Salvo De Meis, Heliacal Phenomena. An Astronomical Introduction for Humanists

Antonio Panaino, Foreword; Note to the reader; General information; Data and quotations from ancient literary and astronomical texts; Heliacal phenomena in architecture; Planetary phases; Appendixes; Bibliographical note; Author index.

Heliacal phenomena is a parallel to Salvo De Meis’ Eclipses, being another astronomical introduction fo Humanists. In such an extremely wide field, both for theoretical aspects and for the number of documents that have accumulated within centuries, the essentials of theory and documentation have been carefully chosen and the events have been recomputed and compared to previous research. The aim is at giving to Humanists a general view on the importance of these phenomena from the points of view of history, literature, astronomy, that in the past were diffused in histories, poems, and treaties now often unavailable.It is an invitation to students and scholars to consider this subject, that was so useful to science, agriculture, peoples, for its many uses, from knowing the seasons of seeding to navigation, the aspect of the sky related to them, and the legacy left to humanity by the ancient texts fro Babylon, China, Greece, Rome or the Academies and Scientists until the present time. That is, from the epochs in which stars were gods, to the modern applications of high speed astronomical photometry. Heliacal phenomena will be useful as a compendium of information, from which to be able to develop further studies.