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Diagram of Celestial Spheres from Apian's Cosmographia

This historical illustration, Fig. 36, depicts the celestial spheres as understood in ancient and medieval cosmology, specifically from Apian's Cosmographia. The diagram features concentric circles representing various celestial realms, including the Empyrean and Primum Mobile, along with the orbits of planets like Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, and Mercury, and the Moon. Symbols and Latin inscriptions denote these celestial bodies and their supposed movements. The text explains that these models, while fanciful, were attempts to describe celestial motions using deferents and epicycles, as developed by astronomers like Hipparchus and Ptolemy. The image is rendered in a black and white, woodcut or engraving style, typical of early printed scientific texts.

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