| 738 | 739 | 740 | 741 | 742 |
| 1 | 306 | 613 | 919 | 1225 |
|
7
18b and 719b; "Perche la luna cinta della parte alluminata dal
sole in ponente, tra maggior splendore in mezzo a tal cerchio, che
quando essa eclissava il sole. Questo accade perche nell' eclissare
il sole ella ombrava il nostro oceano, il qual caso non accade
essendo in ponente, quando il sole alluma esso oceano." The editors
of the "Saggio" who first published this passage (page 12) add
another short one about the seasons in the moon which I confess not
to have seen in the original manuscript: "La luna ha ogni mese un
verno e una state, e ha maggiori freddi e maggiori caldi, e i suoi
equinozii son piu freddi de' nostri."]
When the eye is in the East and sees the moon in the West near to
the setting sun, it sees it with its shaded portion surrounded by
luminous portions; and the lateral and upper portion of this light
is derived from the sun, and the lower portion from the ocean in the
West, which receives the solar rays and reflects them on the lower
waters of the moon, and indeed affords the part of the moon that is
in shadow as much radiance as the moon gives the earth at midnight.
Therefore it is not totally dark, and hence some have believed that
the moon must in parts have a light of its own besides that which is
given it by the sun; and this light is due, as has been said, to the
above- mentioned cause,--that our seas are illuminated by the sun.
Again, it might be said that the circle of radiance shown by the
moon when it and the sun are both in the West is wholly borrowed
from the sun, when it, and the sun, and the eye are situated as is
740
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