Note 7 — THE LEARDO MAP OF THE WORLD 1452 OR 1453

By the “diameters” of the sun, moon, and planets Leardo obviously means the diameters of the orbits. Macrobius, Commentaria in somnium Scipionis, I, 20: 20, gives the diameter of the earth as 80,000 stades, which might, if converted into Arabic miles, be approximately the 6857 miles of Leardo. According to Macrobius the radius of the sun’s orbit is 4,800,000 stades (ibid., I, 20: 21); the diameter of the sun’s orbit would therefore be 9,600,000 stades, or 120 times that of the earth. The diameter of the sun’s orbit according to Leardo is 218 times that of the earth. On the authority of Porphyry, Macrobius (ibid., II, 3: 14) gives the relative distances between the planets; but Leardo’s figures bear no relation to these. I have not been able as yet to trace the origin of Leardo’s figures.