The quote is in Latin. Roughly translated, it means "The Mother of
Love emulates the shapes of Cynthia."
"Cynthia" is one name given by the ancient Greeks to the Goddess of the Moon.
"The Mother of Love" is a reference to Venus, the Roman Goddess of
Love, for whom the second planet of the Solar System was named. The
"star" in your picture is likely to be the planet Venus, for reasons
described below.
The phrase has considerable historical significance. When the 17th
century astronomer Galileo Galilei noted that the planet Venus went
through "phases" similar to those of the moon, he was cautious about
announcing his discovery, and initially concealed the information in
the form of an anagram, which he sent to several correspondents:
"In the year 1610 Galileo published his Sidereus Nuncius, a record of
his observation of the Moon and Jupiter in 1609 and 1610. In the fall
of 1610, Galileo turned his telescope to Venus, which had just become
visible after being lost in the sun. The results of his observations
began to threaten the cosmological system of Ptolemy, while at the
same time provide evidence for the plausibility of the Copernican
system. Galileo's announcement of his observations of the phase change
of Venus was concealed as an anagram in a letter to the Tuscan
ambassador of Prague. Haec immatura a me iam frustra leguntur o y is
unscrambled to Cynthiae figuras aemulatur mater amorum. Translated:
the mother of love [Venus] emulates the figures of Cynthia [the
Moon]."
Rice University Astronomy Group
http://es.rice.edu/ES/humsoc/Galileo/Student_Work/Astronomy96/tdunn/venus.html
"The discovery of Saturn's peculiar shape wasn't the only occasion
when Galileo resorted to coded messages. Perhaps even more significant
was the discovery which he expressed to Kepler and others in the form
of an anagram
Haec immatura a me jam frustra leguntur oy
which, translated, means roughly 'This was already tried by me in vain
too early'. Max Caspar's biography reports that Kepler wrote to
Galileo after receiving this second coded message:
I adjure you not to leave us long in doubt of the meaning.
For you see you are dealing with real Germans. Think in
what distress you place me by your silence.
Galileo relented and on 1 January 1611 forwarded the unscrambled
version of the anagram:
Cynthiae figuras aemulatur mater amorum.
which means 'Venus imitates the phases of the Moon'. Galileo had
discerned the phases of Venus as it circles the Sun, proving that,
like the Moon, its light is purely reflective from the Sun's light.
More importantly, the correlation between its phases and it positions
showed rather conclusively that Venus (and by implication Mercury as
well) is indeed circling the Sun, in accord with the new Copernican
model. This became, along with Galileo's other discoveries, one of the
strongest pieces of evidence in favor of Sun-centered models for the
solar system."
MathPages: Galileo's Anagrams and the Moons of Mars
http://www.mathpages.com/home/kmath151.htm
Google search strategy:
Google Web Search: "mater amorum" + "galileo"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=%22mater+amorum%22+galileo
I hope this information is helpful. If anything is unclear, please
request clarification; I'll be glad to offer further assistance before
you rate my answer.
Best regards,
pinkfreud |
