HISTORICAL.
The traditions about the astronomical views of Parmenides, according to Zeller, are so inadequate and contradictory that no clear and trustworthy exposition of them can be given. Döring attempts to show by the use of secondary sources, especially of statements going back to Aetius and Theophrastus, that this is possible. These statements taken in conjunction with the extant fragments of Parmenides furnish us an account of the Parmenidean cosmical system, of which Döring gives a detailed explanation.
After a somewhat lengthy introduction, describing the many differences between the modern world and the middle ages, the writer enters upon the subject for which he has made this careful preparation. Foremost among the investigators of nature of the fifteenth century was Leonardo da Vinci. Other investigators of that century have ranked higher than he in the annals of science, but none equalled him in scientific endowment. He was disenthralled from mediaeval preconceptions, and his methods were observation and experiment. He studied painting and sculpture, the goldsmith's art, military engineering, astronomy, botany, comparative anatomy, etc., etc. For 300 years his writings lay concealed in manuscript. As yet only one volume has been carefully studied and in part transcribed. Fourteen folio volumes were brought by Napoleon from Milan to Paris; and there are others in England.
