Supplementary material to Comment on “The First Accurate Description of an Aurora”
S. M. Silverman, Lexington, Massachusetts
Citation:
Silverman, S. M. (2007), Comment on “The first accurate description
of an aurora,” Eos Trans. AGU, 88(47), 506.
[Full Article (pdf)]
We are indebted to Schröder (Eos, 87: 584, 19 December 2006) for bringing to our attention the Buch der Natur of Konrad von Megenberg (1309-1374). Unfortunately, however, it appears that Schröder has conflated descriptions of meteors and other optical atmospheric phenomena in Book 2, chapter 12, and attributed these, incorrectly, to the aurora. The section likely to be the discussion of aurora is not in that section, but in Book 2, chapter 14.
Das Buch der Natur, written between 1348-1350, was the first encyclopedia of natural phenomena in German. Discussions of the book may be found in Schulz, 1897; Pfeiffer, 1861; Luff and Steer, 2003; and Spyra, 2005. A version in more-or-less contemporary German, based on the edition of Pfeiffer, was published by Schulz in 1897, and a discussion of Megenberg’s astronomical terminology by Deschler in 1977. I have relied heavily on these sources for the present note. Megenberg saw himself as the translator of an earlier book in Latin, Liber de natura rerum, of Thomas of Cantimpré, a student of Albertus Magnus, written between 1225 and 1240, though Megenberg presumably made alterations and additions to that work. Megenberg’s work, though largely derivative, nevertheless, stands as a milestone in the formation of genuine German writing.
Optical atmospheric phenomena are found in Book 2, Chapters 12 and 14. My discussion of these chapters will rest largely on Deschler’s treatment. Chapter 12 is entitled “About fire in the air.” It contains descriptions of several phenomena. The first of these is that of a meteor, coming from the mid-part of the atmosphere. The preceding chapter has dealt with comets, in the upper part of the atmosphere. Associated with meteors is a description of a fireball. The chapter ends with a description of a ball or sphere, the periphery of which is brighter and less dense than in the middle, so that it looks like a crown. Here Deschler (p. 305) thinks that Megenberg may be thinking of an auroral form, or he would have put it in the chapter on comets.
Chapter 14, only a paragraph long, is the one most likely to be a discussion of the aurora. Natural phenomena in the medieval period relied heavily on the work of Aristotle and Pliny, the classical Greek and Roman writers. Chapter 14, Of Chasms in the Heavens, begins with the classical description of Aristotle of the Chasmata, a term in use for the aurora throughout the medieval period in Europe. Megenberg begins the chapter, “Sometimes the night appears as if a boundless depth extends in the heavens.” He then explains this in terms of a contrast between white and black: if one puts black next to or in the midst of white, then the black appears to be much further than the white. Artists, he says, if they wish to paint shadows or darker parts, put pure white colors next to black, and the black parts then appear deeper than the white. He ends the section with the comment that we also see the sky in various colors, red, yellow, green and even others, and that vapors in the sky are of different types, thin and thick, clear and hazy, watery and earthly.
It is worthwhile to compare Megenberg’s description of these “chasms” with that of Aristotle. In his Meteorology (as translated by Webster, 1931), Book I, Chapter 5, Aristotle states: “Sometimes on a fine night we see a variety of appearances that form in the sky: ‘chasms’ for instance and ‘trenches’ and blood red colours… ‘chasms’ get their appearance of depth from light breaking out of a dark blue or black mass of air. When the process of condensation goes further in such a case we often find ‘torches’ ejected. When the ‘chasm’ contracts it presents the appearance of a ‘trench’.” The resemblance to Megenberg is unmistakable (see also, Silverman, 1962).
To conclude: the descriptions of atmospheric light phenomena in Megenberg’s Buch der Natur, Book 2, Chapter 12, refer not to the aurora, but to meteors and similar phenomena, and that in Chapter 14 is best seen as derived from Aristotle’s “chasms,” with the addition of yellow, green and other colors to the red color found in Aristotle’s description.
REFERENCESAristotle, Meteorology, translated by E.W. Webster, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1931.
Deschler, Jean-Paul, Die astronomische Terminologie Konrads von Megenberg: ein Beitrag zur mittelalterlichen Fachprosa, Bern: Herbert Lang; Frankfurt/M.: Peter Lang, 1977.
Luff, Robert and Georg Steer, eds., Konrad von Megenberg, Das Buch der Natur, Tűbingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag, 2003.
Pfeiffer, Franz, ed., Konrad von Megenberg, Das Buch der Natur: Die erste Naturgeschichte in deutscher Sprache, Hildesheim, Zurich, New York: Georg Olms Verlag, 1994, reprint of the Stuttgart edition of 1861.
Schulz, Hugo, Das Buch der Natur von Conrad von Megenberg: Die erste Naturgeschichte in deuthscher Sprache, Greifswald: Julius Abel, 1897.
Silverman, S.M., On the “Chasms” of Aristotle and Pliny, J.Atm.Terr. Phys., 24, 1108-1109, 1962.
Spyra, Ulrike, Das >>Buch der Natur<< Konrads von Megenberg: Die illustrierten Handschriften und Inkunabeln, Kőln, Weimar, Wien: Bőhlau Verlag, 2005.
