[Margin: Plato’s system, from Plutarch; and from Macrobius.]

[I.] Just as, not rarely, discord has begotten concord, so concord [has begotten] discord. For there was between Pythagoras and Plato a wonderful concord in this—that the intervals and order of the Planets were to be constituted from the laws of Music; but straightway from this was born a discord, on account of the diverse opinions about the harmonic interval [diastēma] between the Platonists and the Pythagoreans. But neither about the Platonic system itself do all write alike. For Plutarch—most thoroughly versed, certainly, in Greek matters—(bk. 2 On the Opinions of the Philosophers [Placita], ch. 15), after the related opinions about the order of the stars (about which I [treated] in ch. 2, at the end, num. 2), thus continues: “Plato, after the seat of the fixed [stars], [places] first Phænon (φαίνων), which is called Saturn’s; second, Phaethon (φαέθων), which [is] Jupiter’s; third, Pyroeis (πυρόεις), which [is] Mars’s; fourth, Phosphoros (φωσφόρος), which [is] Venus’s; fifth, Stilbon (στίλβων), which [is] Mercury’s; the Sun, finally, sixth; and the Moon seventh.” Some of the Mathematicians assent to Plato; some [make] the Sun the middle of all. Nor by a dissimilar reasoning does Macrobius teach (in bk. 1 On the Dream of Scipio, ch. 19) that, according to Plato, the Sun holds the sixth place, and the Moon the seventh, among the Planets; and (ch. 21): “It must be noted in this place that, in the genesis of the world, either Providence itself, or the genius of antiquity, gave to the stars that order which Plato assigned to their spheres—that the Moon be first, the Sun second, above this Mercury, Venus fourth, hence Mars, thence Jupiter, and Saturn last.” And from these two sources, I believe, [they] drew, whoever ascribe this order to the Platonic system—namely Copernicus (bk. 1, ch. 10), Valentin Naibod (bk. 1 of the Astronomical Institutions, ch. 16), Clavius (on the Sphere, p. 64), Barozzi (bk. 1 of the Cosmography, ch. 2), Orontius (bk. 1 of the Sphere, ch. 3), and Argoli (in the Pandosion Sphæricum, ch. 3)—although only Clavius and Argoli express the position of Venus above Mercury; the rest number both above the Sun, according to the opinion of Plato and the Egyptians.

[Margin: Another System of the Platonists.]

[II.] But some Platonists varied this order somewhat, and raised Mercury above Venus; for thus the same Macrobius relates of them (bk. 1 on the Dream of Scipio, ch. 3): “Which dimension of Archimedes, however, is repudiated by the Platonists, as not preserving the double and triple intervals. And they established that this must be believed: that as much as is from the earth to the Moon, double [that] is from the earth to the Sun; and as much as is from the earth to the Sun, triple [that] is from the earth to Venus; and as much as is from the earth to Venus, four times as much is from the earth to the star of Mercury; and as much as is from the earth to Mercury, nine times as much is from the earth to Mars; and as much as is from the earth to Mars, eight times as much is from the earth to Jupiter; and as much as is from the earth to Jupiter, twenty-seven times as much is from the earth to the orb of Saturn.” This Platonic persuasion Porphyry inserted into the books in which he infused not a little light into the obscurities of the Timaeus. The same order is asserted by the author of the book On the World [addressed] to Alexander, and by Apuleius (book On the World), and by Hamerus (on ch. 1 of Genesis). Therefore not only the author of the booklet On the World placed Mercury above Venus, and Venus above the Sun, as Clavius said (Sphere, p. 42). The same intervals and the same order, in almost the same words, Marsilio Ficino attributes to Plato (in the Compendium on the Timaeus, ch. 34); but he adds: “Here you see the heavier Planets, Jupiter and Saturn, designated by solid numbers; and although elsewhere, from the opinion of some Pythagoreans, I have reviewed other measures of the intervals, yet I esteem the Platonic ones more probable.” And by these he thinks can be explained [those things] which—

[…continues on p. 281 (PDF 316): Ficino’s explanation continued, then Riccioli proceeds through the remaining Platonic / Geber / Theon variants of the planetary order and the dispute over Cicero’s system.]

(printed p. 281 — The discussion of Ficino on the Platonic intervals concludes, followed by the Theon/Geber order. Under the sub-heading on Cicero’s System the page treats the Dream of Scipio, and then asks whether Plato followed the Egyptians.)

…[can be explained those things] which are said more obscurely about these spheres and proportions in [Plato’s] Republic, bks. 8 & 10. But I would believe that occasion was given to these [Platonists] by those words of Plato, in which he introduces Timaeus of Locri, the Pythagorean, speaking thus: “God placed the Moon in the first circuit above the earth; in the second, the Sun; then he fixed the globe of Lucifer [Venus], and the star sacred (as it is said) to Mercury, to circles equal [to the Sun] in velocity, but contrary to it in power, whereby it happens that they overtake one another, and are by turns overtaken by each other—these stars, the Sun, Lucifer, and Mercury.”

[Margin: Mercury’s motion undiscovered.]

But from the fact that he named Venus before Mercury, it does not follow that Plato, or Timaeus, placed Venus lower than Mercury. Since indeed in the Epinomis, after the Sun and Lucifer, he names that one [Mercury]—on account of [its] undiscovered motion, or because among the Egyptians it once had no fixed name; for thus there Plato [speaks] in the person of the Athenian: “I mean [the star] of the Sun, and of Lucifer, and that third one, which, since it is unknown, cannot be named; which has come about because the first observer of these things was a Barbarian: for an ancient region nourished those who, on account of the serenity of the summer season, first inspected these things. Such was Egypt and Syria, where all the stars, so to speak, are always clearly discerned, because neither clouds nor rains impede the view of the sky.” Wherefore, on account of [its] undiscovered nature and motion, [Mercury] received its name later than Venus. But he adds: “But indeed they too received names from some: for Lucifer, which is also Vesper, surely has [its] reason; and the star which runs equally with the Sun, and together with it, is called Stilbon [στίλβων, ‘the gleaming’], from [its] splendor.”

[III.] Now indeed the order of the former system—by which Mercury would be above the Sun, and Venus above this [Mercury]—was upheld by Theon (bk. 9 on the Almagest, ch. 7); and Summarus (in Pico, bk. 10 against the Astrologers, ch. 4); and Geber of Seville (bk. 7 of his Astronomy, ch. 1), where he reproves Ptolemy, because (bk. 9, ch. 1) he said that the parallaxes of Mercury and Venus are to be neglected, whereas the parallax of the Sun is 2′ 51″, and of Venus 3′, and of Mercury 7′, by the Ptolemaic commensurations; then, from the latitudes (likewise Ptolemaic), he shows that the Sun can sometimes be partly occulted by Venus and Mercury. But we, in the preceding chapter (num. 6), have already vindicated Ptolemy from Geber’s objections. And Geber concludes [it] more probable that Mercury is situated above the Sun, and Venus above Mercury, with the three other Planets, on account of the similarity in the composition of [their] orbs, in the double anomaly, and in the stations and retrogressions.

On the System of Cicero, and its Disagreement from the Platonic

[IV.] Thus far, then, we would have two forms of the Platonic System: one in which Mercury would be subject [lower] to Venus, and the Sun to Mercury; the other in which the Sun [is subject] to Venus, and Venus to Mercury—were it not that Macrobius insinuates a third form (bk. 1 on the Dream of Scipio, ch. 19), where he inquires what order Cicero, [and] what order Plato, assigned to the Sun among the wandering stars. Now Cicero had said, in that Dream, under the person of Scipio the Elder: “All things are connected by nine orbs, or rather globes, of which one is the outermost celestial [one], which embraces all the rest—the supreme God Himself, confining and containing the others; in which are fixed those everlasting courses of the stars which revolve. To it are subject seven, which turn backward by a motion contrary to the heaven. Of these, one globe possesses that [star] which on earth they call Saturn’s. Then [comes] that prosperous and salutary brightness for the human race, which is called Jupiter’s. Then the ruddy and horrible-to-the-earth [star], which you call Mars. Then, beneath almost the middle region, the Sun holds [its place], the leader and prince and moderator of the other lights, the mind and tempering of the world, of such magnitude that it surveys and fills all things with its light. Following it as companions are the two courses, the one of Venus, the other of Mercury. And in the lowest orb the Moon, kindled by the rays of the Sun, is turned about. But below [the Moon] there is now nothing except [what is] mortal and perishable, save the souls given to the human race by the gift of the Gods. Above the Moon all things are eternal: for that [globe] which is the middle and ninth, the earth, neither moves, and is the lowest, and into it are borne all weights by their own inclination.” This is fully and plainly the Ciceronian System, in nothing at all discrepant from the Pythagorean and the Archimedean.

[Margin: Macrobius’s opinion on Cicero’s system.]

But because Plato assigns to the Sun the sixth place among the Planets, while Cicero [assigns] the fourth, Macrobius (bk. 1, ch. 19, as I said) investigates the causes of this disagreement; for he says: “Plato followed the Egyptians, the parents of all the disciplines of Philosophy, who will have the Sun so placed between the Moon and Mercury, that nevertheless by reason they have detected and elicited why by some the Sun is believed to be above Mercury and above Venus; for neither do those who think thus stray far from the appearance of truth.” And a little after: “Now indeed nearest to Venus is the star of Mercury, and the Sun [is] near to Mercury, so that these three traverse their heaven in an equal interval of time—that is, in a year, more or less. Therefore Cicero too calls these two courses the companions of the Sun, because in an equal space they never recede far from one another”; and, a few [words] about the Moon being interposed, he goes on: “But the nearness of these three nearest to one another—of Venus, Mercury, and the Sun—has confounded the order; but among others [it is otherwise]: for the cleverness of the Egyptians did not escape the reasoning, which is this: The circle through which the Sun runs is encompassed by the circle of Mercury as [by] a higher one; and that too the higher circle of Venus includes: and so it happens that these two stars, when they run through the higher vertices of their circles, are understood to be placed above the Sun; but when they pass through the lower [part of their] circle, the Sun is reckoned higher than they. To those, therefore, who said their spheres are below the Sun, this seemed [so] from that course of the stars which sometimes (as we said) appears lower—which is also truly more notable, because it then appears more freely; for when they hold the higher [positions], they are more hidden by the [Sun’s] rays; and therefore that persuasion prevailed, and by almost all this order was received into use.” Yet a more perspicacious observation detects a better order. These things being said, and some [remarks] about the light of the Planets being interposed, he concludes: “What order Plato gave to the Sun, or his authors; or whom Cicero followed [in] assigning the fourth place to its globe, or what reasoning introduced the persuasion of this diversity—enough has been said.”

Cicero, therefore, followed the more common opinion about Venus and Mercury—which, because they are discerned longer and better when they depart most from the Sun, and are not so hidden by the twilight light (but then they are in the lower semicircle of their Epicycle), are therefore believed to be situated below the Sun; and that very reasoning the Egyptians followed in the distribution of the planetary hours, as we said from Dio and Xiphilinus in the preceding chapter (num. 7, reason 9)—granted [it was] by reasoning about these digressions; or also because, using a clearer air, they sometimes saw Venus and Mercury much diminished in apparent magnitude, [and] reckoned that this happened because they ascended far from the lands, above the Sun, and so described circles around the Sun.

[Margin: Whether Plato followed the System of the Egyptians.]

[V.] Therefore, if Plato followed the Egyptians (as Macrobius says), and the Egyptians taught that Venus and Mercury are situated not only above but also below the Sun, it may seem that Plato transferred this very [doctrine] to the Greeks—although he expressed only the higher position, because in the harmonic intervals he thought their greatest distance from the lands, and apogean position, should rather be preserved, than their least, and perigean place. Nay, Cicero himself too might seem not to have disagreed from Plato, although he expressed only the vulgar opinion; since Cicero’s book On the Dream of Scipio is part of bk. 6 of the Republic, and in the books On the Republic he imitated Plato, who indeed (bks. 8 & 10 of the Republic) hands down the account of the harmonic intervals among the seven orbs, attributed to the seven Sirens—yet [an account] sufficiently involved [obscure]. Therefore elsewhere (bk. 7, sect. 1, ch. 4) I judged [it] probable that the Platonic and Ciceronian system was in reality the same as the Egyptian, to which Vitruvius, Macrobius, Capella, and Bede subscribed. But, the matter being better considered, I judge [it] more probable that Cicero thought with Pythagoras, and—the Epinomis of Plato being consulted—that Plato disagrees from the Egyptians in this. For Cicero nowhere indicated that order of Plato; and although he admitted a concord of the heavens, he subscribed rather to the Pythagorean intervals, and followed that opinion which Pythagoras had taught in Italy, and which by Numa Pompilius had been transferred in Latium to Varro and Cicero. But Plato thought that all [things] which had been received from the Barbarians (for thus he calls the Egyptians and Syrians and all foreigners) were rendered better by the Greeks; and in this business of the mundane system, he judged it better that Venus and Mercury be always above the Sun, and revolve uniformly in concentric circles, and not run now below, now above, by Epicycles, with changing intervals—

[…continues on p. 282 (PDF 317): Plato’s Epinomis on the uniform, intelligent motion of the stars; then the System II (Platonic) diagram; then Chapter IV opens — the Egyptian system (Vitruvius, Capella, Macrobius, Bede, Argoli), in which Venus and Mercury circle the Sun.]

(printed p. 282 — The discussion of Plato’s Epinomis on the uniform motion of the stars concludes, and the System II (Platonic) diagram ends Chapter III. Chapter IV then opens on the Egyptian system, treating the Egyptians’ geo-heliocentric insight, Vitruvius, and Martianus Capella. A large engraved diagram of the Platonic system occupies the lower-center of the page.)

[Margin: Plato’s opinion on the motion of the Stars.]

…[and not run] now below, now above, by Epicycles with changing intervals. Which I gather from his Epinomis, in which he says: “That which proceeds in an orderly manner in the heaven, that it has a mind is demonstrated by this sufficient sign—that it goes always by the same way and in a like manner. But the soul, having intellect, is the greatest necessity of all necessities; for it governs by leading, not by being led. But when the soul, which is the best thing, conducts itself by counsel according to the best intellect, then, without persuasion [i.e., without external compulsion], that which is truly accomplished by the force of the intellect will necessarily come to pass; nor will the adamant be able to hold itself more solid and immobile, etc. It ought, therefore, to be an argument to men that the stars, and that whole circuit, have a mind—because they always do the same things; for in the greatest and most wonderful interval of time, they have already beforehand deliberated what is to be done by them, nor do they approve now this, now that, up and down, by counsel. Wherefore they neither stray, nor are revolved beyond the ancient order.” Plato therefore judged that the Planets are driven by a moving Intelligence along the same way by a uniform motion, nor borne up and down—and that this is the work of a mind, choosing once what is best, and immovably preserving it. In a word, he judged that they are carried around in circles concentric to the world.

[Margin: Astronomy [is] more ancient among the Egyptians than among the Greeks.]

And he thought, very probably, that the Greeks understood this more perfectly than the Barbarians; for below, in the same Epinomis, speaking of the knowledge of the Stars (which became known to the Greeks later than to the Barbarians, on account of the impediments of a less clear air), he says: “Since indeed we are more distant than the Barbarians (as we said) from summer serenity, we understood the order of these divinities (for thus he calls the stars) more slowly. But whatever the Greeks received from the Barbarians, they rendered better. Which we ought to consider also in these [matters] which we are now treating.” It remains that we represent, in a single diagram, the twin form of the Platonic system—namely of Plato (to whom subscribed Theon, Samerius, and Geber) and of some of the Platonists (namely Porphyry, Apuleius, and Ficino).

System II — The Platonic System

[Translator’s note — engraved diagram: A geocentric world-system shown in two labelled halves for comparison, the left marked “Plato” and the right “Porphyrius” (Porphyry). Both share the Earth at the center; immediately around it the ☽ Moon, then the ☉ Sun (drawn as a radiant face)—so the Sun sits directly above the Moon. Above the Sun come Venus ♀ and Mercury ☿ (their relative order differing between the two halves—the Platonic vs. the Porphyrian arrangement), then ♂ Mars, ♃ Jupiter, ♄ Saturn, and the outermost starry firmament studded with stars. The defining feature versus System I (Ptolemaic) is that the Sun is placed just above the Moon, with Venus and Mercury above the Sun.]