Page 253

118

the person who compiled this work, he put all
his understanding and all his time into it, so that it
would have such great marvels in it, things that he perceived
plainly but that there was great doubt about. For he saw the sun
to be very clearly much larger than the earth, without any
defect, 166 and 3/20ths greater than the earth, with everything just
as the ancients had said. And then he believed that which
he had been given to understand. It would not have been
written down by him if he had not been certain of the
truth that he had plainly discovered. And one can know
well that the sun is of great size. It seems so small because it
is so far away from us. It is not (see note) any further above us
than we know it to be below us as well. And the truth is that
from the earth to the sun, as King Ptolemy proved it, is
585 times as much as the whole earth may have in
thickness. [rubric] Here speaks of the height of the stars
and of their size. [/rubric] Now I want to tell you
briefly about the stars in the firmament, of which there
are such a very large number, and that although they
are all at the same height yet they are not