Page:Philosophical Transactions - Volume 029.djvu/430

 Nor indeed, during the Reign of that glorious Princeſs, was this ſo rare a Sight as it has been ſince. For we find in a Book entituled a Deſription of Meteors, reprinted at London in the Year 1654, whoſe Author writes himſelf W. F. D.D. that the ſame thing, which he there calls Burning Spears, was ſeen at London on Jannary 30. 1560; and again by the Teſtimony of Stow, on the 7th of October 1564. And from foreign Authors we learn, that in the Year 1575, the ſame was twice repeated in Brabant, viz. on the 13th of February and 28th of September; and ſeen and deſcribed by Cornelius Gemma, Profeſſor of Medicine in the Univerfity of Lovain, and Son of Gemma Friſius the Mathematician. He, in a Diſcourſe he wrote of the Prodigies of thoſe Times, after ſeveral ill-boding Prognoſticks, thus very properly deſcribes the Cupola and Corona that he ſaw in the Chaſma (as he calls it) of ''February. Paulo paſt undecunque ſurgentibus Haftis & flammis novis, flagrarecalum à Borea parteuſque ad verticem videbatur: ac denique ne nihil qua contigerunt bactenus prfiguratum antea videretur, converſa eft Cli facies, per bor ſpatinum, in Fritilli aleatorii ſpeciem peregrinam; alternantibus ſeſe caruleo & candido, non minore vertigine motuſque celeritate, quam ſolares radii ſolent, quoties ab objecto ſpeculo regeruntur.'' Here it is not a little remarkable, that all theſe four already mentioned fell exactly upon the ſame Age of the Moon, viz. about two Days after the Change.

As to the other of September in the ſame Year 1575, theſe are the Words of Gemma. Minus quidem horrendum, ſed varia tamen magiſque conſula nobis apparuit alterius Chaſmatis forma, quarto Calendas Octobreis ''ſubſecuti, ſtatim ab occaſu Solis. Nam in illo viſi funt arcus illuſtres plurimi, ex quibus Haſt ſenſim eminentes, Urbeſque turrit & Acies militares. Erant hine radiorum excurſus quaqnaverſum, & nubium fluctus & prlia: inſectabantur invicem & fugiebant, facta in orbem converſione mirabili,'' From hence ‘tis