N00277:211
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.
It was seen first in Libra, moving towards the North with some inclination Westward, viz. through the midst of Libra and Boots, when it came there it might be seen all the night long. The body of the Comet was to appearance bigger then a Star of the first magnitude, and would sometimes seem to twinkle. Wendeline, Cusatus and others that viewed it with a Telescope, did to their admiration observe a little Nut or Star in the body of this Comet; after that it was broken into three Stars like Coals of fire in a flaming Oven, after that into a multitude of little Stars which could not be numbered because they would sometimes sparkle out, and otherwhile abscond from the eye. The blaze was narrow near the Star, but broad at a distance from it. At its first appearance it bended like a Bow, but afterwards it appeared straight. The Colour of the Blaze near the Star was red and fiery, but towards the end of it white and pale, very much resembling the Via Lactea. December 21. the visible Longitude of •he blaze was 22 Degrees, December 8. it was 58 Degrees, Decemb. 9 it was 75. Degrees in length. Longomontanus saith that once the Blaze was extended one hundred & four degrees ⟨p. 110⟩in length; and that as for its distance from the Earth it was four times as high as the Moon, viz. 240 S.T. Before it was extinct it had a less Parallax then the Sun, and therefore was above it. The true length of the blaze was beyond that of its distance from the Earth no less then 445 S.T. so that • man going forty miles every day would not in an hundred years go so far as that blaze extended. He might sooner go round the whole Earth seventy times over, then once go over the extent of that formidable blaze. Remarkable Events, attending these Comets, were, the death of the Emperor and Empress. A drought all that Winter; An Earth-quake (which happened on the day when the first of these Comets appeared) in Italy removed a Mountain which fell upon the Town of Plours, whereby an 1500. persons were crushed to death in a moment. But the great and fatal consequent of this Prodigy, was, the Bohemic and Germanic War, in which Rivers of Blood were poured forth. No less th•n six (some say eight) hundred thousand lives being cut off by the devouring mouth of the Sword. And the Prince Palatine, King of Bohemia dispossessed of his hereditary Estate, forced to fly for his life, and his Country made a desolation.