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Library / Commentaries and Disputations on Genesis, Volume I

Book Two — the heavens and the stars

QUESTION VIII. Whether the stars are innumerable to us

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QUESTION VIII. Whether the stars are innumerable to us.1

QUAESTIO VIII. An stellae sint nobis innumerabiles.

De stellis sane ingens disceptatio inter Astrologos et sacrarum litterarum studiosos excitari posset, utrum earum multitudo (loquor de stellis inerrantibus in octavo caelo mirabili dispositione splendoreque lucentibus) tanta sit ut ea mortalibus omnino sit innumerabilis, an contra certo aliquo numero, nec sane admodum magno, definita haud ingenti studio et labore possit nobis esse comperta et explorata. Plinius lib. 2 cap. 41 duo et septuaginta facit signa caelestia, quae sint rerum vel animantium effigies, in quas inquit digessisse caelum peritos, et in his mille sexcentas notavisse stellas insignes, videlicet effectu visuque. Verum, Astrologiae doctiores inde usque a Ptolomaeo et Hyparcho deprehenderunt omnes stellas inerrantes visu notabiles esse duntaxat duas et viginti supra mille; nec vero isti negant esse alias quam[plurimas]...
Concerning the stars, indeed, a great dispute could be stirred up between the Astronomers and the students of the sacred writings: whether their multitude (I speak of the fixed stars shining in the eighth heaven with a marvelous arrangement and splendor) is so great that it is altogether innumerable to mortals, or, on the contrary, is defined by some certain number—and that not at all a very great one—and can be ascertained and explored by us without enormous study and labor. Pliny, in book 2, chapter 41, makes seventy-two celestial signs, which are the figures of things or of living creatures, into which, he says, the skilled have distributed the heaven, and in these he notes one thousand six hundred notable stars—notable, that is, in their effect and to the sight. But the more learned in Astronomy, from Ptolemy and Hipparchus onward, have ascertained that all the fixed stars notable to the sight are only one thousand and twenty-two; nor indeed do these men deny that there are other, very [many]...2
...[quam]plurimas forma minimas, luce claritateque oculis nostris indiscrete conspicuas, qualis est innumerabilis multitudo stellarum, si tamen illae stellae quae lactei circuli claritatem et splendorem efficiunt. Ac licet vulgo, atque etiam cuivis primo aspectu stellarum multitudinem suspicienti, videatur incredibile non plures esse mille viginti duabus in caelo stellas—id quod propterea evenit quod eas homines sine ullo ordine ac distinctione confuse intuentur—si quis tamen supradictum stellarum numerum in globo aliquo depictum habeat, easque stellas proprie singulas conferat cum iis quae cernuntur in caelo, nullam profecto reperiet in caelo quam in globo expressam non habeat; quin etiam minimas in globo notatas visu aegre discernet in caelo.
...other stars, very many, smallest in form, conspicuous to our eyes only indistinctly in their light and brightness—such as the innumerable multitude of stars (if indeed they are stars) which produce the brightness and splendor of the Milky Way. And although to the common people—and even to anyone who, at first glance, looks up at the multitude of the stars—it may seem incredible that there are no more than one thousand and twenty-two stars in the heaven (which happens for this reason, that men gaze at them confusedly, without any order or distinction), yet if anyone has the aforesaid number of stars depicted on some globe, and properly compares those stars one by one with those that are seen in the heaven, he will assuredly find none in the heaven which he does not have expressed on the globe; nay, even the smallest marked on the globe he will scarcely discern by sight in the heaven.3
SUPRADICTAS porro mille viginti duas stellas ad quadraginta octo imagines seu effigies seu constellationes, ordine ac dispositione stellarum similitudinem alicuius animalis vel alterius rei reddentes, Astrologi redegerant. Earundem quoque stellarum magis minusve lucentium varietatem ad sex differentias reduxerunt: prima continet stellas quindecim primae (ut vocant) magnitudinis; altera quadraginta quinque secundae magnitudinis; tertia octo supra ducentas tertiae magnitudinis; quarta quadringentas septuaginta quatuor quartae magnitudinis; quinta ducentas decem et septem quintae magnitudinis; sexta quadraginta novem sextae magnitudinis. Harum omnium summa, adiunctis praeterea quinque quas vocant nebulosas et novem quae appellantur obscurae, supradictum mille viginti duarum stellarum numerum continet. Earum porro quaelibet maior est quam terra: nam quae sunt sextae magnitudinis, videlicet omnium minimae, octies et decies ampliorem habent magnitudinem quam est orbis terrae et aquae magnitudo.
The aforesaid one thousand and twenty-two stars the Astronomers had reduced to forty-eight images or figures or constellations, which by the order and arrangement of the stars render the likeness of some animal or other thing. They also reduced the variety of these same stars—shining more or less—to six differences: the first contains fifteen stars of the first magnitude (as they call it); the second, forty-five of the second magnitude; the third, two hundred and eight of the third magnitude; the fourth, four hundred and seventy-four of the fourth magnitude; the fifth, two hundred and seventeen of the fifth magnitude; the sixth, forty-nine of the sixth magnitude. The sum of all these, with five besides which they call nebulous and nine which are called obscure, makes up the aforesaid number of one thousand and twenty-two stars. And each one of them is larger than the earth: for those of the sixth magnitude—that is, the smallest of all—have a magnitude eighteen times greater than is the magnitude of the globe of earth and water.4
Nec vero tantum omnium stellarum quae sunt in caelo numerum Mathematici compertum esse volunt, sed ausi maiora et pene incredibilia demonstrant: si universa firmamenti facies concava plena esset usquequaque stellis primae magnitudinis, sciri posse earum numerus quantus esset; necessaria enim ratione concludi eas fore 71209600, hoc est unum et septuaginta milliones (ut vulgo appellant) et ducenties et novies mille superque sexcentas. Ut vel hoc argumento intelligere liceat quae nunc sunt in caelo stellae (tantis nempe spatiis inter se disiunctae) et quae sunt ultra tropicum Capricorni versus antarcticum polum (quae sane perpaucae sunt) eas non esse, ut vulgus putat, innumerabiles. Atque haec quidem de numero stellarum inerrantium Astrologorum est sententia.
Nor indeed do the Mathematicians will only that the number of all the stars in the heaven be ascertained, but, daring greater and almost incredible things, they demonstrate that, if the whole concave face of the firmament were everywhere full of stars of the first magnitude, it could be known how great their number would be; for by necessary reasoning it is concluded that they would be 71,209,600—that is, seventy-one millions (as they commonly call them), and two hundred and nine thousand, and six hundred more. So that even by this argument it may be understood that the stars now in the heaven (separated, namely, by such great spaces) and those beyond the Tropic of Capricorn toward the antarctic pole (which indeed are very few) are not, as the common people think, innumerable. And this is the opinion of the Astronomers concerning the number of the fixed stars.5
AT ENIMVERO, contraria videtur sacris litteris eiusmodi opinio, quippe divina Scriptura multis locis aperte indicat Stellas caeli ab homine non posse numerari. Etenim capite 15 libri Geneseos promisit Deus Abrahae multiplicaturum se posteritatem eius tamquam stellas caeli et arenam maris: Eduxit enim Deus, inquit Scriptura, foras Abraham (videlicet nocte caeloque serenissimo), et dixit ei, Suspice [caelum]...
BUT IN TRUTH, an opinion of this kind seems contrary to the sacred writings, since divine Scripture in many places plainly indicates that the stars of heaven cannot be numbered by man. For in chapter 15 of the book of Genesis God promised Abraham that He would multiply his posterity like the stars of heaven and the sand of the sea: For God led Abraham forth (namely, by night and under a most serene sky), says the Scripture, and said to him, Look up [to heaven]...6
...[Suspice] caelum, et numera stellas si potes, sic erit semen tuum. Erat autem Abraham, ut Iosephus et Eusebius tradunt, iam tum peritissimus astrologiae, ut quam didicerat a Chaldaeis, apud quos natus, educatus multosque annos versatus fuerat—homines sane, concessu omnium, eius scientiae facile principes; eamque doctrinam Abraham, auctore Iosepho, docuit Aegyptios. Nec hoc dictum Dei referri potest ad stellas quae sunt versus antarcticum, quas et constat esse paucissimas, nec eas cernere poterat Abraham ex terra Chanaam ubi tunc erat; nec ad stellas lactei circuli, ut quas visus discernere et distinguere nequeat—et vero circulus lacteus non constat ex stellis, sed est pars quaedam caeli paulo densior tenuiter lucens. Nec valet hoc loco illa interpretatio, Deum hic esse locutum ex sensu et existimatione vulgi: non enim loquebatur vulgo, sed Abrahae viro sapienti et astrologiae perito. Deinde Moses capite 10 Deuteronomii dixit Hebraeo populo, Multiplicavit te Dominus Deus tuus sicut astra caeli. Constat autem ex libro Numerorum fuisse tunc numerum Hebraeorum, eorum duntaxat qui supergressi vigesimum annum belligerare poterant, ad sexcenta millia et plus eo. Ad hoc, Hieremias capite 33 sic habet, Sicuti enumerari non possunt stellae caeli et metiri arena maris, sic multiplicabo semen David servi mei. Quid quod tanquam eximium et singulare quoddam et incomprehensibile homini praedicat Scriptura omnes stellas Deo esse numeratas? sic enim canit David Psalmo 146, Qui numerat multitudinem stellarum et omnibus eis nomina vocat.
...Look up to heaven and number the stars if you can: so shall your seed be. Now Abraham was, as Josephus and Eusebius hand down, even then most skilled in astronomy, inasmuch as he had learned it from the Chaldeans—among whom he had been born, brought up, and spent many years—men who were, by the consent of all, easily the chiefs of that science; and Abraham, on Josephus's authority, taught that doctrine to the Egyptians. Nor can this saying of God be referred to the stars toward the antarctic, which it is agreed are very few, and which Abraham could not have beheld from the land of Canaan where he then was; nor to the stars of the Milky Way, as those which the sight cannot discern and distinguish—and indeed the Milky Way does not consist of stars, but is a certain part of the heaven somewhat denser, faintly shining. Nor does that interpretation avail here, that God here spoke according to the sense and estimation of the common people: for He was not speaking to the common people, but to Abraham, a wise man and skilled in astronomy. Next, Moses in the tenth chapter of Deuteronomy said to the Hebrew people, The Lord thy God has multiplied thee like the stars of heaven. But it is established from the book of Numbers that the number of the Hebrews at that time—of those alone who, being past the twentieth year, could go to war—was six hundred thousand and more. To this, Jeremiah in chapter 33 has it thus, As the stars of heaven cannot be numbered, nor the sand of the sea measured, so will I multiply the seed of David my servant. What of this, that Scripture proclaims, as something singular and excellent and incomprehensible to man, that all the stars are numbered by God? For thus David sings in Psalm 146, Who numbers the multitude of the stars, and calls them all by name.7
Hoc ipsum tradit Basilius homil. 6 super Genesim, et Eusebius lib. 7 de Praeparatione Evangelica capite quinto. Augustinus vero in libro 16 de Civitate Dei capite 23 affirmat supradictam Astrologorum sententiam esse reiiciendam; sic enim scribit: Stellae dinumerari non possunt, quia nec omnes eas videri posse credendum est: nam quanto quisque acutius intuetur, tanto plures videt. Unde et acerrime cernentibus aliquas occultas esse merito existimatur, exceptis eis syderibus quae in aliqua parte orbis a nobis remotissima oriri et occidere perhibentur. Postremo, quicumque universum stellarum numerum comprehendisse et conscripsisse iactantur, sicut Aratus vel Eudoxus, vel si qui alii sunt, eos libri huius contemnit auctoritas. Haec Augustinus.
This same thing Basil delivers in homily 6 on Genesis, and Eusebius in book 7 of the Preparation for the Gospel, chapter 5. But Augustine, in book 16 of The City of God, chapter 23, affirms that the aforesaid opinion of the Astronomers is to be rejected; for thus he writes: The stars cannot be numbered, because it is not to be believed that all of them can even be seen: for the more keenly anyone gazes, the more he sees. Whence it is rightly judged that some are hidden even from the sharpest-sighted—excepting those heavenly bodies which are said to rise and set in some part of the world most remote from us. Lastly, whoever boast of having comprehended and written down the whole number of the stars, such as Aratus or Eudoxus, or any others there be, the authority of this book scorns them. Thus Augustine.8
Nec modo Sacrae litterae contradicere videntur Astrologis, sed etiam Philosophis: etenim Aristoteles in lib. de Mundo ad Alexandrum, et libr. 2 de Caelo textu 61, ait syderum inerrantium numerum a mortalibus iniri non posse; simile quidpiam in Timaeo scribit Plato. Seneca item lib. 6 Naturalium quaestionum cap. 16 eiusmodi stellarum numerum inveniri posse negat.
Nor only do the Sacred writings seem to contradict the Astronomers, but the Philosophers also: for Aristotle, in his book On the World, to Alexander, and in book 2 On the Heaven, text 61, says that the number of the fixed stars cannot be reached by mortals; Plato writes something similar in the Timaeus. Seneca likewise, in book 6 of the Natural Questions, chapter 16, denies that the number of such stars can be found.9
POSSET fortasse dici pro Astrologis, Augustinum non loqui de stellis visu insignibus et notabilibus, quarum duntaxat numerum tradunt Astrologi, sed universe de omnibus stellis quae in caelo sunt, sive aspectabiles sint hominibus sive inaspectabiles, quarum omnium numerum teneri non posse ab hominibus non ibunt inficias Astrologi: qui enim nosse possunt earum numerum, quas nec visu nec alia[...]...
It might perhaps be said in defense of the Astronomers that Augustine speaks not of the stars conspicuous and notable to the sight, whose number alone the Astronomers give, but universally of all the stars that are in the heaven, whether visible to men or invisible—whose total number, that it cannot be held by men, the Astronomers will not deny: for how can they know the number of those stars which neither by sight nor by any other [means]...10
...nec alia ratione certo cognoscunt? Illud quoque pro Astrologis dici posset, numerum inerrantium stellarum non fuisse curiose investigatum aut compertum ante Hyparchi et Arati aetatem, nempe quousque Astrologi stellas omnes miro artificio in certas quasdam imagines et effigies digesserunt: ut non sit mirum, ante istam tam diligentem et artificiosam Astrologorum observationem, incognitum fuisse hominibus, vel etiam incomprehensibilem existimatum, stellarum numerum; atque ob eam causam Scriptura veteris testamenti de stellis tanquam innumerabilibus multifariam loquitur. Nondum sunt anni mille quingenti, ait Seneca lib. 7 Naturalium q. capit. 25, ex quo Graecia stellis et numeros et nomina fecit. Sed verius sane dixisset Seneca necdum septingentos usque ad suam aetatem praeteriisse annos ex quo Graeci syderalem scientiam acceperunt. Primus namque in Graecia Thales, qui circa 50 Olympiadem claruit, aliqua in stellis observasse easque observationes tradidisse fertur. Quanquam fuisse priscis hominibus etiam ante Mosis tempora notitiam aliquam istiusmodi caelestium imaginum demonstrat liber Iob, in cuius capite 9 sic est, Qui facit Arcturum et Oriona et Hyadas et interiora Austri; et postea cap. 38, Nunquid coniungere valebis micantes stellas Pleiadas, aut gyrum Arcturi poteris dissipare? Nunquid producis Luciferum in tempore suo, et Vesperum super filios terrae consurgere facis?
...nor know for certain by any other means? This too could be said for the Astronomers: that the number of the fixed stars was not carefully investigated or ascertained before the age of Hipparchus and Aratus—that is, until the Astronomers, by a marvelous artifice, arranged all the stars into certain images and figures; so that it is no wonder that, before that so diligent and artful observation of the Astronomers, the number of the stars was unknown to men, or even reckoned incomprehensible; and that for this cause the Scripture of the Old Testament speaks of the stars in many places as though innumerable. There are not yet a thousand and five hundred years, says Seneca, in book 7 of the Natural Questions, chapter 25, since Greece gave the stars both numbers and names. But Seneca would have said more truly that not even seven hundred years had passed up to his own age since the Greeks received the science of the stars. For Thales, the first in Greece, who flourished about the fiftieth Olympiad, is reported to have observed some things in the stars and to have handed down those observations. Yet that men of old, even before the times of Moses, had some knowledge of celestial figures of this kind, the book of Job demonstrates, in whose ninth chapter it stands thus, Who makes Arcturus, and Orion, and the Hyades, and the inner parts of the South; and afterward, in chapter 38, Wilt thou be able to join together the shining stars of the Pleiades, or canst thou scatter the circle of Arcturus? Dost thou bring forth Lucifer in its time, and make Vesper to rise over the sons of the earth?11

Translator’s notes

  1. In the preface's list of ten questions, the number of the fixed stars was the tenth; in the running text Pererius numbers this question the eighth (the questions on the stars' heat and on whether they are fixed in their orbs are not treated as separate numbered questions here). ↩
  2. Marginal gloss: "Numerus stellarum inerrantium visu notabilium, et imaginum caelestium, secundum Astrologos." The dispute: are the fixed stars innumerable, or fixed at a definite (not very large) number? Pliny (Nat. Hist. 2.41) counts 72 celestial signs with 1,600 notable stars; the more learned, since Ptolemy and Hipparchus, found the visible fixed stars to be just 1,022. Sentence continues onto the next page (catchword ‘quam’). ↩
  3. The astronomers do not deny there are very many tiny stars, only indistinctly visible—such as the innumerable multitude (if they are stars) that make up the Milky Way's brightness. Though it seems incredible there are only 1,022 stars, this is because men gaze confusedly; one who compares a catalogued globe star-by-star with the heaven finds none in the heaven not on the globe. ↩
  4. Marginal gloss: "Sex differentiae stellarum quae sunt in octavo caelo." The 1,022 stars reduced to 48 constellation-figures, and by brightness into six magnitudes: 1st = 15; 2nd = 45; 3rd = 208; 4th = 474; 5th = 217; 6th = 49; plus 5 nebulous and 9 obscure—totalling 1,022. Each is larger than the earth; even the smallest (6th magnitude) are 18× the bulk of the globe of earth and water. ↩
  5. Marginal gloss: "Si octavum caelum totum esset plenum stellis primae magnitudinis, quantus earum numerus esset futurus." The mathematicians compute that, were the whole firmament packed with first-magnitude stars, their number would be exactly 71,209,600—showing the actual stars (widely separated, few beyond the Tropic of Capricorn) are not innumerable. ↩
  6. Marginal gloss: "Videri secundum doctrinam sacrae Scripturae et Patrum, necnon et Philosophorum, stellas esse innumerabiles." Genesis 15:5 (God led Abraham outside by night under a clear sky). Sentence continues onto the next page (catchword ‘Suspice’). ↩
  7. Genesis 15:5 (‘Look up... and number the stars’). Abraham, per Josephus and Eusebius, most skilled in astronomy (learned from the Chaldeans, princes of the science; he taught it to the Egyptians). The promise cannot mean the few antarctic stars (invisible from Canaan), nor the Milky Way (not stars, but a denser, faintly-luminous part of heaven); nor was God speaking ‘to the vulgar.’ Deuteronomy 10:22; Numbers (600,000+ warriors over twenty); Jeremiah 33:22; Psalm 146[147]:4 (‘Who numbers the multitude of the stars and calls them all by name’). ↩
  8. Basil (Hom. 6 in Gen.); Eusebius (Praep. ev. 7.5). Augustine (De civ. Dei 16.23) rejects the astronomers' view: not all the stars can even be seen (the keener the eye, the more it sees; some hidden even from the sharpest sight; some rise and set in a part of the world most remote from us); the authority of Genesis scorns those (Aratus, Eudoxus) who boast of cataloguing all the stars. ↩
  9. Aristotle (De Mundo ad Alexandrum; De Caelo 2, text 61): the number of the fixed stars cannot be reached by mortals; likewise Plato (Timaeus); Seneca (Naturales quaestiones 7.16, here cited as book 6) denies the number can be found. ↩
  10. Marginal gloss: "Defensio opinionis Astrologorum." In defense of the astronomers: Augustine may speak not of the conspicuous, notable stars (whose number alone the astronomers give), but universally of all stars, visible or invisible—whose total the astronomers themselves admit cannot be held by men. Sentence continues onto the next page (catchword ‘nec alia’; signature F 3). ↩
  11. A further defense of the astronomers: the stars' number was not investigated before Hipparchus and Aratus arranged the constellations, so the Old Testament speaks of them ‘as innumerable.’ Seneca (Naturales quaestiones 7.25: not yet 1,500 years since Greece named the stars—Pererius corrects to under 700; Thales flourished ~50th Olympiad). Yet Job knew the constellations before Moses (Job 9:9; 38:31–32: the Pleiades, Arcturus, Lucifer/the morning star, Vesper/the evening star). ↩