Castellum Montanum - Copernican Universal Map

The Pre – Copernican Universal Map
By Toni Sargent (Daracha Johnston)

Christian Aristotelian Cosmos. From Peter Apian, Cosmographia (1524)

The map of the universe in the Middle Ages had a lot more to do with religion than science. Due to this, you will see that it was divided into sections, “heavens” where certain aspects of the universe resided. The first sphere is shown as “Coelvm Empirevm Habitacvlvm dei Et Omnivm Electorvm” or “The Empyreal Heaven, the Habitations of God and of all the Elect”, the non-moving seat of God and the nine types of Angels.

The Heavens were all thought to rotate inside the Empyreal Heaven in a uniform, clockwise or anti-clockwise direction, at an unchanging pace.

The Tenth Heaven, “PrimúMobile” the Prime Mover, has a 24 hour clockwise rotation. This sphere controlled all motions of the other heavens. The Ninth Heaven is referred to as “Cristallinúm” or “Crystalline Sphere”, the Eighth as “Firmamentú” or the “Firmament”.

Next came the seven minor heavens, all rotating in an anti-clockwise direction and each containing it’s own planet: “ Satvrni” Saturn (30 yr rotation), “Iovis” Jupiter (12 yrs), “Martis” Mars (2 yrs), “Solis” Sun, aka King of the Planets (1 yr), “Veneris” Venus (224 days), “Mercvrii” Mercury (88 days), “Lunć” Moon (27 days)

The Earth was considered the center of the Universe, a globe that was smaller than all save the moon. It sat stationary, being made of the four elements; first Earth, then Water, Air and lastly Fire. In the depths of the center of the Earth one could find the realm of “Hell”.

Each element on Earth was thought to have two components as such; Earth: Cold and Dry; Water: Cold and Moist; Air: Hot and Moist; Fire: Hot and Dry. If an element changed one or both of these components, it would transform into the corresponding element. The heavier the element was (eg. stones = earth), the closer it was to the center of the universe, thus creating the order in which the elements were found. Unlike the Earth, the Heavens had one element; aether or quintessence (the fifth element).

Astrologists soon found that the planets did not actually conform to the diagram, they moved all over the sky, not in a true uniform way as previously thought. Copernicus made new innovative changes to the map of the universe, one of these changes being the Sun as the center, thus taking astrologists a closer step to our understanding of the universe today.

Bibliography

http://www.ajdrake.com/teachers/teaching/guides/brit_med_ren/ptolemaic_system.htm http://web.uvic.ca/shakespeare/Library/SLT/ideas/spheres.html http:// es.rice.edu/ES/humsoc/Galileo/Things/ptolemaic_system.html http://www.admin.northpark.edu/dkoeller/Classes/Sources/Ptolemaic.html http://www.its.caltech.edu/ ~winter/unilab/module0150/introduce.html http://www.aug.edu/langlitcom/humanitiesHBK/handbook_htm/ptolemaic_system.htm
Chivalry, Readers Union Phoenix House, London 1966. Originally in French by Leon Gautier 1896. Translated by D.C. Dunning.

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