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chexmix
sage
Reged: 12/01/04
Posts: 346
Loc: Arlington, MA, USA
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I recently finished re-reading Dante's _Divine Comedy_, this time in a fairly recent (and very good) translation by Allen Mandelbaum.
And what the heck, you ask, does that have to do with "Stellar Media"?
Ahem. Cough.
It is probably due to my 'rebirth' as an amateur astronomer, but this time through I was really struck by the number of astronomical references in the work. It happens in all three parts, even in _Inferno_ when the characters are -- well, suffice to say, deep underground!
The number of and types of references to the stars and planets, and their complicated motions, Dante makes strongly suggests to me that he was deeply connected to the motions of heavenly bodies, in a way that really resonated. I did a little digging online and it does appear there has been some research in this area.
I guess it wouldn't do for me to out and out "recommend" reading this work to anyone here who isn't also interested in poetry, medieval studies, or ... I don't know, monuments of Western Culture (of which this work is a towering example): it is pretty heavy going, and in the _Paradiso_ especially a good set of footnotes (Mandelbaum provides good notes) is invaluable if you want to know what Dante is referring to in theological or historical terms ...
I'll bet the skies in 13th century Italy were pretty dark ... 
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8" Discovery DHQ
Celestron C102-HD
9x63 Orion mini-giants
(2) Frontally-placed visual organs, incl. lens, vitreous/aqueous humors, assorted rods, cones.
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edwincjones
Post Laureate
Reged: 04/10/04
Posts: 4423
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and, some of my observating sessions also go through several stages of hades.
edj
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n w arkansas
Binocular, Solar, General Amateur Astronomy
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desertstars
Deja moo
Reged: 11/05/03
Posts: 30032
Loc: Tucson, AZ
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Do any of those stages involve thunderstorms and mosquitoes?
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Tom W.
SVP8 'She turned me into a 3-legged Newt' EQ
Ralph, the All-Purpose 102mm Refractor
Under the Desert Stars
Alcohol and calculus do not mix. Please don't drink and derive.
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TomC10
sage
Reged: 12/21/04
Posts: 239
Loc: Land of Enchantment
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Maybe you've already seen this? it was submitted to arXiv June 25th .. The Cosmology of the Devine Comedy - by: Alejandro Gangui. It was published in "Ciencia Hoy" and is in spanish, but is only 6 pages with several nice illustrations. There is a link in "Comments" that has a the magazine version of the pdf. If you don't already understand written spanish it might be an interesting exercise to translate it (or use google!).
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Tom C
C10 NGT
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jupiterzkool
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 05/08/06
Posts: 1341
Loc: Pasadena, CA
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Ahhh, another reason to read "Divine Comedy".
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Scott G. Edgington, Planetary Scientist
Cassini-Huygens: Mission to Saturn & Titan
Yes, Asia, John Wetton Fan
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