THE POWER OF DIAGRAMS: THE PLACE OF THE

ANONYMOUS COMMENTARY IN THE DEVELOPMENT

OF CAROLINGIAN ASTRONOMY AND COSMOLOGY
Bruce S. Eastwood

hat might Carolingian astronomy and cosmology look like, if Martianus

Capellas Book VIII (on astronomy) had received no commentary?
How much would be missing from the narrative and problematics of
these Carolingian subjects in the absence of the Anonymous Commentary?
In some ways the unglossed text of Martianuss work could have sufficed for
scholars and students. But the enrichment of the text by the commentary was and
is immediately obvious, and it inspired and provided content for two further
Carolingian commentaries, those of John the Scot and Remigius of Auxerre. Two
distinctive attributes are clear. First, the Anonymous Commentary (AC) was
a work of textual analysis and interpretation, not theoretical or observational
science. Second, AC aroused greater interest in the power of astronomical diagrams to describe and explain celestial events. In conjunction with AC, Capellas
work was the most authoritative astronomy of the ninth century.
AC built not only upon the text of Martianus but also on scientific texts
already known and studied before De nuptiis was widely read. These included
Isidores Etymologies, Bedes De temporum ratione, the works De natura rerum of
Isidore and Bede, the Seven Book Computus (from the computus of 809), Plinys
Natural History, Macrobiuss Commentary on Scipios Dream, and various Latin
forms and descendants of Aratuss Phaenomena.1 AC not only drew from this

Sources used for astronomy by Carolingian scholars are surveyed in Bruce S. Eastwood,
Ordering the Heavens: Roman Astronomy and Cosmology in the Carolingian Renaissance (Leiden:
Brill, 2007), pp. 129 (pp. 1529).

194

Bruce S. Eastwood

spectrum of texts but also added to it substantially and methodologically. Substantially, we can point to the most famous doctrine of Capellan astronomy, the
epicyclic paths of Mercury and Venus around the Sun, which AC problematized
by offering three different forms of circumsolar orbit for the two inner planets.
Methodologically, AC used dialectical arguments to sharpen the readers awareness of certain details of Capellan doctrines. And AC introduced astronomical
diagrams in a more inventive spirit than we find in the background works mentioned above. Let us look, then, with some care at the contributions of AC to
ninth-century astronomy and cosmology.2
We begin with the important manuscript witnesses to different forms of
AC. There were two early, basic versions of the commentary. They appeared
before midcentury and before the Annotationes in Marcianum (c. 850) of John
the Scot.3 The earlier version is found in two different forms in the Vossianus
(Leiden, Universiteitsbibliotheek, Vossianus Latinus Folio 48 (VLF 48)) and the
Besanon, Bibliothque municipale, MS 594 (B). The second version appears
in two identical forms in Leiden, Universiteitsbibliotheek, MS BPL 88 (Lb),
and Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Reg. lat. 1987 (Va). Other
Carolingian manuscripts use material from one or both of these two versions,
and one notable manuscript, Paris, Bibliothque nationale de France (BnF), lat.
13955, carries a glossed copy (s. ix2) of Book VIII alone, apart from the rest of
De nuptiis. The manuscripts of the first and second versions of AC include a novel
addition to the work of Martianus Capella astronomical diagrams, which are
used subsequently by other commentators on the text.
The astronomy and cosmology of De nuptiis are readily accessible for modern
scholars through the well-known Teubner edition of James Willis as well as the
serviceable translation by William H. Stahl. We can now add to these the lengthy
summary with analysis of major parts of both the text and the commentaries in my
2

A lengthy chapter in Eastwood, Ordering, pp. 179311, discusses De nuptiis, Book VIII, and
its Carolingian commentaries with special attention to the Anonymous Commentary (AC) and
its influences. Sixteen photographs of diagrams in the AC are included.
3
Iohannis Scotti Annotationes in Marcianum, ed. by Cora E. Lutz, Medieval Academy of
America, 34 (Cambridge: Medieval Academy of America, 1939) (all citations of this text refer to
this edition, hereafter cited as Annotationes), based on the single manuscript Paris, Bibliothque
nationale de France (BnF), MS lat. 12960 (Pd), presents Johns commentary on Book VIII at pp.
16585. Further commentary by John on De nuptiis is preserved for Book I alone, where some
astronomical and cosmological matter appears. For this, see douard Jeauneau, Quatre thmes
rigniens (Montral: Institut dtudes mdivales Albert-le-Grand, 1978), pp. 91166, edited
from Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Auct. T. 2. 19, fols 1r31v.

THE POWER OF DIAGRAMS

195

Ordering the Heavens. I shall not recount or summarize this large body of material
by Martianus, but we can benefit from closer attention to the kinds of focus paid
to the text by AC and later commentators.

Cosmology
An adequate view of basic cosmology according to De nuptiis requires reference
to Book VI (geometry, geography) as well as the first, cosmological part of Book
VIII. In the two together, AC highlighted five topics: the shape of Earth, the centrality of Earth, the location of the antipodes, the elements of the terrestrial and
celestial regions, and the five elemental layers of the cosmos.
Even before addressing these five topics we should notice that where Martianus
identified the general arrangement of the heavens and especially the 24-degree
inclination of the zodiac, through which the planets move, as a physical aid to the
stability of the cosmos, AC converted the Capellan argument from a cosmological
into a logical question. Martianus had said ( 853) that this angle of the zodiac to
the equator ensured that the individual planetary motions (limited to the band
of the zodiac) from west to east would not be directly contrary to the general
motion of all stars and planets from east to west on the axis of the equator. AC set
this up as a problem of contradictory statements and claimed that it would be
illogical for the proper planetary motions to threaten the stability of the cosmos.4

Martianus Capella, De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii, ed. by James Willis (Leipzig: Teubner,
1983), p. 323, 853) (hereafter cited as De nuptiis, by book and/or section number (whenever
book number is omitted, the citation refers to Book VIII), and/or page number from this edition):
where the daily westward motion of all stars and planets is contrasted to the specific eastward
motion of each planet and the supposed danger of contrary motions is avoided by placing them
at an angle to each other. When the Capellan text continues and refers to two different ways of
understanding the actual motions, AC changes the argument into a syllogism thus (VLF 48, fol.
79r, marginal gloss): Dicunt Peripatetici quod omne quod suis partibus constat contrariam sui
partem abere non potest. Mundi autem partes sunt planete, igitur contrarium cursum ei abere non
possunt. Omne quod est aut totum aut pars est. Si totum est suis partibus constat mundus, autem
totum est. Planete igitur partes mundi sunt, et si nulla pars sua contraria sibi non est, planete igitur
contraria mundus motu abere non possunt, obliqui moventur (The Peripatetics say that anything
that coheres in its parts cannot be separate from a part of itself. But planets are parts of the world,
and therefore they cannot diverge on a path contrary to the world. Anything that exists is either
a whole or a part. If it is a whole, the world holds together in its parts. But the whole is the planets,
therefore they are parts of the world, and if no part is contrary to itself, then the planets cannot
go against the world by a directly contrary motion. Therefore they are moved obliquely). (All

196

Bruce S. Eastwood

Turning to our first terrestrial topic above, the first version of AC emphasized
the shape of Earth by adding labelled, marginal images for a flat Earth and an
egg-shaped Earth (in modum ovi). Ambiguity in these images and some apparent
confusion for students led the second version of AC to revise the vocabulary so
that all reference to egg-shaped was replaced by the clearer and more specifically
geometrical spherical (spericam).5 Neither John the Scot nor Remigius of Auxerre
added anything beyond this clarification in their commentaries on the same passage of text.
With regard to the centrality of Earth in the cosmos, AC simply pointed out
the location of the argument in Martianuss text with a marginal index, Positio
terre, added by the second version.6 However, in dealing with the third topic, the
antipodes, the second version of AC took a big step away from the first version.
The first version reviewed the common classical doctrine that the region of the
antipodes, exactly opposite us (in the southern hemisphere) on Earth, is inhabited
just as our own part of the globe.7 While pagan Latin writers, for example, Pliny
and Macrobius, had no difficulty with such doctrine, Christian writers from
Augustine to Isidore and Bede opposed it vigorously, because the lands of the
southern hemisphere were believed to be unreachable from the Christian north
due to the great heat of the equatorial realm.8 To eliminate this difficulty, the
second version of AC made a very particular interpretation of Martianuss phrase
our antipodes as the antipodes close to us, which was then considered able to
mean the section of the northern hemisphere opposed to us.9 This cosmographical
translations of the gloss to Martianus in this article are mine.) See the online edition of the glosses
from VLF 48, Carolingian Scholarship and Martianus Capella: The Oldest Commentary Tradition,
ed. by Mariken Teeuwen and others, first digital edition (November 2008), <http://martianus
.huygens.knaw.nl/> [accessed September 2009], fol. 79r, gl. 67.
5
De nuptiis, 591, p. 207; VLF 48, fol. 54r margin; Lb, fol. 109v; Va, fol. 82r.
6
De nuptiis, 599601, p. 210; Lb, fol. 111r; Va, fol. 82v.
7
General information on this question appears in Eastwood, Ordering, pp. 5563; De nuptiis,
VI. 60206 (pp. 21112); AC, in VLF 48, fol. 55r.
8
Augustine, De civitate Dei, ed. by Bernardus Dombart and Alphonsus Kalb, CCSL, 48
(1955), XIV. 2 (p. 510); Augustine, The City of God against the Pagans, trans. by Robert W. Dyson
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), XVI. 9 (pp. 71011): Whether we are to believe
that there are antipodes on the underside of the earth, opposite our own dwelling place. See also
Isidore, Etymologiarum sive originum: Libri XX, ed. by W. M. Lindsay, 2 vols (Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 1911), IX. 2. 133; Bedae Venerabilis opera, pt VI. 2: Opera didascalica: De temporum ratione,
ed. by Charles W. Jones, CCSL, 123B (1977), chap. 34 (pp. 39091).
9
Lb, fol. 112r; Va, fol. 83v.

THE POWER OF DIAGRAMS

197

sleight of hand would seem to have been intended to avoid speculation about
human existence in the southern hemisphere, thus quieting any enquiry about
men who could not be reached by the Christian Gospel message. The commentators of the second version must have seen the ideological utility of this new
interpretation of antipodes for teaching younger students.
The fundamental physical elements of the cosmos were five according to
Martianus: earth, water, air, fire, and aether, and this is their ascending order. His
ethereal realm was the location of all planets and stars, what we would call the
celestial region as opposed to the terrestrial region of the other four elements.10
AC provided specific characteristics of certain elements. Above central Earth
all the elements circled in distinct, concentric layers, contrasted to the rectilinear
motion in terrestrial nature. (It seems that terrestrial proximity rather than a
distinct property of individual elements produced rectilinear as opposed to
circular motion in any element.)11 The outer ethereal element had the finest and
most refined parts, making it the most appropriate material for the enclosing firmament of the cosmos.12 When Martianus made Lady Astronomy allude to the
great length of time that the stars had been circling around, AC added that the
author was a Platonist and considered the world to be eternal.13 Here we see a
Carolingian source, AC, for the opinion that Martianus was a Platonist, and
this was probably John the Scots source for the same opinion expressed in his
commentary.14
The characteristics of the elements according to AC, building upon the
Capellan text, were as follows. Aether was not simply most tranquil of the
elements but was most subtle and therefore the outermost and farthest from
Earth. This subtlety (subtilitas), characterized also as relative fluidity, existed in
graded form in each of the fluid elements below the aether, that is, in fire, air, and
water, and could be observed in the common characteristic of wavelike motion
in all three of these. These gradations are not explained, but we may imagine
them in terms of Isidores ranges of three elemental qualities, viz., sharp/blunt,
mobile/immobile, and fine/solid. Only the element earth was immobile in

10

De nuptiis, 81415, pp. 30910.

VLF 48, fol. 76r (numerous interlinear glosses).
12
De nuptiis, 814, p. 309.
13
VLF 48, fol. 76r, gl. 33: Platonicus iste fuit et dixit mundum aeternaliter esse (He was a
Platonist and said the world exists eternally).
14
Annotationes, p. 22. 29.
11

198

Bruce S. Eastwood

Isidores scheme. All the fluids had a similar softness (mollicies) in their flow.15 If
this common attribute is unclear to moderns, it appears to have been a useful label
for Carolingian scholars and seems to have had no meaning more precise than
fluidity.
Looking forward to commentators after AC, we find that the cosmology
and cosmography of Martianus along with ACs clarifications received notable
modifications. On the physical stability of the cosmos due to the angle of ecliptic
and equator, John the Scot followed AC and improved the presentation of the
logical argument that AC had introduced. Nothing new was said with regard to
the shape of Earth. The spherical centrality of Earth was replaced by its centrality
on the plane of the ecliptic in John the Scots Annotationes. John seems to have
considered this a simplification of the argument, but it also excluded any discussion of weight in the position of Earth. Remigius of Auxerre adopted Johns
view.16 The location of the antipodes brought more comment. In the first version
of AC this location was simply the standard position, on the diametrically opposed quadrant of the terrestrial globe. Between the first and second versions of
AC a notion of two different meanings of antipodes entered into the discussion.
By the time of the second version, we find the idea of an inhabited antipodes that
was located in the same, northern climatic zone as the European audience but on
the opposite side of the northern hemisphere. John the Scot elaborated on this,
stating the standard geometrical meaning, placing the antipodes in the quadrant
opposed to us (Europeans), as well as the teaching of certain scholars who placed
our antipodes in our own northern hemisphere. John explained and recorded
both views and chose not to discredit either of them. Remigius copied Johns text
on this point.17
When AC came to the five separate elements, the first and the second version of AC each followed Martianus but clarified carefully the five elements in
hierarchical order from top to bottom: aether, fire, air, water, earth. AC also
transmitted the notion that in the upper, purer realms of aether and fire there is
no combustion of matter from fire, since the transient effects of fire emerge only
in the lower regions air and below.18 John, followed by Remigius, overthrew the
15

The mollicies of the fluid elements is noted in the interlinear gloss by AC in VLF 48, fol. 76r.
16
De nuptiis, VI. 599, p. 210; Annotationes, p. 141. 2124; Remigii Autissiodorensis Commentum in Martianum Capellam, ed. by Cora E. Lutz, 2 vols (Leiden: Brill, 196265), II (bks III
IX), 141. 36; all citations refer to vol. II of this edition, hereafter cited as Remigius, Commentum.
17
Annotationes, p. 143. 2233; Remigius, Commentum, p. 144. 313.
18
VLF 48, fol. 76r.

THE POWER OF DIAGRAMS

199

Capellan view of five elements and replaced it with the classical doctrine of four
elements while preserving the idea of five elemental regions. John retained the
view that the effects of fire do not occur in the region above air. He then introduced the late ancient view of St Augustine and Apuleius, among others, dividing
air into two regions, the upper and lower airs. He described the upper as pure
and associated with the superior elements, while the lower air was denser and
moister.19 Johns sources showed him that this lower, impure air was the proper
habitation for demons, fallen angels who pervaded the lower regions and interfered in the lives of human beings. For cosmology, in general we can see that AC
transmitted with only subtle modifications the cosmology of Martianus.

Astronomy
If the Carolingian tradition of the Anonymous Commentary made notable modifications to the cosmology of Martianus, ACs more strictly astronomical glosses
and comments reveal a much greater variety of information, including some truly
significant developments of the Capellan text. There is a wealth of substantial
comments by AC that were mostly adopted, occasionally omitted, but rarely contradicted by its Carolingian followers.
Examples of glosses among the common type in AC are: the concern for elaborating the vocabulary used for the circles on the celestial sphere, a detailed
explanation of the fractions in the rising and setting times of the signs, the shapes
and names of eclipse shadows, the names of lunar phases, reporting the Plinian
definitions of absis and other terms, and, finally, correcting (with the number
28) the imprecision of Capellas statement that Saturns orbital period is a little
less than 30 years.20 These and other glosses by AC are an index of the care for instructional use of Book VIII. Presumably of greater interest to mature scholars in
the Carolingian courts and schools were ACs presentation of novel information

19

Annotationes, p. 172; Remigius, Commentum, p. 252; Augustine, De Genesi ad litteram libri

duodecim, ed. by Paul Agasse and A. Solignac, Oeuvres de Saint Augustin, 48 (Paris: de Brouwer,
1972), III. 6. 8 (p. 222), III. 10. 14 (p. 232). Eastwood, Ordering, p. 207 n. 86.
20
These six examples appear as follows: the circles on the celestial sphere at De nuptiis, pp.
31015, and VLF 48, fols 76v77v; fractions in the rising and setting times at De nuptiis, pp.
31920, and VLF 48, fol 78v; shapes and names of eclipse shadows at De nuptiis, p. 325, and VLF
48, fol. 79v; names of lunar phases at De nuptiis, p. 327, and VLF 48, fol. 80r; Plinian absis and
other terms at De nuptiis, p. 335, and VLF 48, fol. 82r; adding precision to Saturns orbital period
at De nuptiis, p. 336, and VLF 48, fol. 82r.

200

Bruce S. Eastwood

from the Platonists about the paths of the inner planets as well as explaining and
drafting models of their epicyclic orbits. Similarly the use of an eccentric circle to
explain how the uniform motion of the Sun produces the appearance of varying
solar speed and the resulting different lengths of the four seasons must have
intrigued the more capable readers of the first version of AC. Such additions and
improvements to the Capellan text, especially those introducing diagrams, deserve
our careful attention.21

Order and Orbits of Inner Planets

In presenting diagrams previously absent from medieval Latin studies of the inner
planets, AC opened up new ways to understand the characteristic motions of
Mercury and Venus. One of the simplest and most powerful explanations came
in the epicyclical diagram for either Mercurys or Venuss maximum elongation
from the Sun. In the Natural History, Pliny the Elder had tried to explain the
stations and retrogradations of these planets by the same general mechanism
he applied to the outer planets. He hypothesized a mysterious solar force that
variously attracted and repelled the planets, depending on their viewed angles
from the Sun.22 The Carolingians knew Plinys account. By contrast, the Capellan
epicycles of Mercury and Venus were neither mysterious nor variable, and ACs
diagrams provided persuasive force by setting a clear experience before the eyes of
any student (Figure 3). That is, the circular path of each of these inner planets
around the Sun automatically and obviously established the maximum angular
distance, as seen from Earth, of each planet from the Sun. As the Sun circled
Earth, Mercury and Venus moving on their epicycles around the Sun also produced the observed progressions, stations, and retrogressions.23 Of course, neither

21

These larger topics are treated extensively below.

Pliny the Elder, Naturalis historia, ed. by Ludwig Jan and Karl Mayhoff, 2 vols (Leipzig:
Teubner, 1906), II. 6876 (I, 14851).
23
In a Capellan model of the orbit of an inner planet, either Mercury or Venus, around the
Sun, a student could easily identify the intervals of progression, station, and retrograde motion.
Looking at the circular orbit (in Figure 3), called an epicycle, around the Sun, which in turn circles
around Earth, we label as stations the two points where the planet crosses the Suns path. We then
note the part of the planets motion in the same direction as the Suns motion, and this is the interval of progression. The other part of the planets motion is in the direction opposite to the Suns
motion, and this is the retrograde part of the inner planets motion. Furthermore, all of these parts
of the inner planets motion are obvious as visual results of the Capellan model, or orbital pattern.
22

201

THE POWER OF DIAGRAMS

Fig. 3. Capellan epicycle for inner planet.

Martianus nor AC could offer a mathematical account of the quantities of these

phenomena, for example, an elongation of 22 degrees for Mercury from the
Sun, but the qualitative argument from the linear design came to have great
demonstrative power.
The evidence for planetary order from central Earth to the outermost planet
also received clarification through ACs diagrams for the inner planetary orbits.
This evidence was primarily the observed planetary brightness; the Sun and the
Moon were special cases, but the five visible planets were assumed to fit the
general rule. According to the rule, the brighter the planet, the closer it is to Earth.
This rule worked very nicely for the three planets farther than the Sun; Mars is
obviously brighter than Jupiter, which in turn is brighter than Saturn, so these
three planets above the Sun are ordered as Mars-Jupiter-Saturn from Earth. The
rule of brightness did not work so well for Mercury and Venus, because they
appeared to be much brighter at some times than others, and this variation
was regular. The ancient writer Macrobius had presented the difficulty simply.
Macrobius said that there are two opinions about the order of the two inner
planets, and each opinion had evidence to support it. Mercury and Venus have
their circumterrestrial orbits either closer to us than the Sun or farther from us
than the Sun. Macrobius assigned each opinion to well-known names. Plato and
the Egyptians were credited with the supra-solar view. The infra-solar view was
that of Cicero and the Chaldeans. Macrobius claimed that the Platonic-Egyptian

202

Bruce S. Eastwood

view was better for two reasons. First, he called the Egyptians more astute observers; the two views resulted from observations taken of different parts of the
planetary orbits, and the Egyptians understood this well. Second, the Egyptians
had a good philosophical basis, for they noted that the Sun is the closest of the
luminous bodies in the heavens, the Moon being only a reflector. Since everything
below the Sun reflects in order to show light, the planets Mercury and Venus must
be above the Sun, for we know, according to Macrobius, that the five planets are
pure, luminous bodies.24 This lengthy account by Macrobius presented two fixed
orders, of which only one could be correct. Yet the direct observational experience, Macrobius notwithstanding, was ambiguous. The Macrobian account
assumed the planets to be on simple circles, apparently all geocentric. Pliny the
Elders account shifted these circles to eccentrics, which still could not produce
the dramatic changes in brightness of either Venus or Mercury as they moved
through their orbits. The Capellan introduction of epicycles suddenly brought
together the Egyptian and the Chaldean opinions as two aspects of one pattern.
With Mercury and Venus on separate circumsolar circles, or epicycles, while the
Sun in turn circled Earth, the two inner planets would naturally appear closer to
us than the Sun at certain intervals and farther than the Sun at other intervals
simply because of their positions on the epicycles. Thus the Egyptian view presented the supra-solar part of each epicycle; the Chaldean view presented the
infra-solar part of each epicycle. And ACs diagrams of the situation enhanced the
Capellan account significantly for scholars new to the subject matter.
The Anonymous Commentary offered three separate marginal diagrams
and a lengthy marginal comment where Martianus explicitly introduced the
view that Venus and Mercury do not circle Earth directly but instead make
circles around the Sun, which then carries them with it around Earth. In the
margins on the two sides of this manuscript folio, alongside the relevant text, we
find images of the Platonist circumsolar inner planets (fol. 79r), the Plinian circumsolar inner planets (fol. 79v), and the Capellan circumsolar inner planets
(fol. 79v). These three diagrams, for three versions of the inner planetary paths
(Figure 4) appeared because of references in the marginal comment to the views
of Plato and Pliny and the associated need to clarify precisely the text of Martianus.25

24

Macrobius, Commentarii in Ciceronem somnium Scipionis, ed. by Ludwig Jan (Quedlinburg:

Bassius, 1848), pp. 10205. For my preferred translation with accompanying explanation see
Eastwood, Ordering, pp. 3643.
25
See below, n. 28.

203

THE POWER OF DIAGRAMS

Fig. 4. Three versions of circumsolar orbits.

It was AC and AC alone that set down for subsequent generations of students the
interesting problem of interpreting the text in Capellan Book VIII for the pattern
of the planets Mercury and Venus. The three diagrams posed by AC were repeated
in some later commentaries but without the explanatory comment; in other, later
commentaries that preserved the explanatory comment, the three diagrams
did not appear. In other words, all later commentaries chose to economize and
present partial results without sufficient comment, words and diagrams together,
to explain the three choices precisely. It was only in Carolingian centres where
AC, or at least its textual sources, existed that scholars could puzzle out the
proposed paths of the inner planets according to Martianus, Plato, and Pliny. The
post-Carolingian manuscripts of Martianus preserved only a truncated account.
When we look at the three patterns proposed by AC for the inner planets, we
are seeing the diagrammatic interpretations of three different texts, and we
see implicitly the correct option according to AC, that is, the design labelled
Martianus. The Platonist image seems to have come from Calcidiuss commentary
on the Timaeus. Our earliest surviving evidence of the use of Calcidius for astronomy in the Carolingian world appears in a text I have called the Paris Compend.26
26

The Paris Compend is located in BnF, MS lat. 13955, fols 56r60r. For details of the
contents see Eastwood, Ordering, pp. 31424.

204

Bruce S. Eastwood

This set of excerpts from Macrobius, Pliny, and Calcidius appeared in the second
quarter of the ninth century and may have been a product of Corbie, where it existed
at that time. Although lacking Calcidiuss diagrams, excerpts from his commentary were used in the Paris Compend to explain both the dispute over the order
of the inner planets and the way that uniform circular motions, specifically epicycles and eccentrics, produce the supposedly erratic phenomena of individual
planets. In explaining the positions of the inner planets the Compend refers to
the order of Plato and the Egyptians in contrast to the order of Pliny, Cicero,
Archimedes, and the Chaldeans (fol. 56v). No preference for one order over the
other is stated, and the various appearances of the two planets are attributed to
epicycles at a later point (fol. 58r) in the same chapter of the Compend. The use
of epicycles to explain the inner planetary order as well as the identification of
Pliny with the Chaldean view are found here in the Paris Compend. Both of these
facts were used by the author of ACs marginal comment on Martianuss text,
leading to the three diagrams for circumsolar planets. AC wrote as follows:
Si secundum platonem ordinem planetarum voluit ostendere in hac sententia terris potest
stare. Si vero pytagoricos pliniumque secundum ordinem planetarum velimus assumere,
nunquam intelligere poterimus nisi ablatum fuerit terris ut sic sententia scribatur, sed cum
supra solem sunt, propinquior mercurius, et subaudiatur soli.27
(If one wished to show the order of the planets according to Plato, the word terris (to
Earth) can stay in this sentence. If, in fact, we prefer to assume the order of the planets
according to the Pythagoreans and Pliny, we can never understand this sentence unless the
terris is removed so that the sentence is written thus: when they are above the Sun,
Mercury is closer, so that [closer] to the Sun is understood.)

This marginal comment referred to a sentence of Martianus that said, Sed cum
supra solem sunt, propinquior est terris Mercurius, cum intra solem, Venus,
utpote quae orbe castiore diffusioreque curvetur28 (When they [the inner planets]
are above the Sun, Mercury is closer to Earth, when inside the Sun, Venus, inasmuch as the orbit is both limited and wider). What we have here, when taking
into account the Capellan text and the comment of AC on it, is a complex but
definite situation. The original text of Martianus ( 857, emended in the modern
edition) appears to have said that when the two planets are above the Sun,
Mercury is closer to Earth, and when they are below the Sun, Venus is closer to
27

Lb, fol. 162v. For details about manuscript variants see Eastwood, Ordering, pp. 24647 nn.
17374.
28
De nuptiis, 857, p. 324; VLF 48, fol. 79v. Williss reading of the manuscripts for line 17 in
his edition shows that all manuscripts have either castiore or castioque.

THE POWER OF DIAGRAMS

205

Earth, inasmuch as Venus has a larger orbital circle. However, by the time Capellas
work had passed through the sixth and seventh centuries it had suffered woefully;
the part of the text we are studying here had seen the Latin word castior (tighter,
narrower) replace the word vastior (larger) in describing the orbit of Venus, and
all medieval readers accepted this corruption, making it necessary to interpret
another part of the text differently. The result was the reading we have seen in
the marginal comment about the designs of Plato, Pliny, and others. That is, for
Earth the commentator substituted the Sun so that the Capellan text would
describe Mercury being closer than Venus to the Sun when above the Sun and
then describe Venus being closer to the Sun when below the Sun. Hence the
intersecting circles of Mercury and Venus around the Sun according to the
Carolingian text of Martianus Capella.
All this commentary and diagramming was clearly the result of textual research, not any other sort of research. It shows the bias of study for the purpose
of explicating the text according to the spatial logic of the text rather than
according to physical-astronomical awareness. Because of the new meaning caused
by the word castior, the path of Venus should be closer to the Sun when passing
below the Sun, and so another part of the passage had to be reinterpreted to
make the Sun the reference point for distance instead of the Earth. Thus we have
intersecting circles of Mercury and Venus, and the text of Capella makes spatial
sense but not astronomical sense. But the purpose was to teach students to read
the text carefully, not to teach students how to evaluate an astronomical hypothesis. AC was, after all, the product of literary scholars, not astronomers or physical
scientists. And all this led to a much heightened awareness of all texts dealing with
the paths of Mercury and Venus and to comparisons of these texts with an eye
to discovering the most persuasive interpretation. This also involved appeals to
authority and the emergence of recognized authorities with regard to specific
astronomical questions. The authority of Martianus Capella became virtually
unchallenged in the Carolingian era and beyond when discussing the paths of
Mercury and Venus with respect to the Sun.29 AC was responsible for this result.
About the interaction of text and commentary at this point, we should
notice an external effect as well. The reference in ACs comment to a Platonist
view of circumsolar planets can be identified as the likely source of John the Scots

29

See Bruce Eastwood and Gerd Grasshoff, Planetary Diagrams Descriptions, Models,
Theories from Carolingian Deployments to Copernican Debates, in The Power of Images in Early
Modern Science, ed. by Wolfgang Lefvre, Jrgen Renn, and Urs Schoepflin (Basel: Birkhuser,
2003), pp. 197226 (pp. 21217).

206

Bruce S. Eastwood

notorious reference to a Platonic heliocentrism in his commentary on Martianus

Capella, where John, only in one version of his commentary, described a confusing pattern of planets at one point.30 It is only in the marginal comments of the
Vossianus manuscript that we can find a direct reference to Platonists and an
image of the planets attributed to Platonists. In Lb we can find the marginal
comment mentioning Plato along with an unattributed image of the Platonist
pattern for Mercury and Venus. The appendix of diagrams at the end of the
Capellan text in these manuscripts gives no attributions to the three circumsolar
designs. In later Carolingian manuscripts of Capella with these diagrams of circumsolar planets, the pattern initially assigned to the Platonists by AC received
either no attribution or was assigned to Bede; no hint of Plato or Platonists remained.31 (Indeed, the name of Bede was associated with this design all the way
to the Jesuit astronomer Riccioli in the seventeenth century!)32 So we know where
John the Scot probably got his idea of a Platonist circumsolar planetary pattern,
but his description is sufficiently divergent to suggest that he was going by hearsay
rather than direct inspection of a manuscript with the diagram.33 Or he may
have seen a manuscript of Capella containing the written comment without an
accompanying diagram. In either case, AC was the ultimate source for John
the Scot, and we know that this reference and any heliocentrism disappeared in
another version of his commentary on Capella.34 In that version John seems to
have consulted more manuscript copies of Capella and changed his mind on this
point.
Textual research and scholarly comparison produced the design that AC
attributed to Pliny. In a manner analogous to the thinking that led to the model
attributed to Martianus, we can discern the construction of a picture to represent
Plinys text again a case of literary textual research for an astronomical diagram.
The truncated and pendant circumsolar paths for the inner planets with respect
to the Sun raised no problem for AC. This design fits Plinys text and was thereby
30

Annotationes, pp. 2223; see also Bruce S. Eastwood, Johannes Scottus Eriugena, SunCentred Planets, and Carolingian Astronomy, Journal for the History of Astronomy, 32 (2001),
281324 (p. 286).
31
Eastwood, Ordering, pp. 25859.
32
Giovanni Battista Riccioli, Almagestum novum (Bologna: Benatius, 1651), II. 283a.
33
Johns view of Plato does not fit any source we know certainly not Plato, nor Calcidius,
nor AC.
34
The text of a straightforward Capellan planetary order can be seen in Johns commentary
on Book I of Martianus Capella in Jeauneau, Quatre thmes, p. 114.

THE POWER OF DIAGRAMS

207

necessarily correct!35 Of course, it also suggests why the Plinian pattern of circumsolarity was not nearly as successful with Carolingian scholars as was the Plinian
order of the planets.
The question of the paths of Mercury and Venus in relation to the Sun is an
excellent example of scholarly definition and research in order to clarify and
solve a problem. The process produced a well-defined set of models as possible
alternatives, which were then open for individual selection or rejection, depending
on the further questions raised in study of the text and study of the astronomical
situation. We should consider the question of the epicycles of Mercury and Venus
according to Martianus Capella, taken in conjunction with ACs commentary, as
a classic case of scholarly and early scholastic question-and-answer procedure.

The Different Lengths of the Four Seasons of the Year

When we turn to the question that best exemplifies the fruitful application of
eccentric circles by AC, we encounter a more complicated situation more
complicated both textually and historically. This is the question of the different
lengths of the four seasons of the year. Stated in another way, it is the question of
the changing speed of the Sun as it travels through the twelve signs of the zodiac
in a year. Writers of computus texts, concerned to set down a continuous, Christian luni-solar calendar, tended to minimize or even eradicate the differences in
seasonal lengths.36 It was the astronomical texts that paid attention to this phenomenon. Martianus Capella approached the question but actually dealt only
with the different lengths of time taken for the Sun to travel through two halves
of the zodiac.37 AC commented on this text and presented a diagram that clearly
divided the zodiac into four equal quadrants (three zodiacal signs in each) to be
contrasted to the unequal segments of time for the Sun to pass through these four
quadrants. The explanation, or answer to the question, was the eccentricity of Earth
with respect to the circle of the Suns path (Figure 5). That is, Earth is at the centre of
the circle of the zodiac, but Earth is not at the centre of the Suns circle around Earth.

35

Pliny, Naturalis historia, II. 7273 (I, 14950).

Bede, De temporum ratione, chap. 35 (pp. 39195). Bede assigns the four seasonal turning
points to the twelfth of the calends of January, April, July, and October. Rabanus Maurus, Martyrologium; De computo, ed. by John McCulloh and Wesley Stevens, CCCM, 44 (1979), p. 244.
Rabanus defined the four seasons as exactly equal lengths of time.
37
De nuptiis, 873, pp. 33031; see Eastwood, Ordering, p. 277, for a translation.
36

208

Bruce S. Eastwood

Fig. 5. Explanation of the four seasons according to Calcidius.

The result is the appearance of slower and faster speeds of the Sun as it is respectively farther from and closer to Earth at different points in its annual path
around us. When farther from us, the Sun looks slower against the circle of the
zodiac; when closer to us, the Sun seems faster against the circle of the zodiac. But
the Sun actually keeps the same speed and produces the appearance of change only
because of the eccentric circle of its motion around us.
Hellenistic astronomers knew and described the geometrical-eccentric pattern.
On the other hand, the Roman authors available to Carolingian scholars either
did not know it, for example, Macrobius, or did not describe it well, for example,
Pliny.38 It became available to the Carolingians with a full explanation, including
38

See Eastwood, Ordering, p. 335 n. 50, for various sources used by Pliny on the seasons.
Macrobius described Earth as central, not eccentric, in the Suns orbit.

THE POWER OF DIAGRAMS

209

diagrams, only in the commentary of Calcidius on Platos Timaeus.39 This text

was not widely studied for astronomy until late in the ninth century and beyond.
In Martianus Capella the account was brief and needed explication.40 AC provided the explication, but ACs diagram was wrong. However, there were scholars
who knew and used the Capellan account in summary form and did not attempt
a diagram. One of these was Martin of Laon, who, during the third quarter of the
century, taught Bedes De temporum ratione to his students at Laon and added
a notable comment on Chapter 30, regarding the intervals between the solstices
and equinoxes. Martin used Martianuss explanation and emphasized the eccentricity of Earth as the natural cause of the Suns travel through the zodiac at
varying speed.41 In this way Martin improved on Bede by stating the cause for the
phenomenon.

39

Calcidius, Timaeus a Calcidio translatus commentarioque instructus, ed. by Jan H. Waszink,

Plato Latinus, 4 (London: Warburg Institute, 1975), pp. 12530 ( 7880); this account describes
only the explanation by an eccentric, which is the only pattern mentioned by Martianus Capella.
Calcidius gave an epicyclical account as well in the following section.
40
De nuptiis, pp. 33031: Illud etiam non tacendum quod cum sint duo hemisphaeria, unum
ab aequinoctiali circulo in septentrionem, aliud in austrum ab eodem aequinoctiali, tamen sol
diversa utrumque ratione transcurrat, cum, ut dixi, paria sint signa partis utriusque. Verum id, quod
ad solstitialem consurgit, clxxxv diebus et triente diei noctisque, id autem, quod ad brumalem
deprimitur, clxxx diebus peragitur; quod utique illa res facit, quod eccentron solis circulo dixi
esse tellurem et in superiore hemisphaerio altius tolli, in inferiore ad terrae confinia propinquare.
Dubium autem non est citius transcurrere breviorem sinum tardiusque diffusum. Translation in
Martianus Capella and the Seven Liberal Arts, II: The Marriage of Philology and Mercury, trans.
by William H. Stahl, with E. L. Burge (New York: Columbia University Press, 1977), p. 339: We
must not overlook the fact that although the two hemispheres are of equal dimensionsone from
the equator to the north pole, the other from the equator to the south poleand although, as I
have mentioned, the signs on either side are equal, the sun nevertheless courses through them in
unequal periods. It completes its ascending course to the summer tropic in 185 days, and its
descending course to the winter tropic in 180 days. The obvious cause of the discrepancy is that,
as I have said, the earth is eccentric to the suns orbit, which is more elevated in the upper
hemisphere and draws closer to the earth in the lower. There is no doubt that the sun courses over
its shorter curve more swiftly and over its more extended curve more slowly.
41
Martin of Laons gloss to Bedes De temporum ratione, chap. 30, is published in Bedae opera,
pt VI. 2, p. 372, marginal gloss to line 15 of Bedes text. Martin wrote that Martianus showed the
cause of the phenomenon: SPATIO] Et secundum Martianum non aequaliter in omnibus signis
sol moratur. In illis enim ubi altius a terra extollitur longius moratur; in illis uero ubi inferius
inclinatur ibi citius transire dicitur. Sic et luna facit.

210

Bruce S. Eastwood

Fig. 6. Explanation of the four seasons according to Anonymous Commentary.

ACs diagram for the solar speed (Figure 6) assembled all the elements of the
Capellan account but did not arrange them with the proper spatial relationships.
The inner circle is the circle of zodiacal signs, although actually drawn in AC as
a circle of eleven constellations rather than twelve signs. The zodiacal circle is
divided in two halves, with Aries and Libra identifying the spring and fall equinoxes at the ends of the horizontal diameter. The vertical diameter is the line
connecting the summer and winter solstices. Earth, always at the centre of the
zodiacal circle, is eccentric to the outer circle, which is the Suns annual circle
around us. The commentary here includes no added description for the diagram;
the diagram is the commentary. Around the outer, solar circle we find two words
that complete the diagram and are drawn from the Capellan text ( 873). As both
Capella and AC wrote, the Sun traverses one arc faster (citius) and the remaining
arc slower (tardius). However, the arcs in Capella are reversed in AC! Through
the shorter of two solar arcs, which Capella said the Sun traverses quicker simply
because of its constant speed, AC said the Sun travels slower at a different
speed. What AC wished to preserve was the reported experience of changing solar
speed, and the diagrams in the Vossianus and the Besanon manuscript of AC
reveal this intention nicely. The Besanon example shows it better, for there the
solar and zodiacal circles are concentric, so the two arcs of the annual solar path

THE POWER OF DIAGRAMS

211

are equal, while the Sun is said to traverse one arc faster than the other! Martianus
pointed out that Earths eccentricity causes the appearance of change, and this
means that the Suns orbit is closer to Earth during the winter (lower) semicircle,
where the Sun appears to move faster, that is, to pass through in fewer days, from
the autumn to the spring equinox.
From a non-causal point of view, AC gives a satisfactory account of the situation. He properly labels the interval from fall to spring as the time of faster solar
travel. He makes the inner, zodiacal circle, in which Earth is central, eccentric to
the outer, solar circle. He fails only in the small item of placing Earth closer to the
solar circle in the winter. From an experiential and fundamentally descriptive
outlook, this failure is only one element among many correct facts. But, as we
moderns know, this is exactly the critical point, since the correct representation
of the eccentric is the basis for a causal account, an explanatory rather than a
simply descriptive account. The causality locked into the geometry of eccentrics
has escaped the commentator. The commentary shows here what I call a computistical sensibility regarding astronomical events. Reportage is everything; causality
is beyond the responsibility and possibly the comprehension of the reporter. We
need to recognize that all our Western computi of the seventh to ninth centuries
pay no attention to geometrical necessity or causality with regard to planetary
phenomena. Only in accounts of the Moons appearances, the phases and especially eclipses, do we find computists using very simple geometrical relationships
to explain why certain lunar phenomena must occur. AC was following the
common outlook and sensibility of the time in his mistaken commentary the
diagram on the Capellan explanation of the lengths of the seasons. To be more
precise, we should say that AC shows an intermediate stage between the mostly
non-geometrical astronomy of the early ninth century and the eleventh-century
ability to construct epicyclical and eccentric models for causal accounts of planetary observations.42
What the Anonymous Commentary represents in the development of Western
astronomy is the recognition that diagrams can provide more of the astronomical
truth than words alone. Previously, in the early medieval Western tradition of
astronomy, diagrams were used to present in clearer form certain information.
42

An eleventh-century capability is displayed in diagrams in Vienna, sterreichische Nationalbibliothek, cod. lat. 443, fols 174v, 175v, 183rv. See Bruce S. Eastwood, Calcidiuss Commentary on Platos Timaeus in Latin Astronomy of the Ninth to Eleventh Centuries, in Between
Demonstration and Imagination: Essays in the History of Science and Philosophy Presented to John
D. North, ed. by Lodi Nauta and Arjo Vanderjagt (Leiden: Brill, 1999), pp. 171209 (pp. 204,
207, 20809).

212

Bruce S. Eastwood

The computistical literature used schemata a schema is more than a diagram

to make information more memorable. Diagrams included in the works of Isidore
and Macrobius, and diagrams added to Pliny, reiterated or completed the descriptions of spatial relationships found verbally in the texts.43 In the Plinian circular
diagrams for planetary latitudes we can see the first Carolingian perception of a
relationship between space, or distance, and time in astronomical diagrams, and
these Plinian diagrams were quickly abandoned and replaced by the simpler, rectangular type of latitude diagram, which set forth only positions and distances.44
Similarly the Plinian diagrams for planetary apsides showed positions, and sometimes distances, but not temporal relationships.45 It was the attempt of AC to
invent a diagram for the Capellan account of the apparent change in solar speed
through the year that began a new kind of astronomical diagram in the West.
What AC should have liked was the pair of diagrams originally provided by
Calcidius in his Timaeus commentary to explicate very nicely the phenomena of
seasonal lengths.46 But these diagrams of Calcidius, based directly on classical
Greek astronomy, were beyond the ken of the scholars of ACs generation. And
the Carolingian manuscripts of Calcidius offered inadequate or corrupt forms of
his explanatory diagram. Nonetheless, AC had begun a new tradition of astronomical diagrams.
The Anonymous offered a set of ten astronomical diagrams (Figure 7) at the
end of the text of De nuptiis.47 Among these we find one diagram, deceptively
simple to moderns, that shows the level at which Carolingian students (and most
teachers) of astronomy operated. It is a circle with sixteen equally spaced radii.
43

On Isidores diagrams see Michael M. Gorman, The Diagrams in the Oldest Manuscripts
of Isidores De natura rerum, Studi medievali, ser. 3, 42 (2001), 52934. On Macrobiuss diagrams
see Bruce Eastwood and Gerd Grasshoff, Planetary Diagrams for Roman Astronomy in Medieval
Europe, ca. 8001500, Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, 94. 3 (Philadelphia:
American Philological Society, 2004), pp. 5055. For Plinian diagrams see Bruce Eastwood, Plinian Astronomical Diagrams in the Early Middle Ages, in Mathematics and its Applications to Science
and Natural Philosophy in the Middle Ages: Essays in Honour of Marshall Clagett, ed. by Edward
Grant and John E. Murdoch (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), pp. 14172.
44
Eastwood, Plinian Astronomical Diagrams, pp. 15761.
45
Eastwood, Plinian Astronomical Diagrams, pp. 15457.
46
The diagrams for Calcidiuss account in the early manuscripts are confusing and/or incorrect. For a modern reconstruction of the correct diagrams, see Eastwood, Ordering, pp. 321,
323.
47
Eastwood, Ordering, p. 258 (Figure 4.10) and p. 392 (Figure 6.9), shows the original and
a later, improved copy of the appendix.

THE POWER OF DIAGRAMS

Fig. 7. A set of astronomical diagrams found in Paris, Bibliothque

nationale de France, MS lat. 8671 (De nuptiis), fol. 84r (s. ix2).

213

214

Bruce S. Eastwood

The words around the periphery of the diagram refer to the fact that the circumferential arcs between fixed radii will become smaller and smaller as we shorten
the radii. Given that cartwheels were readily seen in ninth-century Europe, we
may wonder why such a diagram was needed. I believe that what we are seeing in
such a diagram is the development of a consciously abstract awareness of quantitative dependent variability in the arcs, angles, and radii in the diagram. The
effect of larger cartwheels was obvious to the Carolingian traveller. The abstraction,
and especially the vocabulary, of the relationship of radius, angle, and circumferential arc was perhaps not so obvious. We know that the challenge of explaining the lengths of the seasons by a diagram with an eccentric, which uses the same
vocabulary, appears to have been beyond the imagination of the AC scholars.48

The Changing Lengths of Daylight through the Year

Martianus Capella devoted a great deal more space to the Sun and to the Moon
than to any of the planets, including circumsolar planets. The De nuptiis afforded
computists an astronomy of these two central bodies to complement the standard
information in computistical tracts. With AC, Capellas Book VIII described the
Suns regular succession of daily rising and setting points on the horizon through
the year and the changing lengths of daylight through the year in addition to the
difference in the lengths of the two intervals from spring equinox to fall equinox
and from fall equinox to spring equinox.49 AC provided diagrams for each of
these. We have discussed the last in much detail. The first two deserve some attention as well. The diagram for the successive rising and setting points is labelled
Libra Aries and appears in the appendix of ten diagrams which I call The
Appendix (see Figure 7). Libra Aries appears at the bottom of the sheet on
the left. It shows by the use of numerals from one to four the identity of four
successive intersections made by the Sun at the rising and setting points with
the horizon, which occur at diametrically opposite points on the horizon.50 The

48

The full text and translation, with medieval diagrams, of Calcidiuss account of the seasons
appears in Eastwood and Grasshoff, Planetary Diagrams, pp. 7382.
49
The suns rising and setting points on the horizon through the year are described in De
nuptiis, p. 330; AC, in VLF 48, fols 79v81r. The changes in lengths of daylight during the year
are described by De nuptiis, 87578, pp. 33133; AC in VLF 48, fol. 81rv. We have dealt
above with Martianuss and ACs treatments of the different lengths of the four seasons.
50
Eastwood and Grasshoff, Planetary Diagrams, pp. 11719. Eastwood, Ordering, pp. 40305.

THE POWER OF DIAGRAMS

215

diagram for changing lengths of daylight, labelled Equinoctium, also appears in

the appendix and was the solar phenomenon receiving the most Carolingian commentary. As part of his discussion Martianus identified eight climates (climata),
and AC pointed out, first, that Pliny had identified twelve (Naturalis historia,
VI. 21920) and, second, that it was the moderns, according to Pliny, who had
added four.51 As its distance from the equator increased, each climate, or latitudinal band, would show increased difference in the lengths of day and night
through the year.
While ACs attention to Pliny as a source beyond Martianus is notable, it is
ACs diagramming, which calls attention to a geometrically based increase and
decrease in the amount of daylight, that is most striking. Many Carolingian
writers adhered to an older, arithmetical account that reported a fixed change of
two hours per month from one solstice to the next throughout the year at a far
northern latitude where the minimum and maximum lengths of daylight were six
and eighteen hours. AC followed the Capellan text and emphasized the following
geometrical sequence of monthly hours of daylight, to be added and then subtracted as each six months passed from winter solstice to summer, at the same
northern latitude in a regular rhythm: 1 hour, 2 hours, 3 hours, 3 hours, 2 hours,
1 hour. ACs diagram here was not self-evident, and its nature rather clearly
required explication by an experienced teacher. So we find here one more example
of a likely use in schools, although certainly not all schools, for the AC commentary on Capellan astronomy.
Another evidence of pedagogy occurs in connection with the topic of the
changing lengths of daylight. Martianus dealt with the topic twice, and the detailed attention to climata and precise lengths of daylight appeared later ( 876
78), where we find extensive commentary by AC. The previous, initial mention
of the phenomenon ( 846) drew less comment, as Martianus was there assessing
the logic of the claim that night and day should always be the same length. The
primary concern of AC at that point was to follow the logical analysis of the
statements about the lengths of daylight and night and to make the nature of the
arguments as clear as possible. Regarding one sentence, the marginal commentary
noted, vera propositio sed falsa conclusio (true proposition but false conclusion),
and subsequently, Rhetorici sunt isti silogismi quia non habunt igitur (These
51

A climate is a latitudinal band on Earths globe. For details see Bruce S. Eastwood, Climate,
in Trade, Travel, and Exploration in the Middle Ages, ed. by John B. Friedman and Karen M. Figg
(New York: Garland, 2000), pp. 11215. For the Equinoctium diagram see Eastwood and Grasshoff, Planetary Diagrams, pp. 12425; Eastwood, Ordering, pp. 28284. Pliny, Naturalis historia,
VI. 21120 (I, 51722).

216

Bruce S. Eastwood

syllogisms are rhetorical [and not demonstrative], since they do not use a therefore.)52 These were useful notes for students.

Solar Radial Forces

In the last section of Book VIII, surveying the phenomena of each of the five
planets, Martianus made clear his close attachment to the same solar dynamics we
can find in Pliny. Both of these authors presented the anomalies the stations
and retrogradations of each planet as effects of the power of solar rays. The
effects were stronger on planets closer to the Sun. With the outer planets we observe that the greatest variation in planetary motion appears with Mars, and Mars
is much closer to the Sun than Jupiter or Saturn. Furthermore we can see that
the effects of solar rays on Jupiters motions are greater than on Saturns, again
because of the relative distances of these two planets from the Sun. When we
consider the situation of the inner planets, Mercury and Venus, we find that both
Pliny and Martianus, following a Hellenistic, Stoic line of thought, conceived the
planetary phenomena to result from the forces of solar rays. For Pliny, the forces
were sometimes attractive (centripetal?), sometimes repulsive (centrifugal?), and
sometimes simply motive (continuously circular), producing the reported retrograde, stationary, and forward motions; he conceived them as arcs of motion with
stationary terminal points. Pliny imagined the same situation for inner and outer
planets.53
Martianus reformed the Plinian heliodynamic by differentiating its effects on
the inner planets from its effects on the outer planets. According to the Capellan
reform, solar radial forces held the two closest planets, Mercury and Venus, so
tightly that these two could no longer circle around Earth like the three outer
planets, but instead moved on small circles around the Sun, and Martianus gave
the name epicycle to each of these two circumsolar orbits. He used this name
only once in the whole of Book VIII, and it was simply his descriptive term for the
path resulting from solar radial forces acting on Mercury and Venus.54 There was
no question of using epicyclic patterns for the outer planets. Thus epicycles found
52

De nuptiis, p. 320; VLF 48, fol. 78v. In addition to sources cited in the previous note, see
Eastwood, Ordering, pp. 28488, especially n. 239.
53
For background on Plinys idea of solar radial force, see Pliny, Histoire naturelle, ed. by Jean
Beaujeu (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1950), II. 158 (n. 1); Pliny, Naturalis historia, II. 6876 (I, 148
51). Eastwood, Ordering, pp. 11214.
54
For his use of the term epicyclus, see De nuptiis, 879, p. 333; Eastwood, Ordering, pp. 29192.

THE POWER OF DIAGRAMS

217

only the most special and limited use in Capellan astronomy. An epicycle was not
a general geometrical tool for Martianus. Nor did AC see the larger possibilities
for epicycles, but it was the elaborate commentary by AC on the epicyclical paths
of Mercury and Venus that first brought such a planetary pattern clearly to the
attention of Carolingian scholars. And to a lesser extent we may say the same
thing about ACs attempt to diagram an eccentric to explain the apparent changes
in solar speed through the seasons of the year.
Martianus Capellas astronomy together with the Anonymous Commentary
made geometrical descriptions much more suggestive and influential for Carolingian scholars than either Macrobius or Pliny had done. In all cases it was diagrams
that highlighted this development. Macrobius used only geocentric images, which
explained few of the astronomical phenomena. Pliny introduced eccentrics, but
only for a few phenomena. Martianus added epicycles, again for a limited number
of phenomena. AC provided diagrams for many phenomena and aroused more
awareness of the utility of eccentrics and epicycles. AC represents the awakening
of Carolingian teachers and scholars to the persuasive power of certain diagrams
to convey astronomical knowledge. And teachers like Martin of Laon saw the
distinctly explanatory, not simply descriptive, value of these geometrical tools.
The next step would be the recognition that geometrical patterns should be
found for all the motions of celestial bodies, and this came with the wider study
of Calcidiuss Timaeus commentary in the tenth and eleventh centuries.

Saving the Text, not the Phenomena Mercurys Limits

The importance of Martianuss astronomy together with AC is undeniable, and
we should not forget the characteristics of the commentary. Along with the usual
glossing of single words, it was, as we have said, very much a product of textual
analysis and interpretation. It was not a work of either theoretical or observational
science. Whatever physical science was involved came, at best, third-hand via
Martianus, who drew on the work of others. The method of textual study and
analysis shows up clearly in a remarkable conflict between the Carolingian text
and ordinary, reasoned understanding of the phenomenon of the bounded elongation of the planet Mercury. The accepted elongation of Mercury from the Sun was
22 degrees. This value was reported by Pliny and Bede and even by AC at points
in the gloss to Book I of De nuptiis.55 It seems obvious to moderns that Martianus
55

Pliny, Naturalis historia, II. 3839 (I, 13839); Bede, De natura rerum, chap. 13, in Bedae
Venerabilis opera, pt I: Opera didascalica ed. by Charles W. Jones, CCSL, 123A (1975), p. 205; for

218

Bruce S. Eastwood

knew and therefore would report this value for Mercurys elongation. However, the text of Book VIII suffered many corruptions, and one was the reading
for Mercurys limited distance from the Sun. The Carolingian text in almost all
manuscripts gave this value as 32 degrees.56 Unwilling to declare the text corrupt
at this point, AC adopted a strategy of special interpretation and proposed that
this value of 32 degrees was only under special conditions. The gloss argued that
this angular distance was sub sole (under the Sun), whatever that means. Elaborate
hedging and a strange diagram appear here in the commentary. AC nowhere
actively rejected the value of 22 degrees, but the intent of the commentary appears
to have been to agree with a 22-degree limit along the path of the Sun, that is, on
the ecliptic, but then to claim that Mercurys orbit somehow hangs below the
plane of the ecliptic to make a 32-degree elongation from the Sun.57 It would be
nice if we could assume that AC imagined this to be simply the angle of Mercurys
circumsolar orbit to the ecliptic plane, but we have no textual evidence in either
De nuptiis or AC to support it. All this reasoning is designed to save the text, not
the known phenomena. The fact that bounded elongation from the Sun is necessarily a viewed angular measurement and so the 32 degrees can not stand, if 22
degrees is the accepted elongation along the ecliptic, seems not to have been considered. It certainly was not discussed. AC was concerned to preserve and justify
the text, even when this required a most unusual spatial interpretation.

ACs awareness see the marginal gloss on VLF 48, fol. 2v, gl. 104: PLIADUM] Pliades septem
fuerunt quarum ista sunt nomina Terope, Meropias, Cilleno, Maia, Alcione, Tagete, Electra.
Dictae sunt autem apo tu plistos id est a pluralitate vel a Matre, ut sint filiae Adlantis. Et
Pliadis vel a pluvia. Et sunt in genu Tauri. Et tunc quasi Mercurius Matrem salutat quando cum
Sole in Tauro moratur, quia secundum vera astrologia nunc quam (sic, lege numquam) longius
a sole nisi viginti duabus partibus distat.
56
De nuptiis, p. 333; see the editorial note for line 16 of the text, where Willis found 33
degrees in the manuscripts; in fact, many manuscripts report 32 degrees, e.g., VLF 48, fol. 81v.
57
VLF 48, fol. 81v. The marginal diagram shows Mercury on a circle subtending the Sun
with the following text filling Mercurys circle below the Sun: hoc sciendum quod quantum in
latitudinem potest Mercurius a Sole fieri xxxii partibus, quantum vero ad lineam solarem ita
angustatur circa ipsum ut non possit plus xx et duabus partibus ab eo separari (It is recognized
that with respect to latitude Mercury can be 32 degrees from the Sun, but with respect to the
Suns actual path the planet is restricted near to it so that Mercury cannot be separated more than
22 degrees from the Sun). Compare De nuptiis, 879, p. 333, where the latitudo of Mercury is
defined as 8 degrees. See also Eastwood and Grasshoff, Planetary Diagrams, pp. 12526, and
Eastwood, Ordering, pp. 29297.

THE POWER OF DIAGRAMS

219

The Importance of Diagrams

Here we should understand an important characteristic of ACs diagrams. The
diagrams, especially when set apart in an appendix to De nuptiis, came to function
as a distinctive part of the work with an eventual authority of their own over the
succeeding decades. What does this mean? Among other things it means that the
diagrams came to be independent evidence for the astronomical arrangements and
motions identified and described in the text. The diagrams were complementary
to the text, and they gave precision to the text. When the text was in any way
unclear, the relevant diagram would offer more clarity, thereby introducing or
even creating additional evidence. We have already encountered examples of this.
The diagram for the position of Mercury, 32 degrees sub sole, certainly created
new evidence not suggested by Martianus. Likewise the three alternative diagrams
proposed for the circumsolar orbits of the inner planets, resulting in the identification of the pattern of intersecting circles as the correct design for the text of
Martianus, created (in compressed fashion) a large body of evidence beyond
what could be found in the text. A survey of subsequent references to or uses of
Capellan astronomy will show the remarkable familiarity with the intersectingcircles model of circumsolar Mercury and Venus over the next four centuries and
its continued attribution to Martianus Capella.58
AC in conjunction with the Capellan text was the most important astronomical source in the Carolingian world. Only with Book VIII of De nuptiis did
the ninth century have a relatively complete textbook of astronomy. In many
Capellan manuscripts the astronomy received as extensive commentary as any
other of the seven liberal arts. Book VIII was also singled out for separate copy and
presentation at least twice in the ninth century, including an elaborate commentary probably made at Corbie.59 The works of Macrobius and Pliny received
no such treatment, although they were mined for useful ideas and information
by AC. Macrobius had offered a simplified, ordered cosmos a geometrical
metaphor. Pliny had collected a mass of data on celestial phenomena. Martianus
did both of these things and gave greater sophistication to the geometry and
greater order to the data. AC saw this virtue and elaborated on it.

58

Eastwood and Grasshoff, Planetary Diagrams Descriptions, Models, pp. 21217.

The commentary on Book VIII of Capella, made probably at Corbie late in the ninth
century, appears in BnF, MS lat. 13955, fols 46v53v. David Ganz, Corbie in the Carolingian
Renaissance, Beihefte der Francia, 20 (Sigmaringen: Thorbecke, 1990), pp. 15253, includes this
manuscript in his list of books in the Corbie library.
59

220

Bruce S. Eastwood

The circulation of AC with its diagrams indicates a successful identification

of astronomical questions of the day and led to imitations. Both John the Scot
and Remigius of Auxerre wrote commentaries on Martianus, and both made
extensive use of AC. Remigius, for example, went to AC more than to any other
existing commentary, although Remigius occasionally appreciated Johns more
lucid account of some items. Other anonymous commentaries, such as the one
in the Leiden manuscript (Universiteitsbibliotheek, BPL 87 (Lc)), used AC and
were in turn used by Remigius. And we may even notice the impact of AC in an
innovative, though little circulated, text like the Paris Compend. In the Compend
the explanation by excerpts from Calcidius of epicyclic motion and the motion
of a solar eccentric would seem to be understood as improvements on the explanations in Book VIII of De nuptiis and in AC. (The Compend does not cite or
excerpt Capella, but it does excerpt from Pliny and Macrobius to set the stage for
more sophisticated geometrical accounts of celestial phenomena.) Thus the Paris
Compend shows us a midcentury replacement of the very well known accounts
provided by Martianus and AC for the circumsolar planets and the lengths of the
four seasons. And so, whether in affirmation or in contradiction, scholars of the
ninth century testify that AC provided the fundamental elucidation of Book VIII
of De nuptiis, and we see that this text combined with AC stood as the most
authoritative astronomy of the Carolingian world.