the head passes by the sun, and lies hid under the solar rays, very bright and shining tails, like fiery beams, are said to issue from the horizon; but afterwards, when the head begins to appear, and is got farther from the sun, that splendor always decreases, and turns by degrees into a paleness like to that of the milky way, but much more sensible at first; after that vanishing gradually. Such was that most resplendent comet described by Aristotle, Lib. 1, Meteor. 6. "The head thereof could not be seen, because it set before the sun, or at least was hid under the sun's rays; but the next day it was seen as well as might be; for, having left the sun but a very little way, it set immediately after it; and the scattered light of the head obscured by the too great splendour (of the tail) did not yet appear. But afterwards (says Aristotle), when the splendour of the tail was now diminished (the head of), the comet recovered its native brightness. And the splendour of its tail reached now to a third part of the heavens (that is, to 60°). It appeared in the winter season, and, rising to Orion's girdle, there vanished away." Two comets of the same kind are described by Justin, Lib. 37, which, according to his account, "shined so bright, that the whole heaven seemed to be on fire; and by their greatness filled up a fourth part of the heavens, and by their splendour exceeded that of the sun." By which last words a near position of these bright comets and the rising or setting sun is intimated (p. 494, 495). We may add to these the comet of the year 1101 or 1106, "the star of which was small and obscure (like that of 1680); but the splendour arising from it extremely bright, reaching like a fiery beam to the east and north," as Hevelius has it from Simeon, the monk of Durham. It appeared at the beginning of February about the evening in the south-west. From this and from the situation of the tail we may infer that the head was near the sun. Matthew Paris says, "it was about one cubit from the sun; from the third [or rather the sixth] to the ninth hour sending out a long stream of light." The comet of 1264, in July, or about the solstice, preceded the rising sun, sending out its beams with a great light towards the west as far as the middle of the heavens; and at the beginning it ascended a little above the horizon: but as the sun went forwards it retired every day farther from the horizon, till it passed by the very middle of the heavens. It is said to have been at the beginning large and bright, having a large coma, which decayed from day to day. It is described in Append. Matth. Paris, Hist. Ang. after this manner: "An. Christi 1265, there appeared a comet so wonderful, that none then living had ever seen the like; for, rising from the east with a great brightness, it extended itself with a great light as far as the middle of the hemisphere towards the west." The Latin original being somewhat barbarous and obscure, it is here subjoined. Ab oriente enim cum magno fulgore surgens, usque ad medium hemisphœrii versus occidentem, omnia perlucide pertrahebat.
