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412 THE STONES OF VENICE
§ 106. We have now arrived at the EIGHTEENTH CAPITAL, the most interesting and beautiful of the palace. It represents the planets, and the sun and moon, in those divisions of the zodiac known to astrologers as their “houses;” and perhaps indicates, by the position in which they are placed, the period of the year at which this great corner-stone was laid. The inscriptions above have been in quaint Latin rhyme, but are now decipherable only in fragments, and that with the more difficulty because the rusty iron bar that binds the abacus has broken away, in its expansion, nearly all the upper portions of the stone, and with them the signs of contraction, which are of great importance. I shall give the fragments of them that I could decipher; first, as the letters actually stand (putting those of which I am doubtful in brackets, with a note of interrogation), and then as I would read them.
§ 107. It should be premised that, in modern astrology, the houses of the planets are thus arranged:
The house of the SunisLeo.
”Moon”Cancer.
”of Mars”Aries and Scorpio.
”Venus”Taurus and Libra.
”Mercury”Gemini and Virgo.
”Jupiter”Sagittarius and Pisces.
”Saturn”Capricorn.
”Herschel”Aquarius.
The Herschel planet1 being of course unknown to the old astrologers, we have only the other six planetary powers, together with the sun; and Aquarius is assigned to Saturn as his house. I could not find Capricorn at all; but this sign may have been broken away, as the whole capital is grievously defaced.2 The eighth side of the capital, which the Herschel planet would now have occupied, bears a sculpture of the Creation of Man: it is the most conspicuous
1 [Discovered by Sir William Herschel (1738-1822) in 1781, now known as Uranus.]
2 [It has now been renewed; and Capricorn is conspicuous as forming with Aquarius the house of Saturn.]
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[Version 0.04: March 2008]
