Meteors

Use in the book

The opening catalogue of human vulnerability moves from heavenly threats to the air’s Meteors: thunder, lightning, excessive heat and cold, winds, storms and unseasonable weather. Burton connects these with scarcity, famine, plague and epidemic disease. The broad weather sense is essential. The death totals that follow are reports from Botero and others, not verified measurements, and the sequence places environmental threats within a theological account of calamity.

In the spirit survey, knowledge of the causes of all Meteors is one of the powers conceded by Burton’s named authorities. Their purported skill in natural properties explains how spirits might produce extraordinary effects; divine permission still limits their action. The later classification makes fiery spirits agents and blazing stars, firedrakes and will-o’-the-wisps instruments. Different reported lights enter one supernatural category without thereby becoming one phenomenon.

Lights on ships’ masts keep disagreement visible. They are described as spirits or small clouds, interpreted by Cardano as signs of harm and by others as favourable portents, then commonly named St. Elmes fires. The supplied editor’s electrical explanation concerns Saint Elmo’s fire alone. Demonic apparitions, especially apparition, already explains this appearance and its competing interpretations.

Burton does not always suspend judgment. Meteorologists generally refer storms to natural causes; he expressly sides with Bodin that aerial devils cause them more often. The falling Meteor proposed for green circles, by contrast, belongs to others as an alternative to fairy dances or fertile soil. These passages give their explanations different degrees of commitment. Spirits, Cause and Accident explain the wider settings.

The wandering-light image then moves inward. One person’s melancholy is shifted about by the ignis fatuus of phantasie, passing between bodily parts or troubling the mind when the body is free. The catalogue contrasts this course with intermittent or settled conditions; it does not give every sufferer one pattern. Its nearby astrological timing belongs to some cases. Later Ignes fatui becomes a simile for false prophets leading people astray. A changeful inner guide and a deceptive public guide share an image without becoming the same cause of distress.

The symptom explanation gives the lights another setting. Glow-worms, Fire-drakes, Meteors and Ignis fatuus occur beside smoke, optical devices and deliberate scares. Burton refers readers to writers on their causes, goes on to projection and mirrors, and says deception is mostly in the brain, though he still allows the Devil to exploit the condition. Naturally occurring, manufactured and misperceived appearances coexist; this is not a claim that every light is fabricated. Glass explains the optical devices, and Fear explains fears as scares.

Book titles reveal the field’s breadth. Aristotle’s meteors is cited in questions about marine remains inland and the alternation of land and sea. The editor offers Meteorology I.14 as a broader parallel, not confirmation of the whole catalogue. Fromondus’s Meteors supplies an explanation of climate through the sun’s motion, which Burton challenges with differences between nearby places. Meteorologists also propose underground wind or sulphurous fire as causes of earthquakes. These are branches of historical natural philosophy, not an exclusive study of shooting stars.

The diversity of Meteors prompts a chain of questions: are the objects of strange showers lifted from earth, generated aloft, sent directly by God or produced through spirits? Lemmings descending from clouds remain Münster’s report. Telesio and Paracelsus challenge Aristotle; the continuation distances the alchemists’ feats with as they say. Another dispute sets alternative atmospheric heights and rejects a supposed elemental-fire region. Elements explains the constituent and fire-region vocabulary; here the meteor family names the phenomena to be explained.

Comets challenge a fixed separation of air and heavens. Their motion supports a celestial-matter account against an ignited aerial exhalation, with Chiaramonti’s opposition retained. Burton asks whether new appearances show generation and corruption or bodies created from the beginning returning at intervals. His æthereall Comets includes examples the editor identifies as new stars, including the 1572 and 1604 supernovae. Matter, celestial matter, already explains the substance dispute. The historical category must not be silently replaced by the modern one.

Later comparisons detach light from causal classification. Hermotinus sees his former beloved like a blazing star or angel and relapses into love: the brilliance belongs to his view of her. Religious polemic likens otherwise sensible people to comets, round except where they blaze. Religious melancholy, cetera sani, already explains this restricted impairment and the otherwise sound qualification amid invective. Finally, Meteors at Rome receives divine, natural, stellar, chance and necessity explanations. The body inconsistently says both banishment and execution, while its margin says exile; the edition preserves the discrepancy rather than establishing one cause from the story.

Related entries

Astrology; Astrological aspects, for the timing beside the wandering-light image; Imagination; Spirits; Demonic apparitions; Matter; Air; Glass. Elements, Spheres and firmament, and Parallax and refraction continue the physical and optical questions.

Places to read

1. Human Excellence, the Fall, Miseries and Infirmities; Their Causes · paragraphs 28–30atmospheric disturbances among threats to life.
2. Subsection 2 A Digression on the Nature of Spirits Evil Angels or Devils and How They Cause Melancholy · paragraphs 15–18spirits’ claimed knowledge and limited agency.
3. Subsection 2 A Digression on the Nature of Spirits Evil Angels or Devils and How They Cause Melancholy · paragraphs 44–50, 1–5fiery lights, mast lights and natural versus demonic storm explanations.
4. Subsection 2 A Digression on the Nature of Spirits Evil Angels or Devils and How They Cause Melancholy · paragraphs 17–19a falling meteor among rival causes of green circles.
5. Subsection 4 Symptoms Arising From Education, Custom, Duration, Our Circumstances, Mingled With Other Diseases, Occurring in Fits, From Inclination, and So On · paragraphs 10–12imagination as a wandering light in varied symptom courses.
6. Member 3 Immediate Cause of the Preceding Symptoms · paragraphs 26–30natural lights, contrivances, optics and internal deception.
7. Member 3. Air Corrected. With a Digression on Air · paragraphs 10–12Aristotle’s meteors as a title, with qualified parallels.
8. Member 3. Air Corrected. With a Digression on Air · paragraphs 29–31Meteorologists and earthquakes.
9. Member 3. Air Corrected. With a Digression on Air · paragraphs 17–25Fromondus’s book, strange showers, rival causes and atmospheric limits.
10. Member 3. Air Corrected. With a Digression on Air · paragraphs 26–36, 1–2comets, celestial matter and change in the heavens.
11. Member 3. Air Corrected. With a Digression on Air · paragraph 7; note 5505de Meteoris, with uncertain printed anchor.
12. Resist the Beginnings, Avoid Occasions, Change One’s Location; Fair and Foul Means, Contrary Passions and Ingenious Devices; Introduce Another Love and Disparage the Former · paragraphs 13–15the beloved as a blazing star.
13. Causes of Religious Melancholy. From the Devil, Through Miracles, Apparitions and Oracles. His Instruments or Agents: Politicians, Priests, Impostors, Heretics and Blind Guides. In Them: Credulity, Fear, Blind Zeal, Ignorance, Solitude, Curiosity, Pride, Vanity, Presumption and So On. His Devices: Fasting, Solitude, Hope, Fear and the Rest · paragraphs 7–9false prophets as misleading lights.
14. General Symptoms: Love of Their Own Sect; Hatred of All Other Religions; Obstinacy and Ill Temper; Readiness to Undergo Any Danger or Adversity for It; Martyrs; Blind Zeal and Blind Obedience; Fasts and Vows; Belief in Incredible and Impossible Things. Particular Symptoms Among Pagans, Muslims, Jews and Christians; and Among Christians, Heretics Old and New, Schismatics, Scholastic Theologians, Prophets, Enthusiasts and So On · paragraphs 26–28the comet image and otherwise sound.
15. Member 2 Subsection 1 Religious Melancholy From Deficiency: Those Affected—Epicures, Atheists, Hypocrites, the Worldly and Complacent, Carnalists, All Impious People, Impenitent Sinners, and Others · paragraphs 27–29rival explanations of atmospheric signs.
16. C · paragraph 113; M · paragraph 19retrieval entries for comets above the moon and strange meteors, not independent physical arguments.

In this edition

Meteors becomes atmospheric disturbances in the opening threats, atmospheric phenomena in explanatory passages and atmospheric signs in the Roman report. Blazing Stars becomes comets, but blazing star remains a simile. Firedrakes becomes fiery dragons in the classification, and Fire-drakes becomes fiery apparitions in the symptom explanation. These equivalents preserve local descriptions rather than equating every light with a modern astronomical meteor.

Ignes fatui becomes will-o’-the-wisps; singular ignis fatuus becomes will-o’-the-wisp. In ignis fatuus of phantasie, of phantasie becomes appositional imagination: will-o’-the-wisp, imagination. The light name supplies the first part and phantasie the second, not one undivided synonym. An accompanying note preserves the astrological setting and the distinction between Plater’s earlier body anchor and his starred reference printed below Guianerius’s note in the margin.

The title meteors becomes Meteorology for Aristotle but remains Meteors for Fromondus. Original de Meteoris and supplied On Meteors occupy different layers of a Burton-labelled note; the explanation of its uncertain attachment is editorial. The margin prints page 252, while the attached body passage has Source page 253. Neither the exact authorial anchor nor a fuller bibliographical title is silently reconstructed.

meteor; meteors

A phenomenon of the air, including disturbances of weather, luminous appearances and reported unusual showers; not restricted to the modern astronomical luminous track.

Grammar: Count noun, singular Meteor and plural meteors/Meteors.

Original text: “The Air with his Meteors, Thunder and Lightning”. In the modern column: “The air threatens us with its atmospheric disturbances, thunder and lightning”. Atmospheric disturbances lead the threats from weather and its alleged consequences. Burton’s theological catalogue connects adverse weather with epidemic disease; subsequent death totals are received reports, not verified statistics. Meteors gives atmospheric disturbances; threatens us is supplied from the preceding construction.

Original text: “perceiving the causes of all Meteors”. In the modern column: “understanding the causes of all atmospheric phenomena”. Knowledge of atmospheric processes belongs to the powers conceded to spirits. The preceding unit names authorities; the continuation limits extraordinary effects by God’s permission. Meteors gives atmospheric phenomena; all remains the scope claimed.

Original text: “a Meteor falling”. In the modern column: “a falling meteor”. A falling phenomenon is one proposed explanation of green circles. Others hold marks an alternative to fairy dances, alongside fertile soil; no cause is settled. Meteor is retained; falling changes position. The passage does not securely identify a modern meteoroid. Complementary earlier route: Accident. Accident already treats the competing accidental rankness; shared context.

Original text: “Who can give a reason of this diversity of Meteors”. In the modern column: “Who can explain this variety of atmospheric phenomena”. The category includes alleged showers of stones and animals. Münster supplies the lemming story. Following units propose lifting, generation aloft, divine action or spirit illusion; this is not accepted zoology. Meteors gives atmospheric phenomena; the question asks for an explanation.

Original text: “of Meteors in generall”. In the modern column: “on atmospheric phenomena generally”. The survey turns from particular prodigies to rival atmospheric theories. Telesio and Paracelsus are named challengers; the alchemical feats continue into 074-23 with as they say and what not. Meteors gives atmospheric phenomena; in generall becomes generally.

Original text: “no Meteors, Clouds, Fogges, Vapors, arise higher than 50. or 80. miles”. In the modern column: “no atmospheric phenomena, clouds, fogs, or vapours rise higher than fifty or eighty miles”. Atmospheric height is a disputed limit in the cosmic-region account. Nunes and Kepler undertake the demonstration; the continuation rejects the supposed fire region. Marginal heights differ and are not reconciled. Meteors gives atmospheric phenomena; no and the alternative heights remain explicit.

Original text: “those Meteors and Prodigies appeared in the Ayr”. In the modern column: “atmospheric signs and portents appeared”. Signs in the air receive competing causal interpretations. Some said distributes the views. The body’s banishment/execution discrepancy remains beside the original margin’s exile; the accompanying note limits the Dionysius comparison. Meteors gives atmospheric signs; the coordinated noun is outside this lexical alignment.

Meteorologists

Writers on atmospheric and other natural phenomena, including storms, underground waters and earthquakes.

Grammar: Plural agent noun Meteorologists, subject of refer and enform in reported explanations.

Original text: “our Meteorologists generally refer to natural causes”. In the modern column: “our writers on atmospheric phenomena generally attribute these to natural causes”. Natural storm explanations are contrasted with Burton’s demonic preference. Though introduces the natural account; yet I am of Bodines minde explicitly favours aerial devils causing these storms more often. Meteorologists gives writers on atmospheric phenomena; generally qualifies their attribution. Complementary earlier route: Cause. Cause already treats natural causes in this same contrast.

Original text: “as our Meteorologists enform us”. In the modern column: “as our writers on natural phenomena tell us”. The writers supply a subterranean explanation of earthquakes. Or else it may be introduces a possibility after other accounts of springs. Meteorologists gives writers on natural phenomena, broader than weather forecasting.

meteors: treatise title

A short title for a work about natural or atmospheric phenomena, rather than the phenomena themselves.

Grammar: Plural-form English title after in his; meteors for Aristotle, Meteors for Fromondus.

Original text: “Aristotle insinuates in his meteors”. In the modern column: “Aristotle suggests in his Meteorology”. The book is cited in questions about marine remains inland. An accompanying note supplies Meteorology I.14 as broader context, not proof of the whole catalogue; Mela’s plains are not silently made hilltops. His meteors gives his Meteorology; the surrounding verb is outside this title alignment.

Original text: “Fromundus in his Meteors”. In the modern column: “Fromondus, in his Meteors”. The cited book offers a solar-motion explanation Burton challenges. The final question tests the explanation against climatic differences at the same latitude or nearby places. Meteors remains Meteors; the author’s name is separately modernized.

de Meteoris

On Meteors: a Latin bibliographical phrase for a work on atmospheric or natural phenomena.

Grammar: Latin preposition de governing ablative plural Meteoris; complete title phrase.

Component sense: Meteoris. Latin ablative plural noun in the title: meteors or atmospheric phenomena. On belongs to the governing preposition de, not to Meteoris alone..

Component access (Meteoris): Latin ablative plural noun in the title: meteors or atmospheric phenomena. On belongs to the governing preposition de, not to Meteoris alone.

Component access (Meteors): Latin ablative plural noun in the title: meteors or atmospheric phenomena. On belongs to the governing preposition de, not to Meteoris alone.

Original margin: “de Meteoris”. Supplied note translation or expansion: “On Meteors”. A marginal short title points to Fromondus near the earth-motion transition. The printed anchor is unclear. The note prints page 252 although its editorially attached body unit is 253. De with ablative plural Meteoris supplies On Meteors; complete title phrase.

blazing star; blazing Stars

A comet in the fiery-spirit catalogue; in the love narrative, a brilliant star supplies a simile without fixing a comet identification.

Grammar: English noun phrase with adjective blazing; plural Stars in a list, singular star in an as-comparison.

Original text: “work by blazing Stars, Firedrakes, or Ignes fatui”. In the modern column: “act through comets, fiery dragons or will-o’-the-wisps”. Comets are instruments through which fiery spirits supposedly act. Spirits are agents, lights instruments; commonly and often qualify frequency. Bodin is cited under preceding sublunary and divine-permission restrictions. Blazing Stars supplies comets alone; the other nouns have separate equivalents.

Original text: “she did appear as a blazing star, or an Angel to his sight”. In the modern column: “she appeared to his eyes like a blazing star or an angel”. The beloved’s appearance reignites the young man’s love. As and to his sight mark a literary character’s comparison, not transformation into a celestial object. Blazing star is retained; the adjacent Latin bright-star comparison supports brilliance, not necessarily comet.

Firedrakes; Fire-drakes

Fiery dragon-like appearances or streaks, grouped with reported lights whose interpretation depends on context.

Grammar: Plural compound noun, solid Firedrakes and hyphenated Fire-drakes.

Original text: “blazing Stars, Firedrakes, or Ignes fatui”. In the modern column: “comets, fiery dragons or will-o’-the-wisps”. Dragon-like lights stand between comets and wandering lights in the classification. An accompanying note explains appearances or streaks, not evidence for living dragons. Firedrakes supplies fiery dragons only.

Original text: “Glow-wormes, Fire-drakes, Meteors, Ignis fatuus”. In the modern column: “Glow-worms, fiery apparitions, meteors and the will-o’-the-wisp”. The phenomena reappear beside natural effects and deliberate scares. The paragraph combines natural lights and contrived effects without assigning one mechanism to all; continuation admits optical, internal and demonic explanations. Fire-drakes supplies fiery apparitions; the other nouns are separate. Complementary earlier route: Fear. Fear already treats scares in this mixed explanation.

ignis fatuus; Ignes fatui

A will-o’-the-wisp, a wandering light imagined as misleading travellers; figuratively a misleading guide or imagination’s changeful course.

Grammar: Latin noun phrase embedded in English: singular ignis fatuus/Ignis fatuus; plural Ignes fatui.

Component sense: of phantasie. English faculty component: phantasie means imagination, expressed appositionally in the modern phrase. It is not a second definition of the Latin light name. Imagination explains the faculty..

Component access (phantasie): English faculty component: phantasie means imagination, expressed appositionally in the modern phrase. It is not a second definition of the Latin light name. Imagination explains the faculty.

Component access (of phantasie): English faculty component: phantasie means imagination, expressed appositionally in the modern phrase. It is not a second definition of the Latin light name. Imagination explains the faculty.

Component access (imagination): English faculty component: phantasie means imagination, expressed appositionally in the modern phrase. It is not a second definition of the Latin light name. Imagination explains the faculty.

Original text: “Ignes fatui”. In the modern column: “will-o’-the-wisps”. The lights supposedly mislead people into danger through fiery spirits’ action. Commonly and often qualify the alleged action; spirits, not the noun itself, supply supernatural agency. The whole Latin plural phrase maps to the English plural name.

Original text: “that ignis fatuus of phantasie”. In the modern column: “that will-o’-the-wisp, imagination”. The light figures imagination shifting melancholy from one form or location to another. To one marks one course among others; the wider catalogue does not give every sufferer a lunar cycle. Ignis fatuus gives will-o’-the-wisp; of phantasie becomes appositional imagination, not a second translation of the Latin name. Complementary earlier route: Exercise. Exercise already explains exercising the minde as tormenting, not mental practice, in the same sentence.

Original text: “Meteors, Ignis fatuus”. In the modern column: “meteors and the will-o’-the-wisp”. Readers are referred to natural writers for causes of lights. The Castor-and-Pollux attribution and grouping remain Burton’s, not identification of all listed lights as one. Ignis fatuus supplies the will-o’-the-wisp; Meteors is a separate coordinate noun.

Original text: “as so many Ignes fatui, have led men out of the way”. In the modern column: “Like so many will-o’-the-wisps, they have led people astray”. False prophets are compared to misleading lights. The accusation and contempt for followers belong to Burton’s polemic, not a neutral description of a population. Ignes fatui supplies will-o’-the-wisps; as marks the simile.

comet; Comets

A luminous heavenly appearance discussed through motion, matter and tail; Burton’s historical category also includes new stars now distinguished from comets. Figuratively, its body and projecting blaze picture coherence disturbed in one direction.

Grammar: Count noun: plural Comets/comets and singular Comet.

Component sense: æthereall. Adjectival component: belonging to the heavens. Celestial qualifies comets and does not mean comet..

Component access (æthereall): Adjectival component: belonging to the heavens. Celestial qualifies comets and does not mean comet.

Component access (Æthereall): Adjectival component: belonging to the heavens. Celestial qualifies comets and does not mean comet.

Component access (celestial): Adjectival component: belonging to the heavens. Celestial qualifies comets and does not mean comet.

Original text: “motion of Comets”. In the modern column: “motion of comets”. Motion supports celestial matter against an aerial-exhalation account. The proponents are named in adjoining units; Chiaramonti’s opposition remains. An accompanying note distinguishes Burton’s compression from Aristotle’s report. Comets and motion are retained.

Original text: “æthereall Comets”. In the modern column: “celestial comets”. New appearances enter a question about change in the heavens. Whether and as some think preserve the question and attribution; the accompanying note identifies the 1572 and 1604 events as supernovae without rewriting Burton. Æthereall gives celestial; Comets remains comets.

Original text: “they are like comets, round in all places but only where they blaze”. In the modern column: “They are like comets, round everywhere except where their tails flare out”. The projecting blaze pictures allegedly restricted impairment. Like marks simile; otherwise sound limits the claim amid sectarian invective and the ensuing historical remedy. Comets remains comets; tails is made explicit from where they blaze.

St. Elmes fires

The reported luminous appearance associated with ships’ masts after storms, now named Saint Elmo’s fire; not every neighbouring light.

Grammar: Plural English name St. Elmes fires; they refers to preceding mast-light accounts.

Original text: “St. Elmes fires they commonly call them”. In the modern column: “They are commonly called Saint Elmo’s fires”. The name concludes accounts of spirits or clouds and rival portents. Traveller and date remain uncollated; the accompanying note’s electrical explanation belongs to the editor, not Burton or all lights. The complete name becomes Saint Elmo’s fires; commonly retains customary naming.