years without being noticed by other chroniclers, as science was then at it its lowest ebb in Europe, and a new star of perhaps less than the first magnitude and of short duration (like the stars of 1866 and 1876) could easily escape detection.[1] The only other contemporary author who alludes to the years 945 and 1264 is Count Hardeck, who in 1573 was Rector of the University of Wittenberg; but as his little book is dated the 1st May 1573, and that of Leovitius the 20th February, he would have had time to copy from Leovitius, and in any case it is certain that he speaks of a real comet of the year 1264, as he mentions its tail, while it is doubtful whether he means a comet or a star when speaking of 945.[2] It has been repeatedly suggested that the star of Cassiopea might be a variable star, with a period of about three hundred years, in which case it should again become visible about the present time, but it is needless to say that the vague assertions of Leovitius form a very slender foundation on which to build such a
- ↑ According to Klein, Der Fixsternhimmel, p. 102, the Chronicle of Albertus Stadensis (Oldenburg) mentions a bright star in Capricornus in 1245 (not alluded to elsewhere), as bright as Venus, but more red, and which lasted for two months.
- ↑ "Orationes duae. Vna de legibus et disciplina. Altera de Cometa inter Sidera lucente in mensem septimum, continens commonefactionem de impendentibus periculis. A Joh. Comite Hardeci. Wittenberg, 1573." 8vo. Fol. C., p. 2:—"Reperimus Cometas qui ante hæc tempora in eodem octaui orbis loco fulserunt, fere gentes concitasse Boreas, suis excitas sedibus, ad quærendas nouas. Qui Honorij principatu conspectus est, cuius meminit Claudianus, haud dubie finem Imperio occidentis cum tristi ac horribili ruina attulit . . . Qui Ottone primo imperante ad eandem Cassiopæam flagrauit Cometa, Vngaros in Germaniam, Ottonem in Italiam impulit . . . Qui anno a nato Christo sexagesimo supra millesimum ducentesimum ibidem luxit interregni tempore, coma ad coeli medium usque dispersa, Carolum Andegauensem e Gallia, per furiosa & scelerata consilia Clementis Pontificis attraxit in Italiam." This book is not mentioned by Tycho Brahe. In his Cometographia, p. 817, Hevelius quotes Christianus as mentioning the star of 945. This may seem to some readers to refer to the Chronicle of Christianus of 1472 (Pulkova Cat., p. 76), but, as Professor Copelaud has pointed out to me, it is merely a quotation of D. Christiani Tractatus de Cometarum Essentia, 1653, and therefore it does not prove anything as to the correctness of the statement of Cyprianus.
