The Southern Cross Pearl. 307
think that there is little doubt but that Dante was acquainted with them when he used the following lines in the Purgatorio, canto i., lines 22-4.
" Io mi volsi a man'destra, e posi mente All'altro polo, e vidi quatro stelle Non viste mai fuor' ch'alia prima gente."
The last line would probably allude to the few travellers who had gone so far to the south that the group was seen by them.
The
first notice of it in modern times occurs in the letters of the great
Florentine traveller, Corsali, where he speaks of it as the " Croce
mara-vigliosa," in 1515. Again, Pigafetta notices it in his account of
the voyage to South America, under the leadership of Magellan, in
1520-22.
It was considered then to be of a good omen, and had much mystic effect on the crew of the ship. It was first figured as a separate constellation by Bayer, in his atlas engraved in 1648, and is there noted as a new constellation.
It
has gained its reputation solely on account of its form, as its
component stars are small, and it is insignificant in comparison with
others in the southern heavens. Only eight stars are visible to the
naked eye. One of these, however, though
