Late Latin () is the scholarly name for the written Latin of late antiquity. English dictionary definitions of Late Latin date this period from the 3rd to the 6th centuries AD, and continuing into the 7th century in the Iberian Peninsula. This somewhat ambiguously defined version of Latin was used between the eras of Classical Latin and Medieval Latin. There is no scholarly consensus about exactly when Classical Latin should end or Medieval Latin should begin. However, Late Latin is characterized (with variations and disputes) by an identifiable style. Being a written language, Late Latin is not the same as Vulgar Latin.
Introduction
Late Latin
Late Latin | Introduction
Scholarly name for the written Latin of late antiquity. The scholarly name for the written Latin of late antiquity. Written Latin of late antiquity. Late Latin is the scholarly name for the written Latin of late antiquity.
what is hydrus?
user
Small constellation in the deep southern sky.
assistant
what are its characteristics?
user
Irregular in shape and its tail has been shortened to make space for this last constellation he had drawn up.
assistant
name a few stars in the constellation?
user
Beta Hydri, Alpha Hydri, etc.
assistant
where did the second star get its name from?
user
Chinese system
assistant
who decribed the constellation for the first time?
user
Goes back to prehistory.
assistant
what does deep sky objects mean in the context of the constellation?
user
Sorry. I cannot find the answer based on the context.
assistant
name a few mordern constellations?
user
Sorry. I cannot find the answer based on the context.
assistant
where did the terminology for the term constellation get?
user
Late Latin term
assistant
what does late latin mean?
user
The word "constellation" comes from the Late Latin term , which can be translated as "set of stars"; it came into use in English during the 14th century. The Ancient Greek word for constellation is ἄστρον. These terms generally referred to a recognisable pattern of stars whose appearance is associated with mythological characters or creatures, earthbound animals, or objects. A more modern astronomical sense of the term "constellation" denotes one of the 88 IAU designated constellations recognized today. Colloquial usage does not draw a sharp distinction between "constellations" and smaller "asterisms" (pattern of stars), yet the modern accepted astronomical constellations employ such a distinction.
Constellation | Terminology
Stars were often grouped into constellations differently by different observers, and the arbitrary constellation boundaries often led to confusion as to which constellation a celestial object belonged. Before astronomers delineated precise boundaries (starting in the 19th century), constellations generally appeared as ill-defined regions of the sky. Today they now follow officially accepted designated lines of Right Ascension and Declination based on those defined by Benjamin Gould in epoch 1875.0 in his star catalogue "Uranometria Argentina". The 1603 star atlas "Uranometria" of Johann Bayer assigned stars to individual constellations and formalized the division by assigning a series of Greek and Latin letters to the stars within each constellation.
Constellation | Early modern astronomy
Late Latin () is the scholarly name for the written Latin of late antiquity. English dictionary definitions of Late Latin date this period from the 3rd to the 6th centuries AD, and continuing into the 7th century in the Iberian Peninsula. This somewhat ambiguously defined version of Latin was used between the eras of Classical Latin and Medieval Latin. There is no scholarly consensus about exactly when Classical Latin should end or Medieval Latin should begin. However, Late Latin is characterized (with variations and disputes) by an identifiable style. Being a written language, Late Latin is not the same as Vulgar Latin.
Late Latin | Introduction
Neither Late Latin nor Late Antiquity are modern terms or concepts; neither are they ancient; their origin remains obscure. A notice in "Harper's New Monthly Magazine" of the publication of Andrews' "Freund's Lexicon of the Latin Language" in 1850 mentions that the dictionary divides Latin into ante-classic, quite classic, Ciceronian, Augustan, post-Augustan and post-classic or late Latin, which indicates the term already was in professional use by English classicists in the early 19th century. Instances of English vernacular use of the term may also be found from the 18th century. The term Late Antiquity meaning post-classical and pre-medieval had currency in English well before then.
Late Latin | Late and post-classical Latin
Historically, the origins of the constellations of the northern and southern skies are distinctly different. Most northern constellations date to antiquity, with names based mostly on Classical Greek legends. Evidence of these constellations has survived in the form of star charts, whose oldest representation appears on the statue known as the Farnese Atlas, based perhaps on the star catalogue of the Greek astronomer Hipparchus. Southern constellations are more modern inventions, sometimes as substitutes for ancient constellations (e.g. Argo Navis). Some southern constellations had long names that were shortened to more usable forms; e.g. Musca Australis became simply Musca. Some of the early constellations were never universally adopted.
Constellation | Early modern astronomy
These are known today as Bayer designations. Subsequent star atlases led to the development of today's accepted modern constellations.
Constellation | Early modern astronomy
The "Uranometria" contained 48 maps of Ptolemaic constellations, a plate of the southern constellations and two plates showing the entire northern and southern hemispheres in stereographic polar projection. The Pole Johannes Hevelius finished his Firmamentum Sobiescianum star atlas in 1690. It contained 56 large, double page star maps and improved the accuracy in the position of the southern stars. He introduced 11 more constellations (Scutum, Lacerta, Canes Venatici, etc.).
Star chart | Early modern
Ptolemy's "Almagest" remained the standard definition of constellations in the medieval period both in Europe and in Islamic astronomy.
Constellation | Classical antiquity
(later "locum", "place"). Early "du" becomes later "b": "duenos" > "duonos" > "bonus" "good"; "duis" > "bis" "twice"; "duellom" > "bellum" "war".
Old Latin | Consonants
The generic name "Lates" derives from the Latin "latēre" (to be hidden).
Lates | Etymology
Richard Allen, in "Star-names and Their Meanings", lists names for the constellation as follows: In Ancient Greece, Aratus called the crab "Καρκινος" ("Karkinos"), which was followed by Hipparchus and Ptolemy. The Alfonsine tables called it "Carcinus", a Latinized form of the Greek word. Eratosthenes extended this as "Καρκινος", "Ονοι", "και Φατνη" ("Karkinos", "Onoi", "kai Fatne"): the Crab, Asses, and Crib. In Ancient Rome, Manilius and Ovid called the constellation "Litoreus" (shore-inhabiting). "Astacus" and "Cammarus" appear in various classic writers, while it is called "Nepa" in Cicero's "De Finibus" and the works of Columella, Plautus, and Varro; all of these words signify crab, lobster, or scorpion.
Cancer (constellation) | Names
There is only limited information on ancient Greek constellations, with some fragmentary evidence being found in the "Works and Days" of the Greek poet Hesiod, who mentioned the "heavenly bodies". Greek astronomy essentially adopted the older Babylonian system in the Hellenistic era, first introduced to Greece by Eudoxus of Cnidus in the 4th century BC. The original work of Eudoxus is lost, but it survives as a versification by Aratus, dating to the 3rd century BC. The most complete existing works dealing with the mythical origins of the constellations are by the Hellenistic writer termed pseudo-Eratosthenes and an early Roman writer styled pseudo-Hyginus.
Constellation | Classical antiquity
During the European Age of Discovery, expeditions to the southern hemisphere began to result in the addition of new constellations. These most likely came from the records of two Dutch sailors, Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman, who in 1595 traveled together to the Dutch East Indies. Their compilations resulted in the 1601 globe of Jodocus Hondius, who added 12 new southern constellations. Several other such maps were produced, including Johann Bayer's "Uranometria" in 1603. The latter was the first atlas to chart both celestial hemispheres and it introduced the Bayer designations for identifying the brightest stars using the Greek alphabet.
Star chart | Early modern
The manuscript reflects the clarity of the night sky in the Middle Ages, a time without modern air pollution or light pollution. Medieval people generally had a much greater knowledge of the constellations than modern people do today.
Leiden Aratea | Scientific Context
For help with the literary English pronunciations, see the . There is considerable diversity in how Latinate names are pronounced in English. For traditions closer to the original, see Latin spelling and pronunciation.
IAU designated constellations | List
The oldest Babylonian catalogues of stars and constellations date back to the beginning of the Middle Bronze Age, most notably the "Three Stars Each" texts and the "MUL.APIN", an expanded and revised version based on more accurate observation from around 1000 BC. However, the numerous Sumerian names in these catalogues suggest that they built on older, but otherwise unattested, Sumerian traditions of the Early Bronze Age. The classical Zodiac is a revision of Neo-Babylonian constellations from the 6th century BC. The Greeks adopted the Babylonian constellations in the 4th century BC. Twenty Ptolemaic constellations are from the Ancient Near East.
Constellation | Ancient Near East
Stars are often referred to as "early" or "late" types. "Early" is a synonym for "hotter", while "late" is a synonym for "cooler". Depending on the context, "early" and "late" may be absolute or relative terms. "Early" as an absolute term would therefore refer to O or B, and possibly A stars. As a relative reference it relates to stars hotter than others, such as "early K" being perhaps K0, K1, and K3. "Late" is used in the same way, with an unqualified use of the term indicating stars with spectral types such as K and M, but it can also be used for stars that are cool relative to other stars, as in using "late G" to refer to G7, G8, and G9.
Stellar classification | "Early" and "late" nomenclature
Ranna an aeir ("The Constellations") is the title of a medieval Irish astronomical tract, thought to date from c.1500–1550? It was written in Early Modern Irish, with some words in English and Latin.
Ranna an aeir | Introduction
The time is too early to identify a direction of change toward any specific Romance language, as none had appeared yet. This variability, however, preceded the appearance of the first French, Italian, Spanish, Romanian, etc. After those languages developed, the scholastics gradually restored classical Latin as a means of scholarly communication. Jordanes refers to himself as "agrammaticus" before his conversion. This obscure statement is sometimes taken to refer to his Latin. Variability, however, characterizes all Late Latin, and besides, the author was not writing just after his conversion (for the meaning of the latter, see under Jordanes), but a whole career later, after associating with many Latin speakers and having read many Latin books.
Getica | The Late Latin of Jordanes
There are, however, insoluble problems with the beginning and end of Imperial Latin. Politically the excluded Augustan Period is the paradigm of imperiality, and yet the style cannot be bundled with either the Silver Age or with Late Latin. Moreover, in 6th century Italy, the Roman Empire no longer existed; the rule of Gothic kings prevailed. Subsequently, the term Imperial Latin was dropped by historians of Latin literature, although it may be seen in marginal works. The Silver Age was extended a century and the final four centuries represent Late Latin.
Late Latin | Imperial Latin
Former constellations are old historical western constellations that for various reasons are no longer widely recognised or are not officially recognised by the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Prior to 1930, many of these defunct constellations were traditional in one or more countries or cultures. Some only lasted decades but others were referred to over many centuries. All are now recognised only for having classical or historical value. Many former constellations had complex Latinised names after objects, people, or mythological or zoological creatures. Others with unwieldy names were shortened for convenience. For example, Scutum Sobiescianum was reduced to Scutum, Mons Mensae to Mensa, and Apparatus Sculptoris to Sculptor.
Former constellation | Introduction
Others were limited to a single culture or nation. The 48 traditional Western constellations are Greek. They are given in Aratus' work "Phenomena" and Ptolemy's "Almagest", though their origin probably predates these works by several centuries. Constellations in the far southern sky were added from the 15th century until the mid-18th century when European explorers began traveling to the Southern Hemisphere. Twelve ancient constellations belong to the zodiac (straddling the ecliptic, which the Sun, Moon, and planets all traverse). The origins of the zodiac remain historically uncertain; its astrological divisions became prominent c. 400 BC in Babylonian or Chaldean astronomy.
Constellation | Introduction
Intervocalic (pronounced ) was preserved up through 350 BC or so, at which point it changed into (called rhotacism). This rhotacism had implications for declension: early classical Latin, "honos", "honoris" (from "honos", "honoses"); later Classical (by analogy) "honor", "honoris" ("honor"). Some Old Latin texts preserve in this position, such as the Carmen Arvale's "lases" for "lares". Later instances of single between vowels are mostly due either to reduction of early after long vowels or diphthongs; borrowings; or late reconstructions. There are many unreduced clusters, e.g. "iouxmentom" (later "iūmentum", "beast of burden"); "losna" (later "lūna", "moon") < *"lousna" < */leuksnā/; "cosmis" (later "cōmis", "courteous"); "stlocum", acc.
Old Latin | Consonants
The spelling "coeruleus" is actually considered incorrect with dictionaries of classical Latin preferring "caeruleus" instead. "Caeruleus" is derived from "caelum", hence the spelling with -ae, like caeluleus → caeruleus. "Caelum" in classical Latin could refer to "the sky", "the heaven" or "the vault of heaven". In mediaeval Latin, orthographic variants like "coelum" for classical Latin "caelum" and "cerulans" for classical Latin "caerulans" can be spotted.
Locus coeruleus | "Coeruleus or caeruleus"
("Crater" is abbreviated "Crt" to prevent confusion with "CrA".) When letters are taken from the second word of a two-word name, the first letter from the second word is capitalised: "CMa" for "Canis Major", "CMi" for "Canis Minor". Two cases are ambiguous: "Leo" for the constellation "Leo" could be mistaken for "Leo Minor" (abbreviated "LMi"), and "Tri" for "Triangulum" could be mistaken for "Triangulum Australe" (abbreviated "TrA").
IAU designated constellations | Abbreviations
The constellation appeared in later star atlases through the 19th century but was rarely used by the end of the century; Richard Hinckley Allen noted its most recent use had been in 1878 in Father Angelo Secchi's planisphere, but stated "it is seldom found in the maps of our day.". The stars were later absorbed into northern Puppis, and remained permanently there after the setting of the constellation boundaries in 1928.
Officina Typographica | Introduction
Late Latin is the administrative and literary language of Late Antiquity in the late Roman empire and states that succeeded the Western Roman Empire over the same range. By its broadest definition it is dated from about 200 AD to about 900 AD when it was replaced by written Romance languages. Opinion concerning whether it should be considered classical is divided. The authors of the period looked back to a classical period they believed should be imitated and yet their styles were often classical. According to the narrowest definitions, Late Latin did not exist and the authors of the times are to be considered medieval.
History of Latin | Late Latin
The smaller constellation was not recognised by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) when the constellations were established in the 1920s.
Triangulum | History and mythology
The basis of Western astronomy as taught during Late Antiquity and until the Early Modern period is the "Almagest" by Ptolemy, written in the 2nd century. In the Ptolemaic Kingdom, native Egyptian tradition of anthropomorphic figures represented the planets, stars, and various constellations. Some of these were combined with Greek and Babylonian astronomical systems culminating in the Zodiac of Dendera; it remains unclear when this occurred, but most were placed during the Roman period between 2nd to 4th centuries AD. The oldest known depiction of the zodiac showing all the now familiar constellations, along with some original Egyptian constellations, decans, and planets.
Constellation | Classical antiquity
Another ten have the same stars but different names. Biblical scholar E. W. Bullinger interpreted some of the creatures mentioned in the books of Ezekiel and Revelation as the middle signs of the four quarters of the Zodiac, with the Lion as Leo, the Bull as Taurus, the Man representing Aquarius, and the Eagle standing in for Scorpio. The biblical Book of Job also makes reference to a number of constellations, including "bier", "fool" and "heap" (Job 9:9, 38:31–32), rendered as "Arcturus, Orion and Pleiades" by the KJV, but "‘Ayish" "the bier" actually corresponding to Ursa Major. The term "Mazzaroth" , translated as "a garland of crowns", is a "hapax legomenon" in Job 38:32, and it might refer to the zodiacal constellations.
Constellation | Ancient Near East
Low Latin is a vague and often pejorative term that might refer to any post-classical Latin from Late Latin through Renaissance Latin depending on the author. Its origins are obscure but the Latin expression "media et infima Latinitas" sprang into public notice in 1678 in the title of a "Glossary" (by today's standards a dictionary) by Charles du Fresne, sieur du Cange. The multi-volume set had many editions and expansions by other authors subsequently. The title varies somewhat; most commonly used was "Glossarium Mediae et Infimae Latinitatis". It has been translated by expressions of widely different meanings. The uncertainty is understanding what "media", "middle", and "infima", "low", mean in this context.
Late Latin | Low Latin
The constellation later lost some of its tail when Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille used those stars to establish Octans in the 1750s.
Apus | History
Late Latin formed when large numbers of non-Latin-speaking peoples on the borders of the empire were being subsumed and assimilated, and the rise of Christianity was introducing a heightened divisiveness in Roman society, creating a greater need for a standard language for communicating between different socioeconomic registers and widely separated regions of the sprawling empire. A new and more universal speech evolved from the main elements: Classical Latin, Christian Latin, which featured (ordinary speech) in which the people were to be addressed, and all the various dialects of Vulgar Latin. The linguist Antoine Meillet wrote, "Without the exterior appearance of the language being much modified, Latin became in the course of the imperial epoch a new language", and, "Serving as some sort of lingua franca to a large empire, Latin tended to become simpler, to keep above all what it had of the ordinary".
Late Latin | Introduction
A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms a perceived outline or pattern, typically representing an animal, mythological person or creature, or an inanimate object. The origins of the earliest constellations likely go back to prehistory. People used them to relate stories of their beliefs, experiences, creation, or mythology. Different cultures and countries adopted their own constellations, some of which lasted into the early 20th century before today's constellations were internationally recognized. The recognition of constellations has changed significantly over time. Many have changed in size or shape. Some became popular, only to drop into obscurity.
Constellation | Introduction
"Cygnus" is the Latinized Greek word for swan and a northern constellation.
Cygnus (spacecraft) | Introduction
Old Latin (also called Early Latin or Archaic Latin) refers to the period of Latin texts before the age of Classical Latin, extending from textual fragments that probably originated in the Roman monarchy to the written language of the late Roman republic about 75 BC. Almost all the writing of its earlier phases is inscriptional. Some phonological characteristics of older Latin are the case endings "-os" and "-om" (later Latin "-us" and "-um"). In many locations, classical Latin turned intervocalic /s/ into /r/. This had implications for declension: early classical Latin, "honos", "honosis"; Classical "honor", "honoris" ("honor"). Some Latin texts preserve /s/ in this position, such as the "Carmen Arvale"'s "lases" for "lares".
History of Latin | Old Latin
Old Latin, also known as Early Latin or Archaic Latin, was the Latin language in the period before 75 BC, i.e. before the age of Classical Latin. (In New and Contemporary Latin, this language is called prisca Latinitas ("ancient Latin") rather than "vetus Latina" ("old Latin"), as "vetus Latina" is used to refer to a set of Biblical texts written in Late Latin.) It is ultimately descended from the Proto-Italic language. The use of "old", "early" and "archaic" has been standard in publications of Old Latin writings since at least the 18th century. The definition is not arbitrary, but the terms refer to writings with spelling conventions and word forms not generally found in works written under the Roman Empire.
Old Latin | Introduction
Each IAU constellation has an official 3-letter abbreviation based on the genitive form of the constellation name. The majority of the abbreviations are just the first three letters of the constellation name, with the first character capitalised: "Ori" for "Orion", "Ara" for "Ara/Arae", "Com" for "Coma Berenices". In some cases, the abbreviation is from the genitive form without appearing in the base name (as in "Sge" for "Sagitta/Sagittae", to avoid confusion with "Sagittarius", abbreviated "Sgr"). In other cases, to unambiguously identify the constellation, such as where the name and its genitive differ in the first three letters, other letters beyond the initial three are used: "Aps" for "Apus/Apodis", "CrA" for "Corona Australis", "CrB" for "Corona Borealis", "Crv" for "Corvus".
IAU designated constellations | Abbreviations
Gould designations for stars are similar to Flamsteed designations in the way that they number stars within a constellation in increasing order of right ascension. Each star is assigned an integer (starting at 1), followed by " G. " (or occasionally followed directly by a "G" without a space), and then the Latin genitive of the constellation it lies in. See 88 modern constellations for a list of constellations and the genitive forms of their names. They were assigned according to the stars' positions in epoch 1875.0, and over time are affected by Precession of the Equinoxes. Due to the star's proper motions or cpm., some stars may now occur out of order.
Gould designation | Introduction
The constellation was first attested in depictions on a cylinder-seal from around the 21st century BCE, it was explicitly recorded in the Babylonian star catalogues before 1000 BCE. In the Early Bronze Age the winter solstice occurred in the constellation, but due to the precession of the equinoxes, the December solstice now takes place in the constellation Sagittarius. The Sun is now in the constellation Capricorn (as distinct from the astrological sign) from late January through mid-February. Although the solstice during the northern hemisphere's winter no longer takes place while the sun is in the "constellation" Capricornus, as it did until 130 BCE, the "astrological sign" called Capricorn is still used to denote the position of the solstice, and the latitude of the sun's most southerly position continues to be called the "Tropic of Capricorn", a term which also applies to the line on the Earth at which the sun is directly overhead at local noon on the day of the December solstice.
Capricornus | History
Bayer assigned a lower-case Greek letter (alpha (α), beta (β), gamma (γ), etc.) or a Latin letter (A, b, c, etc.) to each star he catalogued, combined with the Latin name of the star's parent constellation in genitive (possessive) form. The constellation name is frequently abbreviated to a standard three-letter form. For example, Aldebaran in the constellation Taurus (the Bull) is designated "α Tauri" (abbreviated "α Tau", pronounced "Alpha Tauri"), which means "Alpha of the Bull". Bayer used Greek letters for the brighter stars, but the Greek alphabet has only twenty-four letters, while a single constellation may contain fifty or more stars visible to the naked eye.
Bayer designation | Scheme
Quadrans Muralis was originally created in 1795, placed in the northern skies between the still-accepted constellations Boötes and Draco. The Quadrantids meteor shower is named after this former constellation.
Former constellation | Quadrans Muralis
These stars appear as 12 new southern constellations, on a 35-cm celestial globe designed by Plancius in late 1597 (or early 1598) and produced in collaboration with the Amsterdam cartographer Jodocus Hondius the Elder. The 12 new constellations (mostly referring to animals and subjects described in natural history books and travellers' journals of his day) are Apis the Bee (later changed to Musca by Lacaille), Apus the Bird of Paradise, Chamaeleon, Dorado the Goldfish (or Swordfish), Grus the Crane, Hydrus the Small Water Snake, Indus the Indian, Pavo the Peacock, Phoenix, Triangulum Australe the Southern Triangle, Tucana the Toucan, and Volans the Flying Fish.
Petrus Plancius | Uranography
Some of the northern sky's former constellations were placed in the less populated regions between the traditional brighter constellations just to fill gaps. In the southern skies, new constellations were often created from about the 15th century by voyagers who began journeying south of the equator. European countries like England, France, the Netherlands, German or Italian states, etc., often supported and popularised their own constellation outlines. In some cases, different constellations occupied overlapping areas and included the same stars. These former constellations are often found in older books, star charts or star catalogues. The eighty-eight modern constellation names and boundaries were standardised by Eugene Delporte for the IAU in 1930, under an international agreement, removing any possible astronomical ambiguities between astronomers from different countries.
Former constellation | Introduction
Monocerotis is the Latin genitive of the constellation name Monoceros. Objects within the constellation include:
Monocerotis | Introduction
The generic term for "asterism" is ("", lit. "group of stars").
Chinese constellations | Terminology
Southern constellations were important from the 14th to 16th centuries, when sailors used the stars for celestial navigation. Italian explorers who recorded new southern constellations include Andrea Corsali, Antonio Pigafetta, and Amerigo Vespucci. Many of the 88 IAU-recognized constellations in this region first appeared on celestial globes developed in the late 16th century by Petrus Plancius, based mainly on observations of the Dutch navigators Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman. These became widely known through Johann Bayer's star atlas "Uranometria" of 1603. more were created in 1763 by the French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille appearing in his star catalogue, published in 1756.
Constellation | Origin of the southern constellations
A constellation is formally any of certain areas of the celestial sphere, or popularly and traditionally a perceived pattern of stars. Constellation or constellations may also refer to:
Constellation (disambiguation) | Introduction
Among the most ancient constellations are those that marked the four cardinal points of the year in the Middle Bronze Age, i.e. There are other constellation names which can be traced to Bronze Age origins, including Gemini "The Twins", from (𒀯𒈦𒋰𒁀𒃲𒃲) "MAŠ.TAB.BA.GAL.GAL" "The Great Twins", Cancer "The Crab", from (𒀯𒀠𒇻) "AL.LUL" "The Crayfish", among others. The MUL.APIN gives
Babylonian star catalogues | MUL.APIN
The latter served as ancestor of the Romance languages. Although Late Latin reflects an upsurge of the use of Vulgar Latin vocabulary and constructs, it remains largely classical in its overall features, depending on the author who uses it. Some Late Latin writings are more literary and classical, but others are more inclined to the vernacular. Also, Late Latin is not identical to Christian patristic Latin, used in the theological writings of the early Christian fathers. While Christian writings used a subset of Late Latin, pagans also wrote extensively in Late Latin, especially in the early part of the period.
Late Latin | Introduction
Wilhelm Sigismund Teuffel's first edition (1870) of "History of Roman Literature" defined an early period, the Golden Age, the Silver Age and then goes on to define other ages first by dynasty and then by century (see under Classical Latin). In subsequent editions he subsumed all periods under three headings: the First Period (Old Latin), the Second Period (the Golden Age) and the Third Period, "the Imperial Age", subdivided into the Silver Age, the 2nd century, and Centuries 3–6 together, which was a recognition of Late Latin, as he sometimes refers to the writings of those times as "late." Imperial Latin went on into English literature; Fowler's "History of Roman Literature" mentions it in 1903.
Late Latin | Imperial Latin
There also appears to be a strong connection between the Babylonian constellation and ideas of death and a passage to the underworld, which may be the origin of these ideas in later Greek myths associated with Hercules and the Hydra. In the 12th century, an illustrated astronomical manuscript shows it as a water beetle. Albumasar writes of this sign in "Flowers of Abu Ma'shar". A 1488 Latin translation depicts cancer as a large crayfish, which also is the constellation's name in most Germanic languages. Jakob Bartsch and Stanislaus Lubienitzki, in the 17th century, described it as a lobster.
Cancer (constellation) | Illustrations
In naming this genus, Carl Linnaeus appropriated the nonspecific Latin term for a midge or gnat: "".
Culex | Etymology
After all twenty-four Greek letters have been assigned, upper and lower case Latin letters are used, such as for A Centauri ("A Cen"), D Centauri ("D Cen"), G Scorpii ("G Sco"), P Cygni ("P Cyg"), b Sagittarii ("b Sgr"), d Centauri ("d Cen") and s Carinae ("s Car"). As the resolving power of telescopes increased, numerous objects that were thought to be a single object were found to be optical star systems that were too closely spaced in the sky to be discriminated by the human eye. This led to a third iteration, where numeric superscripts were added to distinguish those previously unresolved stars.
Astronomical naming conventions | Bayer designation
E.g., the Pleiades and the Hyades are both asterisms, and each lies within the boundaries of the constellation of Taurus. Another example is the northern asterism popularly known as the Big Dipper (US) or the Plough (UK), composed of the seven brightest stars within the area of the IAU-defined constellation of Ursa Major. The southern False Cross asterism includes portions of the constellations Carina and Vela and the Summer Triangle is composed of the brightest stars in the constellations Lyra, Aquila and Cygnus. A constellation (or star), viewed from a particular latitude on Earth, that never sets below the horizon is termed circumpolar.
Constellation | Terminology
When the Greek letters ran out, Bayer continued with Latin letters: upper case "A", followed by lower case "b" through "z" (omitting "j" and "v", but "o" was included), for a total of another 24 letters. Bayer did not label "permanent" stars with uppercase letters (except for "A", which he used instead of "a" to avoid confusion with "α"). However, a number of stars in southern constellations have upper-case letter designations, like B Centauri and G Scorpii. These letters were assigned by later astronomers, notably Lacaille in his "Coelum Australe Stelliferum" and Gould in his "Uranometria Argentina". Lacaille followed Bayer's use of Greek letters, but this was insufficient for many constellations.
Bayer designation | Scheme
The constellations around the South Pole were not observable from north of the equator, by the ancient Babylonians, Greeks, Chinese, Indians, or Arabs. During the Age of Exploration, expeditions to the southern hemisphere began to result in the addition of new constellations. The modern constellations in this region were defined notably by Dutch navigators Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman, who in 1595 traveled together to the East Indies (First Dutch Expedition to Indonesia). These 12 newly Dutch-created (that include Apus, Chamaeleon, Dorado, Grus, Hydrus, Indus, Musca, Pavo, Phoenix, Triangulum Australe, Tucana, and Volans) first appeared on a 35-cm diameter celestial globe published in 1597/1598 in Amsterdam by Dutch cartographers Petrus Plancius and Jodocus Hondius.
Early modern Netherlandish cartography | Dutch celestial and lunar cartography in the Age of Discovery
(Uranus and Neptune were also Greek and Roman gods, but neither planet was known in Antiquity because of their low brightness. Their names were assigned by later astronomers.) Circa 1600, the names of the constellations were used to name the stars in the corresponding regions of the sky. The German astronomer Johann Bayer created a series of star maps and applied Greek letters as designations to the stars in each constellation. Later a numbering system based on the star's right ascension was invented and added to John Flamsteed's star catalogue in his book ""Historia coelestis Britannica"" (the 1712 edition), whereby this numbering system came to be called "Flamsteed designation" or "Flamsteed numbering".
Star | Designations
In Chinese caused by adaptation of the European southern hemisphere constellations into the Chinese system, (), meaning "White Patches Attached", refers to an asterism consisting of θ Doradus and α Reticuli. Consequently, θ Doradus itself is known as (, .)
Theta Doradus | Naming
The French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille first described the constellation as "l'Horloge à pendule & à secondes" (Clock with pendulum and seconds hand) in 1756, after he had observed and catalogued almost 10,000 southern stars during a two-year stay at the Cape of Good Hope. He devised fourteen new constellations in previously uncharted regions of the southern celestial hemisphere, which were not visible from Europe. All but one honoured scientific instruments, and so symbolised the Age of Enlightenment. The constellation name was Latinised to "Horologium" in a catalogue and updated chart published posthumously in 1763. The Latin term is ultimately derived from the Ancient Greek ὡρολόγιον, for an instrument for telling the hour.
Horologium (constellation) | History
Although the name originally referred to an entire constellation, it was assigned to this particular bright star at least as early as 1660, when it appeared in Andreas Cellarius’s Harmonia Macrocosmica, a renowned 17th century Dutch magnificently illustrated book about the cosmos. In 2016, the IAU organized a Working Group on Star Names (WGSN) to catalog and standardize proper names for stars. The WGSN decided to attribute proper names to individual stars rather than entire multiple systems. It approved the name "Alsephina" for the component δ Velorum Aa on 5 September 2017 and it is now so included in the List of IAU-approved Star Names.
Delta Velorum | Nomenclature
Constellation families are collections of constellations sharing some defining characteristic, such as proximity on the celestial sphere, common historical origin, or common mythological theme. In the Western tradition, most of the northern constellations stem from Ptolemy's list in the "Almagest" (which in turn has roots that go back to Mesopotamian astronomy), and most of the far southern constellations were introduced by sailors and astronomers who traveled to the south in the 16th to 18th centuries. Separate traditions arose in India and China.
Constellation family | Introduction
The Chinese word for "star, heavenly body" is ". The character originally had a more complicated form: , a phono-semantic character () whose semantic portion, , originally depicting three twinkling stars (three instances of the "sun" radical ). The modern Chinese term for "constellation", referring to those as defined by the IAU system, is ('). The older term (') is used only in describing constellations of the traditional system. The character means "public official" (hence the English translation "officials" for the Chinese asterisms), but it is historically a variant glyph of " "temple, palace", in origin a pictogram of a large building.
Chinese constellations | Terminology
There is no real consensus on the exact boundary where Late Latin ends and Medieval Latin begins. Some scholarly surveys begin with the rise of early Ecclesiastical Latin in the middle of the 4th century, others around 500, and still others with the replacement of written Late Latin by written Romance languages starting around the year 900. The terms "Medieval Latin" and "Ecclesiastical Latin" are often used synonymously, though some scholars draw distinctions. "Ecclesiastical Latin" refers specifically to the form that has been used by the Roman Catholic Church, whereas "Medieval Latin" refers more broadly to all of the (written) forms of Latin used in the Middle Ages.
Medieval Latin | Introduction
The word is traditionally (following LXX) left untranslated (ABC, ACV, AKJ, ASV, BBE, BIB, ESV, GNV, HNV, JPS, K21, KJG, KJR, KJV, NAB, NKJ, NRS, NWT, RSV, RWB, TMB, TNK, UPD, WEB, YLT, LXE, ZIK), but some modern English Bible translations render it as "zodiac" (AMP, CJB, EMP, LEE); others have "constellations" (CJB, CSB, DBY, NET, ERV, GWN, LEE, LIT, MKJ, NAS, NAU, NIB, NIV, TNV, WEV) or "stars" (CEV, NCB, NIR, NLV, TEV). But as the Latin Vulgate renders the word as "luciferum", there are alternative English translations as ""morning star"" (CVB, TRC, furthermore Luther's 1545 German translation as "Morgenstern" also means ""morning star""; (DRA); ""Venus"" (MSG); ""Crown season"" (NJB); ""sequence of seasons"" (NLT); ""Lucifer, 'that is, dai sterre (day star)"" (Wycliffe's Bible).
Mazzaroth | Translation
In Latin, "Gallia" was also sometimes used as a general term for all Celtic peoples and their territories, such as all Brythons, including Germanic and Iberian provinces that also had a population with a Celtic culture. The plural, "Galliarum" in Latin, indicates that all of these are meant, not just Caesar's Gaul (several modern countries).
List of Late Roman provinces | <a href="Praetorian%20prefecture%20of%20Gaul">Praetorian prefecture of Gaul</a>s
However, the remnant itself was not discovered until 1731, when John Bevis found it.
Taurus (constellation) | Deep-sky objects
Hipparchus also created a comprehensive catalog of 1020 stars, and most of the constellations of the northern hemisphere derive from Greek astronomy. The Antikythera mechanism (c. 150–80 BC) was an early analog computer designed to calculate the location of the Sun, Moon, and planets for a given date. Technological artifacts of similar complexity did not reappear until the 14th century, when mechanical astronomical clocks appeared in Europe.
Astronomy | Ancient times
The International Astronomical Union (IAU) adopted the three-letter abbreviation "Per" for the constellation in 1922.
Perseus (constellation) | Characteristics
In ancient times, the constellation was considered an asterism within Centaurus, and was considered to have been an arbitrary animal, killed, or about to be killed, on behalf of, or for, Centaurus. An alternative visualization, attested by Eratosthenes, saw this constellation as a wineskin held by Centaurus. It was not separated from Centaurus until Hipparchus of Bithynia named it "Therion" (meaning beast) in the 2nd century BC. The Greek constellation is probably based on the Babylonian figure known as the Mad Dog (UR.IDIM). This was a strange hybrid creature that combined the head and torso of a man with the legs and tail of a lion (the cuneiform sign 'UR' simply refers to a large carnivore; lions, wolves and dogs are all included).
Lupus (constellation) | History and mythology
By a rescript of Constantine I and Constans (344 AD) the teachers and learners of geometry received immunity from civil burdens. According to a constitution of Theodosius II and Valentinian III (440 AD), they received jurisdiction in questions of "alluvio"; but some writers disagree that this crucial passage is genuine.
Gromatici | Late empire
Unlike many members of this genus, the larva of "Astropecten latespinosus" is not a brachiolaria larva but is barrel-shaped and undergoes metamorphosis at a very early stage of development.
Astropecten latespinosus | Biology
The Southern Cross, which is now regarded as a separate constellation, was treated by the ancients as a mere asterism formed of the stars composing the centaur's legs. Additionally, what is now the minor constellation Circinus was treated as undefined stars under the centaur's front hooves.
Centaurus | History
The Bayer designations of about 1,500 brightest stars were first published in 1603. In this list, a star is identified by a lower-case letter of the Greek alphabet, followed by the Latin name of its parent constellation. The Bayer designation uses the possessive form of a constellation's name, which in almost every case ends in "is", "i" or "ae"; "um" if the constellation's name is plural "(see genitive case for constellations)". In addition, a three-letter abbreviation is often used . Examples include Alpha Andromedae ("α And") in the constellation of Andromeda, Alpha Centauri ("α Cen"), in the constellation Centaurus, Alpha Crucis ("α Cru") and Beta Crucis ("β Cru"), the two brightest stars in the constellation Crux, the Southern Cross, Epsilon Carinae ("ε Car") in Carina, Lambda Scorpii ("λ Sco") in Scorpius and Sigma Sagittarii ("σ Sgr") in Sagittarius.
Astronomical naming conventions | Bayer designation
The French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille first described the constellation in French as "le Fourneau Chymique" (the Chemical Furnace) with an alembic and receiver in his early catalogue, before abbreviating it to "le Fourneau" on his planisphere in 1752, after he had observed and catalogued almost 10,000 southern stars during a two-year stay at the Cape of Good Hope. He devised fourteen new constellations in uncharted regions of the Southern Celestial Hemisphere not visible from Europe. All but one honoured instruments that symbolised the Age of Enlightenment. Lacaille Latinised the name to "Fornax Chimiae" on his 1763 chart.
Fornax | History
The two-period case postulates a second unity of style, "infima Latinitas", translated into English as "Low Latin" (which in the one-period case would be identical to "media Latinitas"). Cange in the glossarial part of his "Glossary" identifies some words as being used by "purioris Latinitatis scriptores", such as Cicero (of the Golden Age). He has already said in the Preface that he rejects the ages scheme used by some: Golden Age, Silver Age, Brass Age, Iron Age. A second category are the "inferioris Latinitatis scriptores", such as Apuleius (Silver Age). The third and main category are the "infimae Latinitatis scriptores", who must be post-classical; that is, Late Latin, unless they are also medieval.
Late Latin | Low Latin
The Farnese Atlas is a 2nd-century AD Roman copy of a Hellenistic era Greek statue depicting the Titan Atlas holding the celestial sphere on his shoulder. It is the oldest surviving depiction of the ancient Greek constellations, and includes grid circles that provide coordinate positions. Because of precession, the positions of the constellations slowly change over time. By comparing the positions of the 41 constellations against the grid circles, an accurate determination can be made of the epoch when the original observations were performed. Based upon this information, the constellations were catalogued at . This evidence indicates that the star catalogue of the 2nd-century BC Greek astronomer Hipparchus was used.
Star chart | Antiquity
Inscribed stones and clay writing tablets from Mesopotamia (in modern Iraq) dating to 3000 BC provide the earliest generally accepted evidence for humankind's identification of constellations. It seems that the bulk of the Mesopotamian constellations were created within a relatively short interval from around 1300 to 1000 BC. Mesopotamian constellations appeared later in many of the classical Greek constellations.
Constellation | Mesopotamia
In 1756, French astronomer Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille introduced the constellation of Circinus with the French name "le Compas", representing a pair of dividing compasses, on a chart of the southern sky. On that chart, Lacaille portrayed the constellations of Norma, Circinus, and Triangulum Australe, respectively, as a set square and ruler, a compass, and a surveyor's level in a set of draughtsman's instruments. Circinus was given its current name in 1763, when Lacaille published an updated sky map with Latin names for the constellations he introduced.
Circinus | History
For applications which benefit from low-latency communications, LEO satellite constellations provide an advantage over a geostationary satellite, where minimum theoretical latency from ground to satellite is about 125 milliseconds, compared to 1–4 milliseconds for a LEO satellite. A LEO satellite constellation can also provide more system capacity by frequency reuse across its coverage, with spot beam frequency use being analogous to the minimum number of satellites needed to provide a service, and their orbits—is a field in itself.
Satellite constellation | Overview
Reticulum is a small, faint constellation in the southern sky. Its name is Latin for a small net, or reticle—a net of crosshairs at the focus of a telescope eyepiece that is used to measure star positions. The constellation is best viewed between October and December, but it cannot be seen from middle to northern latitudes.
Reticulum | Introduction
Lacaille Latinised the name to "Antlia pneumatica" on his 1763 chart. English astronomer John Herschel proposed shrinking the name to one word in 1844, noting that Lacaille himself had abbreviated his constellations thus on occasion. This was universally adopted. The International Astronomical Union adopted it as one of the 88 modern constellations in 1922. Although visible to the Ancient Greeks, Antlia's stars were too faint to have been included in any ancient constellations. The stars that now comprise Antlia lay within an area of the sky covered by the ancient constellation Argo Navis, the Ship of the Argonauts, which due to its immense size was split into several smaller constellations by Lacaille in 1763.
Antlia | History
Out of the 88 modern constellations, 36 lie predominantly in the northern sky, and the other 52 predominantly in the southern. The boundaries developed by Delporte used data that originated back to epoch B1875.0, which was when Benjamin A. Gould first made his proposal to designate boundaries for the celestial sphere, a suggestion on which Delporte based his work. The consequence of this early date is that because of the precession of the equinoxes, the borders on a modern star map, such as epoch J2000, are already somewhat skewed and no longer perfectly vertical or horizontal. This effect will increase over the years and centuries to come.
Constellation | 88 modern constellations
Its time of disappearance was marked in Inca culture by a festival for "Pariacaca," the god of water and torrential rains. It occurs near the date of "qarwa mita" ("qarwa" meaning when the corn leaves are yellow). The return of the constellation about 40 days later, called "unquy mita" in Quechua, was long associated in the Southern Hemisphere with the time of the coming harvest and therefore a time of abundance for the people. Incan astronomers had named the Pleiades constellation as "Qullqa," or "storehouse," in their native language of Quechua.
Quyllurit'i | Pre-Columbian origins
This enlarged star appears to be rotating slowly with a projected rotational velocity of about . The abundance of elements other than hydrogen and helium, its metallicity, is more than three times that of the Sun. Rarely, this star is called Vasat-ül-cemre a Turkisation of Arabic وسط الجمر ("wasaṭ al-jamar"), meaning "middle of the embers." The constellation is named in Arabic المجمرة ("al-mijmarah"), meaning brazier/incense-burner. In Chinese, (), meaning "Pestle", refers to an asterism of β, σ and α Arae. The Chinese name for β Arae is (, .)
Beta Arae | Introduction
Vulgar Latin was the colloquial form spoken during the same time and attested in inscriptions and the works of comic playwrights like Plautus and Terence and author Petronius. Late Latin is the written language from the 3rd century; its colloquial form Vulgar Latin developed in the 6th to 9th centuries into the Romance languages, such as Italian, Sardinian, Venetian, Neapolitan, Sicilian, Piedmontese, Lombard, French, Franco-Provençal, Occitan, Corsican, Ladin, Friulan, Romansh, Catalan/Valencian, Aragonese, Spanish, Asturian, Galician, and Portuguese. Medieval Latin was used as a literary language from the 9th century to the Renaissance which used Renaissance Latin. Later, Early Modern Latin and New Latin evolved.
Latin | Introduction
Quadrans Muralis (Latin for "mural quadrant") was a constellation created by the French astronomer Jérôme Lalande in 1795. It depicted a wall-mounted quadrant with which he and his nephew Michel Lefrançois de Lalande had charted the celestial sphere, and was named Le Mural in the French atlas. It was between the constellations of Boötes and Draco, near the tail of Ursa Major, containing stars between β Bootis (Nekkar) and η Ursae Majoris (Alkaid). Johann Elert Bode converted its name to Latin as "Quadrans Muralis" and shrank the constellation a little in his 1801 "Uranographia" star atlas, to avoid it clashing with neighboring constellations.
Quadrans Muralis | Introduction
A constellation in this area was introduced by Isaac Habrecht II in his celestial globe in 1621, who named it "Rhombus". It was replaced with a somewhat different constellation by the French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille in the eighteenth century; during his stay at the Cape of Good Hope, he named the constellation le Réticule Rhomboide to commemorate the reticle in his telescope eyepiece. The name was later Latinized to Reticulum in his star catalogue "Coelum Australe Stelliferum". In 1810, the stars of Reticulum were used by William Croswell to produce the constellation "Marmor Sculptile", which represented the bust of Christopher Columbus, but this did not catch on among astronomers.
Reticulum | History
Equuleus ( ) is a constellation. Its name is Latin for "little horse", a foal. It was one of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd century astronomer Ptolemy, and remains one of the 88 modern constellations. It is the second smallest of the modern constellations (after Crux), spanning only 72 square degrees. It is also very faint, having no stars brighter than the fourth magnitude.
Equuleus | Introduction
Vulpecula is a faint constellation in the northern sky. Its name is Latin for "little fox", although it is commonly known simply as the fox. It was identified in the seventeenth century, and is located in the middle of the Summer Triangle (an asterism consisting of the bright stars Deneb, Vega, and Altair).
Vulpecula | Introduction
The Constellation Program (abbreviated CxP) is a cancelled crewed spaceflight program developed by NASA, the space agency of the United States, from 2005 to 2009. The major goals of the program were "completion of the International Space Station" and a "return to the Moon no later than 2020" with a crewed flight to the planet Mars as the ultimate goal. The program's logo reflected the three stages of the program: the Earth (ISS), the Moon, and finally Mars—while the Mars goal also found expression in the name given to the program's booster rockets: Ares (the Greek equivalent of the Roman god Mars).
Constellation program | Introduction
Obsolete constellations including Ptolemy's "Argo Navis" Anser
Outline of astronomy | Obsolete constellations including Ptolemy's "Argo Navis"
The first modern schemes for designating stars systematically labelled them within their constellation.
Stellar designations and names | By constellation
Bordered by Centaurus, Musca, Apus, Triangulum Australe, Norma and Lupus, Circinus lies adjacent to the Alpha and Beta Centauri stars. As it is at declination −50° to −70°, the whole constellation is only visible south of latitude 30° N. The official constellation boundaries, as set by Belgian astronomer Eugène Delporte in 1930, are defined by a polygon of 14 segments. In the equatorial coordinate system, the right ascension coordinates of these borders lie between and , and the declination coordinates are between −55.43° and −70.62°. Circinus culminates each year at 9 p.m. on 30 July. The recommended three-letter abbreviation for the constellation, as adopted by the International Astronomical Union in 1922, is "Cir".
Circinus | Characteristics
But "Constellation" was closely blockaded by a British Squadron and failed to get to sea. In April 1814, he moved to Lake Erie and was there until the end of the war. On 5 March 1817, he was promoted to master commandant, and to captain on 24 April 1828.
Edmund P. Kennedy | Early life
μ Gruis, Latinised as, Mu Gruis refers to 2 distinct star systems in the constellation Grus:
Mu Gruis | Introduction
The French astronomer Abbé Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille first described Pictor as " le Chevalet et la Palette" (the easel and palette) in 1756, after observing and cataloguing 10,000 southern stars during a two-year stay at the Cape of Good Hope. He devised 14 new constellations in uncharted regions of the Southern Celestial Hemisphere not visible from Europe. All but one honored instruments that symbolised the Age of Enlightenment. He gave these constellations Bayer designations, including ten stars in Pictor now named Alpha to Nu Pictoris. He labelled the constellation Equuleus Pictorius on his 1763 chart, the word "Equuleus" meaning small horse, or easel—perhaps from an old custom among artists of carrying a canvas on a donkey.
Pictor | History
Because of Earth's axial precession, the star was visible to ancient Hindu astronomers in India who named it "Tri-shanku". It was also visible to the ancient Romans and Greeks, who regarded it as part of the constellation of Centaurus.
Acrux | Nomenclature
Greek letters are used to denote the brighter stars within each of the eighty-eight constellations. In most constellations, the brightest star is designated Alpha and the next brightest Beta etc. For example, the brightest star in the constellation of Centaurus is known as Alpha Centauri. For historical reasons, the Greek designations of some constellations begin with a lower ranked letter.
Greek alphabet | Astronomy
This name may have also referred to the constellation Lepus. "DAR.LUGAL" was also denoted "DAR.MUŠEN" and "DAR.LUGAL.MUŠEN" in Babylonia. Canis Minor was then called "tarlugallu" in Akkadian astronomy. Canis Minor was one of the original 48 constellations formulated by Ptolemy in his second-century Almagest, in which it was defined as a specific pattern (asterism) of stars; Ptolemy identified only two stars and hence no depiction was possible. The Ancient Greeks called the constellation προκυων/"Procyon", "coming before the dog", transliterated into Latin as "Antecanis", "Praecanis", or variations thereof, by Cicero and others. Roman writers also appended the descriptors "parvus", "minor" or "minusculus" ("small" or "lesser", for its faintness), "septentrionalis" ("northerly", for its position in relation to Canis Major), "primus" (rising "first") or "sinister" (rising to the "left") to its name "Canis".
Canis Minor | History and mythology