Abstract
Of the constellations described in this book Sceptrum et Manus Iustitiae (Fig. 14.1) represents a case in which an existing figure was disfavored, and ultimately replaced by another: Lacerta (the Lizard), which remains canonical to this day. It is, in a sense, the only victim of a successful rebranding campaign.
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Notes
- 1.
“Outre les Estoilles marquées dans les Catalogues des Astronomes nous en avons observé 17. entre les constellations de Cephée, d’Andromede & de Pegase qui n’y sont point; ces Estoilles nouvelles se trouvent tellement scituées les unes à l’égard des autres qu’il n’y a point de figure qui leur convienne mieux que celle du Sceptre Royal & de la main de Justice; aussi l’on en a fait une constellation dans ce planisphere, & comme l’Astrologie a attribué de tout temps la fortune des pays aux Astres.”
- 2.
See Musca Borealis, Volume 1.
- 3.
“Asterismus Ludovico XIV. Regi Galliarum ex occasione, dum eximiæ magnitudinis mirique artificii Globus eidem offerretur, dedicatus, duplicis sceptri cum manu Justitiæ formam obtinet, inde enatam, quod stellæ, quibus constat, diurna sphæræ circumvolutione Zenith Parisiense perstringant; unde cùm stellæ verticales aliàs astrologis loco, quibus imminent, ominosæ habeantur, hi gloriosa huic regno præsagia intulêre.” (p. 186)
- 4.
Quoted in Wolf (1968), p. 133.
- 5.
Quoted in Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie and Jean-François Fitou, Saint-Simon and the court of Louis XIV, Chicago: University of Chicago Press (2001), p. 106.
- 6.
Related in “Mémoires de mademoiselle Avrillion, première femme de chambre de l’impératrice Joséphine,” Mercure de France (1986), p. 67.
- 7.
The French name for the German city of Aachen.
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Barentine, J.C. (2016). Sceptrum et Manus Iustitiae. In: Uncharted Constellations. Springer Praxis Books(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27619-9_14
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