Full text: Vitruvius: The architecture of Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, in ten books

phin, and near them Sagitta. On the side is the Swan, 
the right wing of which is turned towards the hand and 
sceptre of Cepheus, the left leans on Cassiopeia, and un¬ 
der the tail of Avis the feet of the horse are hidden. 
Above Sagittarius, Scorpio, and Libra, comes the Serpent, 
the point of whose snout touches the Crown ; in the mid¬ 
dle of the Serpent is Ophiuchus, who holds the Serpent in 
his hands, and with his left foot treads on the head of the 
Scorpion. Near the middle of the head of Ophiuchus is 
the head of the Kneeler ; their heads are easily distin- 
guished from being marked with luminous stars. The 
foot of the Kneéler is placed on the temple of the Ser¬ 
pent, which is entwined between the two northern bears, 
called Septentriones. The Dolphin is a short distance 
from them. Opposite the bill of the Swan is the Lyre. 
The Crown lies between the shoulders of the Keeper and 
the Kneeler. In the northern circle are twvo Bears, with 
their shoulders and breasts in opposite directions; of 
these the Less is called g, and the Larger in 
by the Greeks. Their heads are turned downwards, and 
each of their tails is towards the other's head, for both 
their tails are raised, and that which is called the pole¬ 
star, is that near the tail of the Little Bear. Between 
these tails, as we have before stated, extends the Serpent, 
who turns round the head of that nearest to him, 
whence he takes a folding direction round the head of the 
smaller bear, and then spreading under his feet, and 
rising up, returns and folds from the head of the Less 
to the Greater Bear, with his snout opposite and shew- 
ing the right temple of his head. The feet of Ce¬ 
pheus are also on the tail of the Small Bear ; towards 
which part more above our heads, are the stars which
	        
Waiting...

Note to user

Dear user,

In response to current developments in the web technology used by the Goobi viewer, the software no longer supports your browser.

Please use one of the following browsers to display this page correctly.

Thank you.

powered by Goobi viewer