Capella

Capella, MARTIANUS MINEVS FELIX, a learned author who flourished most probably in the second half of the 5th century, was born in the north of Africa. The work which has preserved his name to posterity is the Satiricon, a kind of encyclopædia, highly esteemed during the middle ages as a work of reference. It is written in a medley of prose and verse, and is full of curious learning. Of its nine books, the first two are an allegory, De Nuptiis Philologie et Mercurii, while the remaining seven are devoted to the 'liberal arts': grammar, dialectics, rhetoric, geometry, arithmetic, astronomy, and music. The best editions are those of Kopp (1836) and Eyssenhardt (1866). A passage in book viii., that on astronomy, is remarkable as containing more than a hint of the true theory of the solar system. As Copernicus knew Capella, and quotes from him, it has been suggested that probably he derived the first idea of his doctrine from this writer.