#cleomedes

Mare Crisium (”The Sea of Crises”), Cleomedes crater (right), Condorcet crater (bottom left), and Firmicus crater (left) // Richard Delhoume

Cleomedes: De contemplatione orbium excelsorum, translated and dedicated to the Cesare Borgia by his humanist secretary, Carlo Valgulio (ca. 1440–98)

"Cesare had had so many benefits, that he was to become one of the richest cardinals. Still archbishop of Valencia, he owned the churches of Castres and Perpignan. [...]Among his many benefits, which gave him a thirty thousand ducats of income, he had the church of San Michele d'Arezzo, having been occupied by the Captain of Siena. It was customary in the Courts that the most acclaimed writers served the princes in the secretariats, not engaged in the drafting of the usual correspondence, but requested for advice in the most serious public affairs: the courts of Italy were then full of these humanists, and most of all, that of Rome, where every cardinal had one among his family. A translation booklet printed in Brescia at the beginning of 1497 gives us the name of Cesare's secretary. This was the Brescian Carlo Valgulio, at that day believed to be one the best literati for his elegance and ease of dictation, and his knowledge in Latin and Greek: [Angelo] Poliziano had revered him as his teacher. Not without a high understanding did Valgulio wanted to dedicate the first of those translations to Cesare, the Dispute around the world of the Greek Cleomedes. Like other humanists, he certainly did not ignore the doctrines professed by astronomers about the constitution of the world; and the letter that preceded the Dispute clearly indicates that he did not intended to do a merely literary work, but that he wished that the splendor of Cesare (as he says) brought some light to him and to Cleomedes, so that the good news contained in that speech about the earth and the sun were better known, de quibus et docti pariter et indocti magnoque locuntur. So while Nicolaus Copernicus in 1496 was already in Bologna listening to those doctrines from which he had then to portray the system of the new constitution of the world, in Cesare's name is recommended the translation of the Dispute of Cleomedes which was to prepare and lead the opinion to that great upheaval."

bc I was talking about it earlier. do any of the scions ever ask about your wol's past life as azem? if they do, does your wol tell them everything? only some things? or do they refuse to talk about it altogether? (if they know or remember any of it at all) Nov 29, 2022

The Scions don't ask Raginmar much about his past life as Azem because he actually doesn't remember anything; he only has vague impressions of familiarity that manifest as an extreme sense of déjà vu, which in turn puts him EXTREMELY on edge. He had a rough time in Amaurot and Anamnesis Anyder because of it. The Scions know this, so they try not to ask questions that would trigger that sense of unease. General questions about the Convocation like Azem's role and his relation to the other Ascians etc. is fine though!

Cleomedes: how big is the earth?

Some time between Posidonius and Ptolemy, i.e. between the 1st century BC and the 2nd century AD, a Greek named Cleomedes wrote a 2 book basic treatise on astronomy, De motu circulari corporum caelestium.[ref]Cleomediis de Motu Circulari Corporum Caelestium Libri, Leipzig: Teubner, 1891, at Google Books here.[/ref]  This was based mainly on the lost work of Posidonius, but also on others.…