[5] This Ancient Instrument Is Probably The Same That Is Engraved In Pauthier's Chine Ancienne Under The Title Of "The Sphere Of The Emperor Shun" (B.C. 2255!).

[6] After the death of Kublai astronomy fell into neglect, and when Hongwu, the first Ming sovereign, took the throne (1368) the subject was almost forgotten.

Nor was there any revival till the time of Ching. The latter was a prince who in 1573 associated himself with the astronomer Hing-yun-lu to reform the state of astronomy. (Gaubil.)

What Ricci has recorded (in Trigautius) of the dense ignorance of the Chinese literati in astronomical matters is entirely consistent with the preceding statements.

[7] I had entirely forgotten to look at Trigault till Mr. Wylie sent me the extract. The copy I use (De Christiana Expeditione apud Sinas ... Auct. Nicolao Trigautio) is of Lugdun. 1616. The first edition was published at August. Vindelicorum (Augsburg) in 1615: the French, at Lyons, in 1616.

[8] "Pinnulis."

[9] "Et stilus eo modo quo in horologiis ad perpendiculum collocatus."

[10] The Alidada is the traversing index bar which carries the dioptra, pinnules, or sight-vanes. The word is found in some older English Dictionaries, and in France and Italy is still applied to the traversing index of a plane table or of a sextant. Littre derives it from (Ar.) 'adad, enumeration; but it is really from a quite different word, al-idadat [Arabic] "a door-post," which is found in this sense in an Arabic treatise on the Astrolabe.

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