The Ten Books on Architecture, 9.5.4

Vitruvius  translated by Joseph Gwilt

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4I have explained the constellations displayed and formed in the heavens by nature with a divine intelligence, according to the system of the philosopher Democritus, confining myself to those whose rising and setting are visible. Some, however, such as the two Bears turning round the pole, never set nor pass under the earth. So also, the constellations about the south pole, which from the obliquity of the heavens is under the earth, are always hidden, and their revolution never brings them above the horizon. Whence the interposition of the earth prevents a knowledge of their forms. The constellation Canopus proves this, which is unknown in these countries, though well known to merchants who have travelled to the extremity of Egypt and other boundaries of the earth.

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