Disputatio:Index stellarum splendidissimarum

message: It should be "clarissimarum" ... but I'm not quite sure how a star gets to be famous ("Proxima Centauri" is fairly famous but not in the list).
replies: text: Ah, I see now, isn't Latin ambiguous? :) This is no doubt the list of "brightest" stars, and that's exactly why Proxima Centauri isn't listed.

text: There are several possible words, and I'm not sure that "clarus" is the best. Noting that these are not brightest absolutely, but brightest to a terrestrial observer, my initial suggestion is "lucidissimarum". I don't know if the superlative occurs in classical texts, but the comparative certainly does. Andrew Dalby (disputatio) 09:06, 14 Septembris 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: :Perhaps Bayer himself can provide the answer: his Uranologia, where he introduced his classification, was written in Latin. I have not yet found a freely accessible copy on the internet. --Fabullus 09:38, 14 Septembris 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: ::If that's the same as Uranometria I did find a copy (see that page for a link) but I haven't time to look right now. Andrew Dalby (disputatio) 10:28, 14 Septembris 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: :::Uranometria, of course! --Fabullus 11:03, 14 Septembris 2010 (UTC)

text: ::And now that I have looked ([), it seems a terrible interface. I can't get it to where I can read the preface as connected text: I have to see either the left side of the page or the right side, never a whole line. Perhaps it works better on someone else's browser. Andrew Dalby (disputatio) 10:38, 14 Septembris 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: :::Since the brightness of stars is graded according to magnitudo, we shouldn't be surprised if the brightest ones turn out to be simply the stellae maximae. IacobusAmor 11:34, 14 Septembris 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: ::::It would be better to avoid that term, however, because (from what we know now) it is inaccurate: one might equally make a list of the biggest stars, but they are not necessarily the brightest. Well, I have managed to read some text through that interface, and in table 38 (Canis Major) Bayerus refers to Sirius as "[stella] splendidissima". That was one of the words that occurred to me, though I didn't propose it. Use the link above, select "Oo recto, Canis Major, table 38", enlarge to 100%, and pan right. If nothing is visible, keep clicking on "Oo recto, Canis Major, table 38" until it appears.

text: ::::So "Index stellarum splendidissimarum" is a possibility. Andrew Dalby (disputatio) 11:44, 14 Septembris 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: :::::Great job. Per me licet mutare. --Fabullus 11:50, 14 Septembris 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: ::::::Nemine contradicente, iam moveo. Andrew Dalby (disputatio) 16:39, 15 Septembris 2010 (UTC)
thread_title: Titulus

message: I changed the column header "Numerus Bayeri" to "Bayeri Character" because (a) they aren't numbers, after all (b) when I wrote the page Uranometria I used this term. However, that's a while ago and I don't now know whether I had any justification for choosing it. So if anyone knows the correct Latin term for these sigla, please insert it. Andrew Dalby (disputatio) 12:12, 14 Septembris 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: I see now, from the page Ioannes Bayerus, that I did have sources, but they gave two alternative names: "Bayeri Character" and "Littera Bayeri". Andrew Dalby (disputatio) 18:45, 14 Septembris 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Bayer number