three Kings lost their lives in one day.
A. D. 1577. This year a notable blazing Star amazed the VVorld for three Moneths together. Those famous Mathematicians Michael Mastlin, Cornelius Gemma, and Tycho Brahe, have written