and ignited by the anger of God. This poisonous stuff falls down again on people's heads, and causes all kinds of mischief, such as pestilence, Frenchmen (!), sudden death, bad weather, &c. Perhaps it was the night of St. Bartholomew which made Busch think of Frenchmen in this connection.
The question as to whether new stars had ever appeared before was touched on by several writers, who referred to the star of Hipparchus and the star of Bethlehem. Landgrave Wilhelm IV., in his letter to Peucer, also alludes to the star stated by Marcellinus to have appeared A.D. 389.[1] Cyprianus Leovitius states that similar stars appeared in the same part of the heavens in the years 945 and 1264, the "comet" of the latter year being without a tail and having no motion, and says that this information was taken from an old manuscript.[2] It is certainly a very suspicious circumstance that real comets appeared both in 945 and in 1264, and the absence of tail and motion might merely be subsequent embellishments by the writer of the manuscript referred to by Leovitius; but, on the other hand, it is quite possible that new stars may have appeared in those
- ↑ About this star see Calvisii Opus Chronologicum, p. 413 (second edit., 1620), and The Observatory, vii. p. 75.
- ↑ "De Nova Stella. Judicium Cypriani Leovitii a Leonicia, Mathematici, de nova stella siue cometa, viso mense Nouembri ac Decembri A.D. 1572. Item mense Januario & Februario A.D. 1573. Lavingæ ad Danubium, 1573." 4to, 8 fol.:—"Historiæ perhibent tempore Ottonis primi Imperatoris, similem stellam in eodem fere loco Coeli arsisse, A.D. 945. Vbi magnæ mutationes plurimaque mala, uarias Prouincias Europæ peruaserunt, potissimum propter peregrinas gentes infusas in Germaniam. Verum multo locupletius testimonium in historijs extat de A.D. 1264, quo Stella magna & lucida in parte Coeli Septentrionali circa Sydus Cassiopeæ apparuit, carens similiter crinibus, ac destituta motu suo proprio." In the margin, opposite the date 1264, is: "Descriptio huius Cometæ desumpta est ex antiquo codice, manu scripto. Euentus hi congruent cum significationibus stellæ propositæ: quod bene notandum est: videoque hic aliquid insigne." Tycho has reprinted the whole pamphlet (pp. 705-706), leaving out the "Judicium breve" at the end, and also the marginal notes. The latter are also omitted from a reprint published (s. l.) in 1573, together with a reprint of Gemma's pamphlet.
