Parallax and refraction

Use in the book

The anatomy gives the optic nerves a conveying role. They are the first pair in Burton’s seven-pair account and carry sight from the eye towards common sense, the internal judging faculty. The eye is the organ, the nerves the means, and common sense the destination. Later, Frambesarius and Sallustius Salvianus associate blindness with melancholy entering those nerves. That conditional prognosis is distinct from the adjoining account of the brain’s ventricles, and both belong to historical physiology.

The oar illustrates an altered appearance rather than a broken object. Weak eyesight, groundless conviction, thick air, fear and imagination may combine to make indistinct things seem ghosts. Burton proceeds through sleeplessness and contrived images, then says deception is mostly in the brain while allowing that the devil can intervene. The natural example does not turn that mixed explanation into a universal rejection of supernatural agency. The mirror effects and optical devices are treated more fully under Glass.

Turbans supply a different use: ad fugandos solis radios means to ward off the sun’s rays, followed by Burton’s “to refract the Sun beams.” The modern “deflect the sunlight” preserves the protective purpose without inventing an exact operation of the cloth. In the mountain account, however, ob paucam solarium radiorum refractionem gives scant refraction as a reason for cold heights near the middle region of air. Burton cites Serarius and Abulensis, then acknowledges unresolved climatic diversity. The printed refraction must not be silently changed to reflection or substituted for a modern account of altitude.

In the astronomical sequence, Cardan, Tycho and Pena are said to refute a separate cosmic element of fire by refractions and many other arguments. Refraction is evidence, not the entire proof. Pena’s marginal reference to Euclid’s Catoptrics identifies a work without independently settling the dispute. The ensuing margin says that refractions arise from nothing other than dense air and equates the transparent media of air and aether. The body nevertheless assigns two substances to Tycho. Agreement that the heavens are penetrable must not erase that difference over their material identity.

Comets extend the argument beyond the moon. Their courses, parallaxes and refractions, together with planets crossing supposed spheres, support the rejection of hard, impenetrable shells. Burton contrasts celestial matter with Aristotle’s aerial exhalations but retains Chiaramonti’s opposition. The continuation expressly locates the comets above the moon. No numerical parallax is supplied here, and the compressed author list does not establish identical arguments by every writer. The original separates “Eliseus, Rœlin” and “Thaddeus, Hagecius”; the editor identifies probable paired names without silently changing that punctuation.

The fixed-star objection tests a different scale. A moving-earth model is said to fit appearances according to optick principles, but the immense interval between Saturn and the firmament then becomes an objection. To answer parallaxes and retrograde motions of the fixed stars, the account enlarges stellar sizes and distances. An imagined observer in the firmament would not discern the earth’s annual motion: the earth would appear an indivisible point. This is a claim about visibility from that viewpoint, not literal absence of motion. The objectors nevertheless find the proportions absurd; Burton compresses several objections rather than supplying one tidy measured solution.

The starless interval is not called devoid of all matter: Burton’s margin allows planets perhaps unseen by us. Later, Roeslin tests rival systems against natural, optical and mathematical principles, but Burton mocks his own repair as the work of a tinker who closes one hole and makes two. Optical principles are standards within a continuing controversy, not words that automatically settle it.

The neighbouring Bacon and Dee question concerns propagation: An benè philosophentur asks whether they reason soundly; de multiplicatione specierum identifies the subject of their aphorisms. Specierum supplies of forms, while multiplicatione supplies propagation. The interrogative frame matters: Burton asks about the reasoning rather than adopting a theory. Species in perception and Glass cover the broader accounts of receiving and sending forms and the writings on sight.

Optics also belongs to the uses and abuses of learning. Idle gentlemen leave it to spectacle-makers, an occupational division Burton rebukes. His earlier satire calls the best optics the art of reflecting great men’s favour onto oneself. The rays become patronage, not another celestial refraction. Elsewhere Optick is a subject of elaborate treatises offered for recreation, and “opticks (divine opticks)” celebrates celestial calculation and its instruments. The margin’s “Distantias cœlorum sola Optica dijudicat” asserts that optics alone determines heavenly distances. Divine is praise, not revelation; sola gives the discipline exclusive emphasis without independently validating every listed measurement.

Related entries

Species in perception; Common sense; Cerebral chambers; Cause; Air; Glass; Inseparable and individual; Meteors; Demonstration and proof; Spheres and firmament; Hypothesis and supposition; Earth’s motion; Vacuum.

Places to read

1. Subsection 3. Uniform Parts · paragraphs 40–44The optic nerves in the seven-pair anatomical account.
2. Subsection 6. The Sensitive Soul · paragraphs 7–10Eye, nerves, common sense and the question of visual transmission.
3. Subsection 5 Bad Air as a Cause of Melancholy · paragraphs 34–36Protective refract and the Latin purpose phrase.
4. Subsection 15 Love of Learning or Excessive Study With a Digression on the Misery of Scholars and Why the Muses Are Melancholy · paragraphs 33–35Patronage figured as the best optics.
5. Subsection 15 Love of Learning or Excessive Study With a Digression on the Misery of Scholars and Why the Muses Are Melancholy · paragraphs 34–36The mocked assignment of optics to spectacle-makers.
6. Member 3 Immediate Cause of the Preceding Symptoms · paragraphs 23–30The oar, misleading appearances, optical devices and qualified diabolical allowance.
7. Section 4 Member 1 Prognosis of Melancholy · paragraphs 9–13Conditional blindness prognosis, optic nerves and the distinct ventricular claim.
8. Member 3. Air Corrected. With a Digression on Air · paragraphs 4–8; note 5442Mountain refractionem and unresolved climatic differences; the accompanying note.
9. Member 3. Air Corrected. With a Digression on Air · paragraphs 23–33; note 5472; note 5479; note 5485Fire-region dispute, dense-air exclusivity and comet location; margins the accompanying note and the accompanying note, editor the accompanying note.
10. Member 3. Air Corrected. With a Digression on Air · paragraphs 3–6; note 5503The question about Bacon and Dee’s propagation of forms; the accompanying note.
11. Member 3. Air Corrected. With a Digression on Air · paragraphs 12–16; notes 5521–5523Optical agreement, distance objections and conditional concession; the accompanying note.
12. Member 3. Air Corrected. With a Digression on Air · paragraphs 34–38Roeslin’s optical tests and Burton’s tinker criticism.
13. Member 4 Exercise of Body and Mind Regulated · paragraphs 40–44Optick among recreational reading subjects.
14. Member 4 Exercise of Body and Mind Regulated · paragraphs 41–42, 1–4; note 6018Divine optics, instruments and the exclusive marginal assertion the accompanying note.

In this edition

The comet list distinguishes progress, rendered courses, from parallaxes and refractions. The modern supplies “this” after demonstrate and repeats “from” before planetary motions to clarify the compressed coordination. Salve becomes answer in the fixed-star objection; retrogradations becomes retrograde motions. These changes clarify the wording without claiming a fresh reconstruction of each historical observer’s evidence.

“Makes a refraction” becomes “is refracted” in the oar example, while the protective refract becomes deflect. Latin refractionem retains the printed process rather than a conjectural reflection. In the original margin, refractiones is the subject of a passive infinitive; its editorial translation uses a finite passive and preserves dense air’s exclusive causation. Original quotation, Burton’s English restatement and supplied editorial English remain separate layers.

Optick principles becomes principles of optics or optical principles; Optick as a discipline becomes optics, whereas Optick Nerves becomes optic nerves. Latin Optica is the subject of determines, not an instrument of some unexpressed agent. The propagation phrase is only one part of the Bacon and Dee question: its component forms cannot stand for the entire translated sentence. The existing perspectives, catoptrics and device senses remain accessible under Glass.

refract

Deflect or ward off sunlight in the protective use of turbans.

Grammar: English infinitive after to.

Original text: “to refract the Sun beams”. In the modern column: “to deflect the sunlight”. Large turbans are said to protect their wearers against sunlight. Burton’s travel account pairs turbans with narrow streets and other adaptations to heat; the local purpose does not specify an optical mechanism of the cloth. Refract becomes deflect; Sun beams becomes sunlight. The broader protective meaning is supported by the preceding Latin purpose phrase.

ad fugandos solis radios

To ward off the sun’s rays, the stated purpose of the turbans.

Grammar: Latin purpose construction: ad with accusative plural gerundive fugandos agreeing with radios; solis genitive singular.

Original text: “ad fugandos solis radios”. In the modern column: “to ward off the sun’s rays”. The Latin gives the purpose, followed by Burton’s English refract restatement. Both formulations belong to the original body; the modern column translates each separately. Ad with the gerundive gives purpose, rendered to ward off; solis supplies of the sun and radios rays. No single component means the whole phrase.

refraction; refractions

Bending of light, illustrated by an altered appearance and used as evidence in astronomical arguments.

Grammar: English singular and plural nouns; singular makes a refraction rendered as a passive verb.

Original text: “an oare in water makes a refraction, and seems bigger, bended double”. In the modern column: “an oar in water is refracted and seems larger, bent in two”. The apparently enlarged and bent oar illustrates how ordinary causes can alter an appearance. May governs the combination of weak sight, belief and secondary causes. The continuation says deception is mostly in the brain while allowing diabolical intervention; this is not a universal exclusion of it. Makes a refraction becomes is refracted. The grammatical oar remains the subject, but the effect concerns its appearance, not physical bending or breakage.

Original text: “manifestly confute by refractions, and many other arguments”. In the modern column: “plainly refute this by refraction and many other arguments”. Optical evidence is invoked against a separate cosmic region of fire. Cardan, Tycho and Pena are the named refuters; Burton calls their conclusion manifest but does not reproduce all their measurements or arguments. The modern supplies this as the object of refute and renders the plural process noun in the singular. Many other arguments prevents assigning the entire conclusion to refraction alone.

Original text: “demonstrate by their progress, parallaxes, refractions, motions of the Planets”. In the modern column: “demonstrate this from their courses, parallaxes, and refractions, and from the motions of the planets”. Refractions join comet courses and parallaxes and the crossing motions of planets in the case against hard celestial shells. The preceding comets are contrasted with Aristotle’s aerial exhalations; Chiaramonti’s opposition and the printed split author names remain. The next unit explicitly places comets above the moon. The modern supplies this and repeats from before planetary motions to clarify the compressed coordination. Refractions is one evidential term, not the entire demonstration.

refractio: refractionem; refractiones

Refraction in a historical explanation of mountain cold and a marginal claim about dense air.

Grammar: Latin noun: accusative singular refractionem after causal ob, modified by paucam; accusative plural refractiones as subject of passive infinitive causari.

Original text: “ob paucam solarium radiorum refractionem”. In the modern column: “because of the scant refraction of the sun’s rays”. Scant refraction is offered as the reason for cold mountains near the middle region of air. Burton attributes the answer to Serarius and Abulensis. An accompanying note retains printed refraction rather than silently substituting reflection or modern altitude physics; the cited works remain uncollated. Ob supplies because of, paucam scant, solarium radiorum of the sun’s rays, and refractionem refraction. The amount and causal relation belong to the construction, not to the noun alone.

Original margin: “nec refractiones aliunde quàm à crasso aëre causari”. Supplied note translation or expansion: “refractions are caused by nothing other than dense air”. The quoted margin attributes refractions exclusively to dense air. The preceding quoted conclusion equates the transparent media of air and aether. The body separately assigns two substances to Tycho: these claims are not silently harmonized. The full negative exclusive nec … aliunde quàm becomes nothing other than; aliunde quàm alone does not supply the negation. The passive infinitive causari becomes a finite passive within the editorial translation of the reported conclusion.

parallax

Apparent change of position arising from a change of viewpoint, distinct from an object’s own course.

Grammar: English plural noun, printed parallaxes and Parallaxes.

Access scope (progress): Progress is rendered courses of the comets in the cited list. This is a component of the quoted construction, not a synonym of parallax or refraction.

Access scope (courses): Progress is rendered courses of the comets in the cited list. This is a component of the quoted construction, not a synonym of parallax or refraction.

Access scope (salve): Salve is rendered answer, concerning the objections in this construction. It is a component of the quoted wording, not a synonym of parallax or refraction.

Access scope (answer): Salve is rendered answer, concerning the objections in this construction. It is a component of the quoted wording, not a synonym of parallax or refraction.

Access scope (Retrogradations): Retrogradations is rendered retrograde motions, mentioned alongside parallaxes. This is a distinct component of the quoted construction, not a synonym of parallax or refraction.

Access scope (retrograde motions): Retrogradations is rendered retrograde motions, mentioned alongside parallaxes. This is a distinct component of the quoted construction, not a synonym of parallax or refraction.

Original text: “their progress, parallaxes, refractions”. In the modern column: “their courses, parallaxes, and refractions”. Viewpoint-dependent shifts are among the grounds for locating comets in the heavens. Burton supplies no numerical parallax here. The continuation claims that the comets lie above the moon; a rival opposition remains in the preceding unit. Progress becomes courses; parallaxes stays distinct from both those courses and refractions. The definition of parallax is supplied by editor the accompanying note, not a separate Burton gloss.

Original text: “to salve those ordinary objections of Parallaxes & Retrogradations of the fixed stars”. In the modern column: “to answer the usual objections about parallaxes and retrograde motions of the fixed stars”. The expected apparent shifts enter objections to a moving earth and the enlarged stellar scale used to answer them. For, say they attributes the imagined view from the firmament; some will qualifies the charge of absurd disproportion. Several objections are compressed, not resolved by a numerical observation. Salve becomes answer; retrogradations becomes retrograde motions. The separate terms and the objection frame remain. An accompanying note explains viewpoint dependence without claiming fresh collation of the interlocutors.

An benè philosophentur

Whether Bacon and Dee reason soundly: an evaluative question, not an assertion of their theory.

Grammar: Latin interrogative An with adverb benè and third-person plural present subjunctive deponent philosophentur; named subjects Bacon and Dee.

Original text: “An benè philosophentur, R. Bacon, & I. Dee”. In the modern column: “Do Roger Bacon and John Dee reason soundly”. The opening words test the quality of the named writers’ reasoning; the following de-phrase identifies the topic of their aphorisms. This is a question, not adoption of either writer’s theory. Propagation of forms and the specierum component already have two exact prior owners; both remain zero-count shared routes. An introduces the question, philosophentur supplies the activity of reasoning, and benè soundly. The abbreviated names expand to Roger Bacon and John Dee; their full aphorism-topic construction is context, not the meaning of these three words.

optick principles

Principles of optics used to compare cosmological models with visible appearances.

Grammar: English adjective plus plural noun; capitalized Optick in the second occurrence.

Original text: “according to optick principles”. In the modern column: “according to the principles of optics”. A proposed model’s planetary appearances are said to fit sizes, orbits and mathematical observations. They say attributes the claim; but then introduces the vast-distance objection. Initial agreement does not close the debate. The adjective optick becomes the of-phrase of optics, with English the supplied.

Original text: “another against Optick principles”. In the modern column: “another against optical principles”. Optical standards form one of Roeslin’s tests of rival systems. Another inherits offends from the preceding clause. Burton proceeds to criticize Roeslin’s own repair through the tinker comparison. Optick becomes optical. Both columns retain the elliptical coordinate construction rather than inserting a new grammatical agent.

Opticks; Optick; opticks

Optics, the study of sight and light, as an occupation, subject of books and admired mathematical pursuit.

Grammar: English nouns naming a discipline; singular-looking Optick beside plural-looking Opticks; divine is a commendatory adjective.

Original text: “Spectacle-makers Opticks”. In the modern column: “spectacle-makers optics”. The discipline is assigned to spectacle-makers in the occupational distribution of learning. This is the idle gentlemen’s reasoning, which Burton rebukes, not his recommendation that only craftsmen learn optics. The original and modern both leave the learning verb to be supplied from the earlier parallel clauses.

Original text: “Optick”. In the modern column: “optics”. Optics is one subject of the elaborate treatises offered as reading recreation. The surrounding list ranges across mathematical, mechanical and practical studies; it does not certify every work’s conclusions. The discipline noun Optick becomes optics; adjacent Perspective remains a separate listed field name.

Original text: “opticks (divine opticks)”. In the modern column: “optics—divine optics!” An emphatic celebration of optics among calculation and instruments used to study the heavens. Divine praises the discipline; it does not claim supernatural revelation of the listed measurements. The parenthetical repetition becomes an exclamation, retaining the commendatory force.

Optica

Optics, asserted in the margin to be the sole judge of heavenly distances.

Grammar: Latin nominative singular feminine subject with sola; distantias accusative plural object, cœlorum genitive plural.

Original margin: “Distantias cœlorum sola Optica dijudicat”. Supplied note translation or expansion: “Optics alone determines the distances of the heavens”. The margin assigns the determination of celestial distances exclusively to optics. Sola must remain; the praise in the recreational catalogue is not independent verification of every number or instrument. Optica is the subject, not an instrument of an unnamed agent; sola supplies alone, dijudicat determines, distantias distances, and cœlorum of the heavens.

The best Opticks

Optics transferred satirically to the art of attracting powerful patrons’ favour.

Grammar: English plural discipline noun in a copular construction with infinitive complement.

Original text: “The best Opticks are, to reflect the beams of some great mens favor and grace to shine upon him”. In the modern column: “The best optics reflect the rays of great men’s favour and grace so that they shine on him”. The ray image turns a scientific discipline into a means of personal advancement. Burton mocks the reduction of learning to getting on; the patronage metaphor is not a literal celestial refraction. The original copula and infinitive become a finite predicate with optics as grammatical subject; beams becomes rays and the purpose remains visible.

Optick Nerves; optick nerves

The nerves of sight, described as carriers of visual information and implicated in a historical prognosis of blindness.

Grammar: English adjective optick modifying plural nerves, with capitalization variants.

Original text: “The first be the Optick Nerves, by which we see”. In the modern column: “The first are the optic nerves, by which we see”. The first pair in Burton’s seven-pair scheme serves sight. The nerve classification and animal-spirit physiology are historical accounts, not modern anatomy. Optick becomes optic; the relative clause gives the local function, not a definition of every nerve.

Original text: “by those Optick Nerves, concurring both in one, conveys the sight to the common sense”. In the modern column: “conveys sight to the common sense through the two optic nerves, meeting in one”. The nerves connect the eye’s operation with the internal judging faculty. The eye, especially the pupil, is the grammatical agent of conveys; the nerves are the means, and common sense the destination. This retains the historical faculty account. The modern moves the instrumental phrase after the object and makes both explicit as two; it does not make the nerves the judge.

Original text: “if it get into the optick nerves, blindness”. In the modern column: “blindness if it gets into the optic nerves”. Nerve involvement is said to produce blindness in melancholy’s degeneration. Frambesarius and Sallustius Salvianus supply this addition; if retains the condition. The adjoining brain-ventricle claim has a distinct prior owner. The result blindness moves before the if-clause; it still refers to the humour or melancholy, not an optic instrument.

Earlier explanation: specierum

Earlier explanation: species · specierum

For specierum, see Species in perception.

Context passages: the passage, the passage. These are reading contexts, not additional occurrences of the cited form.

Reference scope: Specierum is already owned. R06 supplies only the complementary evaluative question; the governing propagation phrase also remains prior-owned in SH10.

Earlier explanation: Perspectives

Earlier explanation: perspective · Perspectives

For Perspectives, the passage, see Glass.

Context passages: the passage, the passage, the passage, the passage. These are reading contexts, not additional occurrences of the cited form.

Reference scope: The discipline and bibliographic metonymy already belong to Glass; retain both exact attestations and optical-theory context.

Earlier explanation: Catoptricks

Earlier explanation: catoptrics

For Catoptricks, the passage, see Glass.

Context passages: the passage, the passage, the passage, the passage. These are reading contexts, not additional occurrences of the cited form.

Reference scope: The reflected-image discipline and Pena bibliography are prior owned, not new refraction records.

Earlier explanation: perspective glasses

Earlier explanation: perspective glass · perspective glasses

For perspective glasses, the passage, the passage, see Glass.

Context passages: the passage, the passage, the passage, the passage, the passage, the passage, the passage, the passage, the passage. These are reading contexts, not additional occurrences of the cited form.

Reference scope: Earlier optical-device record remains responsible for instruments in the image-making and recreation contexts.

Earlier explanation: second causes

Earlier explanation: second causes · local use 2

For second causes, see Cause.

Context passages: the passage, the passage. These are reading contexts, not additional occurrences of the cited form.

Reference scope: The causal phrase in the oar passage remains prior-owned, with its natural contributing sense intact.

Earlier explanation: indivisibile

Earlier explanation: indivisibilis

For indivisibile, see Inseparable and individual.

Context passages: the passage, the passage. These are reading contexts, not additional occurrences of the cited form.

Reference scope: The point is the earth’s distant appearance in the conditional argument, not physical indivisibility.

Earlier explanation: ventricles of the brain

Earlier explanation: ventricles of the brain

For ventricles of the brain, see Cerebral chambers.

Context passages: the passage, the passage. These are reading contexts, not additional occurrences of the cited form.

Reference scope: Retain the distinct ventricular condition beside the optic-nerve prognosis, without duplicating the earlier record.

For annuall motion, see Earth’s motion.

Context passages: the passage, the passage. These are reading contexts, not additional occurrences of the cited form.

Reference scope: The motion itself remains in Earth’s motion; the present article treats the viewpoint-dependent objection.

For void of stars, see Vacuum.

Context passages: the passage, the passage. These are reading contexts, not additional occurrences of the cited form.

Reference scope: Absence of stars is restricted occupancy, not absence of all matter; the margin allows unseen planets.

Earlier explanation: multiplicatione specierum

Earlier explanation: multiplicatio specierum

For multiplicatione specierum, see Species in perception.

Context passages: the passage, the passage. These are reading contexts, not additional occurrences of the cited form.

Reference scope: Exact prior owner of the propagation phrase. Its grammar and interrogative context remain fully retained; no new lexical record or occurrence is claimed.

Earlier explanation: causari

Earlier explanation: causent; causari · causari

For causari, see Cause.

Context passages: the passage, the passage. These are reading contexts, not additional occurrences of the cited form.

Reference scope: The passive causal verb in the refraction margin has an exact prior owner; R04 retains the refraction noun and exclusive construction, not a new causal verb.

Earlier explanation: middle Region

Earlier explanation: middle Region

For middle Region, see Air.

Context passages: the passage, the passage. These are reading contexts, not additional occurrences of the cited form.

Reference scope: The historical atmospheric layer is prior owned; the present family concerns the scant-refraction explanation offered near it.