Earth’s motion

Use in the book

The theory enters the preface in two voices. First it is among the extraordinary doctrines readers might mistakenly expect from the name Democritus. Later, Copernicus as Atlas’s successor makes the earth a moving and shining planet; Burton turns the comparison with the moon into a conditional joke that its inhabitants are dizzy and moonstruck. The joke about universal folly does not make every listed astronomer an adherent of identical doctrines.

The astronomical digression asks why the immense heavens should rush around a stationary earth every day. Gilbert’s challenge and the extravagant speed comparisons supply an argument for changing the arrangement, not modern measurements endorsed by this article. Burton then reports the threefold motion with a fixed central sun, but parenthetically calls a different option, one motion of a centrally placed earth, “more probable.” That preference prevents the passage from becoming a simple declaration of modern heliocentrism. The editor, not the body’s bare phrase, identifies the three proposed motions as daily rotation, annual revolution and the additional motion then used to preserve the earth’s axial direction.

The argument next meets its own costs. If the earth’s great yearly movement cannot be perceived from the distant firmament, the stars and intervening distances must be correspondingly vast. The earth would appear an indivisible point, not actually become an indivisible body. Burton grants the motion provisionally and explores the earth as a luminous planet, then possible inhabitants and other worlds. “If it once be granted” and the later qualification about believing Galileo keep that excursion conditional. His report that the Roman Church condemned the doctrine belongs to the 1616 reference in his margin, not to an unspecified later trial.

The text also preserves contradictory schemes rather than smoothing them into one. Fracastoro’s earth stands still; Reimers’s remains central but movable; Tycho’s is an immovable centre. The ensuing quarrel brings alternative hypotheses and renewed objections, then the digression turns into a satire on excessive claims to know heaven and God. Burton finally admits his own limited ability and invokes knowledge accumulated over time before returning to melancholy. His local admiration for an argument survives alongside uncertainty, rivalry and self-limitation.

Outside that sustained debate, the same question has practical and moral uses. In the inquiry into tides, Burton approvingly calls Galileo’s terrestrial-motion account a proof and demonstration while still listing other proposed causes. This is his historical assessment, not the modern explanation of tides. Earlier, Burton conditionally assumes an immovable earth to challenge an astrological explanation of regional differences: stellar positions change, but the expected changes in countries are not perceived. In the consolation of poverty, the contented man does not investigate whether the earth stands or moves: freedom from this worry, not an answer to astronomy, is the point.

The Latin words can also mean an earthquake. Beroaldo’s de terræ motu, with the marginal title Subitarius terræ motus, concerns a sudden shaking at Bologna and the fear it allegedly produced. This is neither daily rotation nor annual revolution. Likewise, Archimedes’s conditional boast of moving the earth with an instrument is a feat of leverage in Burton’s catalogue of arts, not a cosmological model.

Related entries

Spheres and firmament; Epicycles and eccentrics; Hypothesis and supposition; Atoms and infinite worlds; Vacuum; Parallax and refraction; Tides and currents; Probability and conjecture; Paradox; Inseparable and individual; Tables; Art and artificial.

Places to read

1. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 1–4The expected astronomical paradox.
2. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 35–37The conditional lunar joke.
3. Subsection 2 A Digression on the Nature of Spirits Evil Angels or Devils and How They Cause Melancholy · paragraphs 38–48, 1–2; note 2111Reported demonic earthquake causes; original margin.
4. Subsection 3 Terrors and Frights as Causes of Melancholy · paragraphs 18–22; note 3735; note 3739Earthquake titles, Beroaldo’s servant and the Japanese report; the accompanying note and the accompanying note.
5. Member 3. Air Corrected. With a Digression on Air · paragraphs 25–29Competing causes of the sea’s motions.
6. Member 3. Air Corrected. With a Digression on Air · paragraphs 9–14The immovable-earth supposition used against a regional astrological explanation.
7. Member 3. Air Corrected. With a Digression on Air · paragraphs 6–16Biblical argument, prefatory attribution, rival motions and observational objections.
8. Member 3. Air Corrected. With a Digression on Air · paragraphs 16–32Conditional planetary and plurality arguments.
9. Member 3. Air Corrected. With a Digression on Air · paragraphs 32–38, 1–18Alternative models, controversy and the digression’s full withdrawal.
10. Member 4 Exercise of Body and Mind Regulated · paragraphs 43–45Archimedes’s conditional leverage boast.
11. Member 3 Against Poverty and Want and Other Such Adversities · paragraphs 46–51The contented man’s exemption from cosmological anxiety.
12. E · paragraph 173Earths motion examined and its printed page pointers.

In this edition

“Triple” becomes “threefold,” “annuall” becomes “annual,” and “moveable” and “immoveable” become “movable” and “immovable.” “Whether the earth stand or move” becomes “whether the earth stands still or moves,” preserving the question rather than choosing its answer. In the Latin, per unicum motum terræ supplies “through a single motion of the earth”; de terræ motu supplies “on the earth’s motion.” Neither phrase independently means the whole surrounding hypothesis or calculation.

Two corrections belong to the editorial apparatus and should stay visible as such. The biblical “He who moves the earth from its place” is Job 9:6 rather than Burton’s printed 9:4. The prefatory statement attributed to Copernicus and “Pope Nicholas” conflates Copernicus’s dedication to Paul III with Osiander’s unsigned address about hypotheses. The modern body preserves Burton’s report; the note distinguishes the texts. The marginal in motum terræ means “on the Motion of the Earth,” not the whole translated bibliography.

earths motion; Earths motion

The earth’s movement, contrasted with a stationary earth; its particular kind must be supplied by the local model.

Grammar: English possessive noun construction, with variable capitalization and no apostrophe in the printed form.

Original text: “paradox of the earths motion”. In the modern column: “paradox about the earth's motion”. The movement is one controversial doctrine expected from the name Democritus. Burton disclaims that expected subject and groups thinkers loosely; this is not a profession of a single astronomical system. The possessive construction retains its object; paradox marks disputed doctrine, not a proof of falsity.

Original text: “or earths motion”. In the modern column: “or the earth's motion”. Earth’s movement is offered as one possible cause of the tides. Burton approvingly describes Galileo as proving and demonstrating this cause, while retaining lunar and wind alternatives. An accompanying note distinguishes that historical assessment from modern tidal explanation. Earths motion becomes the earth’s motion; or preserves its place among alternatives.

Original text: “that main paradox, of the Earths motion”. In the modern column: “the great paradox of the earth’s motion”. The principal controversy to which Burton turns after the smaller astronomical questions. Reported ancient adherents and competing scriptural interpreters do not amount to Burton’s unqualified assent. Main paradox becomes great paradox; Earths motion retains the physical question rather than receiving a specific model not present in the phrase.

Original text: “maintain of the earths motion”. In the modern column: “maintain about the earth’s motion”. The theory is the premise from which the text says further planetary inferences follow. The claims are conditional on if it once be granted and the lunar observations retain if we may subscribe to and believe; they are not all established facts. Of becomes about in the construction; the conditional force is supplied by the wider source sentence.

Original text: “these Paradoxes of the earths motion”. In the modern column: “these paradoxes of the earth’s motion”. The controversy motivates attempts at alternative astronomical systems. Burton reports condemnation as heretical; margin dates the reference to 1616. An accompanying note warns that his wording compresses the judgments and is not Galileo’s later trial. The modern preserves the theory’s label; it does not correct Burton’s compressed ecclesiastical history.

Original Table: “Earths motion examined, 252.” In the modern column: “The earth’s motion examined, 252;” An index pointer to the discussion, not an additional argument for the theory. The unnumbered Table lists source-page references; its 252 is retained even though the main discussion crosses into 253. The earth’s supplies the modern possessive. The printed 252 is a pointer within the entry, not the Table unit’s own page label.

stand or move; stand still; moveable; immoveable

The alternatives of a stationary and a moving earth; being central does not by itself decide whether the earth moves.

Grammar: English coordinated verbs and contrasted verbal/adjectival forms.

Original text: “if the earth be immovable”. In the modern column: “If the earth is immovable”. Burton conditionally holds the earth fixed to test whether changed stellar positions should have altered countries. This is an objection to Scaliger’s celestial explanation of regional differences: Burton says the expected alterations are not perceived. It is not a declaration that the earth is immovable. If preserves the assumption; immovable remains immovable. The predicted variation and its denied observation belong to the larger argument.

Original text: “the earth the Center of the World, but moveable”. In the modern column: “the earth at the centre of the world but movable”. Reimers’s central earth is allowed motion, unlike the stationary alternative in the same paragraph. The positions are reported and the editor warns against treating Burton’s compressed system as a complete historical account. Moveable becomes movable; being at the centre is a separate predicate, not its synonym.

Original text: “the earth the Center immoveable”. In the modern column: “the earth the immovable centre”. Tycho’s earth is presented as a fixed centre. This is Burton’s report. An accompanying note flags the separate awkward assertion that Tycho’s stars too are immovable, which must not be silently made into a complete accurate diagram. Immoveable becomes immovable, retaining the negative prefix and its application to the earth as centre.

Original text: “whether the earth stand or move”. In the modern column: “whether the earth stands still or moves”. The unresolved controversy is one of the worries the contented poor man does not pursue. He enquires not governs the catalogue; Burton is praising freedom from anxious inquiry, not attributing an astronomical decision to the man. Stand is explicated as stands still; the whether construction preserves the open alternatives.

triple motion

The threefold terrestrial motion of the reported sun-centred arrangement.

Grammar: English adjective and singular noun.

Original text: “a triple motion to the earth”. In the modern column: “a threefold motion to the earth”. The sun is fixed at the system’s centre, while the earth is the centre of the moon alone. They ascribe marks reported advocacy. An accompanying note explains daily rotation, annual revolution and an additional motion assigned to preserve axial direction; that three-part unpacking is editorial, not an enumeration in the body. Triple is rendered threefold. The three motions are not each separately named in Burton’s sentence.

one single motion to the earth

One motion assigned to an earth that remains at the centre of the world.

Grammar: English quantified noun construction.

Original text: “one single motion to the earth, still placed in the Center of the world”. In the modern column: “a single motion while it remains at the centre of the world”. Burton distinguishes the Origanus-associated centrally placed moving earth from the preceding threefold sun-centred scheme. He explicitly calls this alternative more probable; that local comparison is not an endorsement of every Copernican claim. The modern supplies the subject they give the earth outside the selected phrase. The full selected construction contains central location as well as motion; single motion alone does not mean central rotating earth.

annuall motion

The earth’s yearly motion, whose apparent extent depends on the imagined observer’s distance.

Grammar: English adjective and noun.

Original text: “that great annuall motion of the earth”. In the modern column: “the earth’s great annual motion”. The imagined observer in the firmament would not discern this motion; the earth would seem a fixed point. For, say they and if a mans eye were mark reported conditional reasoning. The following objections and so some will qualify whose judgments Burton rehearses. Annuall is modernized to annual; the inability to discern is not a denial that the proposed motion occurs.

the earth is a planet, moves and shines

A portrayal of the earth as a moving, luminous planetary body comparable to the moon.

Grammar: English predicative construction with coordinated verbs.

Original text: “the earth is a planet, moves and shines to others”. In the modern column: “the earth is a planet, moving and shining for others”. The astronomical analogy becomes a joke that lunar earth-dwellers are dizzy and moonstruck. Copernicus is of opinion introduces the report; if it be so makes the satirical inference conditional. An accompanying note does not establish identical commitments for every thinker listed. Moves and shines become participles in the modern construction; for others preserves the comparative viewpoint.

Original text: “If the earth move, it is a Planet”. In the modern column: “If the earth moves, it is a planet”. The moving-earth premise opens a speculative argument about light and other planetary inhabitants. Hoc posito grants a premise for argument. Shine she doth is the stronger subsequent assertion, but the accompanying note distinguishes luminous bodies from evidence of inhabitants. If remains conditional; the noun planet is not equivalent to the later inhabited conclusion.

Qui commovet terram de loco suo

He who moves the earth from its place, a biblical formulation pressed into the astronomical dispute.

Grammar: Latin relative clause: commovet present active, terram accusative object, de loco suo ablative phrase.

Original text: “Qui commovet terram de loco suo”. In the modern column: “He who moves the earth from its place”. The quotation is alleged by some commentators to support terrestrial motion. The proponents, not Burton alone, claim it outweighs opposing verses; Pineda and most contradict them. An accompanying note identifies Job 9:6 instead of Burton’s printed 9:4. Qui is He who; commovet moves; terram the earth; de loco suo from its place. The clause does not itself name daily rotation or annual revolution.

motum terræ; terræ motu

The motion of the earth, used in a bibliography, an explanatory claim and a named hypothesis.

Grammar: Latin motion-of-earth constructions: accusative motum with genitive terræ, and ablative motu after de.

Original margin: “in motum terræ”. Supplied note translation or expansion: “on the Motion of the Earth”. The phrase identifies the subject of the cited Commentary. An accompanying note is a bibliography, not a new demonstration. Its translation and publication details are supplied outside the quoted original margin. In is on in this title construction; motum supplies Motion, terræ of the Earth. The whole Commentary title is wider than the selected component.

Original text: “per unicum motum terræ”. In the modern column: “through a single motion of the earth”. The motion is the proposed means of calculating apparent planetary movements more conveniently. Saith Lansbergius attributes the advantage; the phrase is not Burton’s demonstrated proof that all historical calculation devices are unnecessary. Per supplies through, unicum single, motum motion, terræ of the earth; the preceding comparative adverbs are outside this component span.

Original text: “de terræ motu”. In the modern column: “on the earth’s motion”. The phrase specifies the subject of the Copernican hypothesis under dispute. The text reports advocacy and counterattack, then jokes sound Drummes and Trumpets. An accompanying note retains the switch from Philippus to Iohannes Lansbergius rather than merging their identities. De supplies on, terræ earth’s and motu motion. Hypothesis is a distinct surrounding noun with its own article.

terræ motus: earthquake

A shaking of the ground, not the earth’s astronomical rotation or revolution.

Grammar: Latin motion-of-earth constructions: nominative singular motus in Subitarius terræ motus; ablative singular motu after de; accusative plural motus as object of efficiunt in horribiles terræ motus; joined nominative singular terræmotus in the accompanying note.

Original margin: “horribiles terræ motus”. Supplied note translation or expansion: “terrible earthquakes”. Physical earthquakes are alleged effects of wind driven underground by spirits. The body expressly attributes the claim to Cicogna; they refers to the supernatural agents described, not to astronomers. The account is not an established mechanism. The plural construction terræ motus means earthquakes; horribiles supplies terrible. This is not celestial motion.

Original margin: “Subitarius terræ motus”. Supplied note translation or expansion: “The Sudden Earthquake”. The marginal title names Beroaldo’s account of the Bologna earthquake. The event is reported as an overwhelming disturbance of several senses; the next unit’s first-person servant story belongs to the cited author, not Burton. Subitarius supplies Sudden; terræ motus is Earthquake. This noun construction differs in referent, not just inflection, from the astronomical motion phrase.

Original text: “de terræ motu”. In the modern column: “On the Earthquake”. The body cites the earthquake account by its subject. Beroaldo is the reported source; the actual work has not been independently collated in the accompanying note. De means On; terræ motu means the Earthquake in this local title, rather than the astronomical on the earth’s motion at 075-35.

Original margin: “caligo & terræmotus”. Supplied note translation or expansion: “darkness and earthquake”. The joined form terræmotus names the earthquake in the reported Japanese disaster. The Fróis-associated margin is an abbreviated report with &c.; omitted text is not reconstructed and the exact places remain uncollated in the accompanying note. Caligo is darkness, & and, and terræmotus earthquake. The joined printing is retained as a retrieval form.

Earlier explanation: consentaneum

Earlier explanation: consentaneus · consentaneum · local use 1

For consentaneum, see Consent and essence.

Reference scope: Consent and essence owns the adjective and its favorable judgment in Lansbergen-associated advocacy.

Earlier explanation: dispositionem

Earlier explanation: dispositio · dispositionem

For dispositionem, see Habit and disposition.

Reference scope: The earlier arrangement record keeps ownership of the hostile label for the stationary-earth system.

Earlier explanation: indivisibile

Earlier explanation: indivisibilis

For indivisibile, see Inseparable and individual.

Reference scope: The apparent point and adjective remain the earlier record; this article explains the annual-motion context.

Earlier explanation: tables

Earlier explanation: table · tables · local use 3

For tables, see Tables.

Reference scope: The astronomical numerical tables are the earlier record’s further local use, not a newly owned lemma here.

For more probable, see Probability and conjecture.

Reference scope: The earlier current-batch probability record owns the comparative degree; the motion article identifies which central-earth alternative it qualifies.

For hoc posito, see Hypothesis and supposition.

Reference scope: The granted-premise construction keeps its Hypothesis and supposition owner; it introduces the conditional astronomical excursion, not an assertion that the premise has been proved.