 |
| Parhelia in Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus, Bk. 1, Ch, 17. |
This is the first post of a three-part series
focusing on the rich material that can be found in Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus (History of the
Nordic Peoples), a popular and influential work of the 16th
century. The work was written by Olaus Magnus and was printed in Rome in 1555. Soon
after its publication, it was translated into several languages and thus became
a “bestseller” of the age.
The author, Olaus Magnus, was a Swedish theologian, cartographer and
writer, and the last Catholic archbishop of Uppsala. He maintained good
relationship with King Gustav I of Sweden, and partly due to this, he was sent
on various diplomatic and ecclesiastical missions around Scandinavia and other
parts of Europe. During these travels he recorded his observations and what he
had heard from locals, which later gave the basis of his magnum opus. When
his country adopted the Lutheran faith, Olaus decided to remain loyal to his
Catholic religion, and stayed abroad for the rest of his life. He was issued
the title Archbishop during this turbulent period of his life, but the title
was only a nominal one, as Olaus had been banned from Lutheran Sweden.
Historia
de Gentibus Septentrionalibus is Olaus’s major work, which consists of 22
books divided into chapters, and is illustrated with 481 woodcuts. In his first
book, he deals extensively with halos and dedicates 5 chapters to
them. Of these, chapters 17 and 18 deal with parhelia and paraselenae. Olaus
seems to have personal interest in these phenomena: when he lists occasions of
three suns or moons visible in the sky, he mentions his own birthday at the
beginning of October in 1490.
Olaus starts his description of parhelia
by saying that in the North, around sunset and sunrise, they frequently appear at
any location. They are white or rainbow-coloured, there could be two or even
more of them, and are “never above or below the true sun, but at an angle to
it” (All English translations by: Peter Fisher and Humphrey Higgens). As a 16th century Renaissance scholar, he pays
much attention to authenticating his writing, and supports his description by
referring to natural historical works of Seneca (Naturales quaestiones), Pliny (Naturalis
Historia) and even to the popular 12th century encyclopaedia Speculum Maius, written by the
Dominican friar Vincentius Bellovacensis. Thus, in his explanation about the
formation of parhelia he relies on earlier sources and theories, most of which
would now raise a smile. Although the description is very far from the truth,
we must acknowledge that some properties of parhelia are rightly observed.
Already in the 16th century it was realised, for example, that their formation is
connected to clouds, more precisely to clouds that have specific thickness and
uniform nature.
Olaus Magnus’s description goes as
follows: "(…) a parhelion is a rounded shining cloud, similar to the sun; for
at the time of an eclipse we set out basins, which we fill with oil or tar, in
order to observe how the moon stations itself before the sun, because a viscous
liquid is less easily disturbed and retains the images which it receives.
Therefore as the images of the sun and moon are viewed like this on earth, so
also it happens in the sky that when the air is condensed and pellucid, it
takes upon itself the figure of the sun; other clouds catch this up, too, but
pass it on if they are moving or if they are thin or contain impurities. For
the moving ones scatter the image, the sparse ones let it escape, while the
foul and filthy ones receive no impression of it, just as with us things that
are stained give no reflection."
A further interesting detail of the text
is the idea that if a second parhelion appears in the sky, it is the mirror
image or reflection of the first one; “clouds that present this
effect are said to be dense, light, brilliant, flat and composed of compact
matter.” He also states that parhelia cannot be seen on clouds very far from
the sun because the beams of sunlight cannot be reflected from afar. Paraselenae
(Chapter 18) depend on the Sun’s brightness as Olaus says, since the Moon “has
no power at all to initiate action on inferior bodies, except for reciprocating
and receiving light from the sun”.
 |
| Paraselenae in Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus, Bk 1. Ch. 18. |
At the beginning of Book 1, chapter 17, Olaus notes that the reason
why he finds it important to talk about the phenomena is that locals believe
they signify upcoming events. For farmers parhelia indicate rain coming. If the
parhelia are visible in the South and they last long, farmers in the hills can
sow seed safely. If, however, two parhelia are “contending” with one another on
the sides of the real sun and then vanish, sailors must beware of severe
storms. In wintertime, when there are three moons in the sky, they foretell
snow, frost and cold.
By: Ágnes Kiricsi
Sources:
Olaus Magnus, A Description of the Northern
Peoples, 1555, Vol. 1. Ed.: Peter Foote, Hakluyt Society, 1996.
Olaus Magnus,
Historia de gentibus deptentrionalibus. http://runeberg.org/olmagnus
Images: Lars Henriksson http://www.avrosys.nu/
