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Mystery in the Moon

Mystery in the Moon

2 comments

·September 13, 2025
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whycome

This is a great review. not just for the book itself, but for the other literature around it.

> Though medieval people wrongly believed the Moon was a planet, they understood that its light came from the Sun, used astrolabes and volvelles to track its movements,

I kinda hate this kind of revisionism though. They didn't "wrongly believe" anything. There was nothing wrong about any belief --it was a explanation for the evidence available. It's what we continue to do. The moon literally fit into their definition of "planet" at the time. It basically grouped all non-star bodies together. (And they are the basis for the 7 day calendar used in much of the world. Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Sun.)

We can't retroactively apply our modern definitions to their times.

kesava

Rebecca Boyle’s Our Moon talks a lot about this. A fascinating read!