Astronomia: Fabula Planetarum

In Astronomia: Fabula Planetarum, Maria Mitchell, the first female professor of astronomy in the United States, narrates and describes the solar system and then tells a short myth about the Roman god or goddess about who is the planet’s namesake. Each page alternates a scientific explanation with a myth.

Astronomia: Fabula Planetarum is suitable for use in Latin I/II. This novella may be appropriate at other levels depending on the students’ years of study and its intended use. A two-page spread of the novella is available here.

Astronomia: Fabula Planetarum is available on Amazon for 11.50. It can also soon be purchased as part of a classroom set on Bombax Press, part of FVR classroom sets, and is available as a free download.

About the Plot of Astronomia Fabula Planetarum

The novella begins with an introduction to Maria Mitchell’s life as a teacher and an astronomer, including her celebrated discovery of a comet. Mitchell is the narrator of the book, and she teaches the reader all about the solar system, including information about when and how some planets were discovered. After teaching about the Sun and the various planets, she relates a short myth about the planet’s namesake. She ends with a brief discussion of critical importance to astronomers and night-sky enthusiasts: the disappearance of the night sky due to light pollution.

The brief myths recounted in this novella are:

• Sol: Phaethon’s fall
• Mercurius: The theft of Apollo’s cattle
• Venus: The Death of Adonis
• Tellus: The Birth of Erichthonius
• Mars: Rescuing the Injured Venus
• Iuppiter: The Birth of Minerva
• Saturnus: The Golden Age
• Uranus: The Fight Between Saturn and Uranus (only sanguis is mentioned)
• Neptunus: The Contest Between Minerva and Neptune
• Pluto: The Death of Aesculpaius

About the Vocabulary and Grammar

The vocabulary is intentionally sheltered to allow for more extensive and independent reading. This novella contains 3,200 total words using a total of 308 words. Of those words, 43 are proper nouns like Maria Mitchell, Jupiter, and Galileo. In addition, I glossed 42 words that might be unfamiliar to students or are used infrequently but were relevant for informational purposes or engaging stories. I also carefully identified and used 90 cognates like oxygenium and fusio nuclearis that were used infrequently in the novella. With proper names, glossed words, and clear cognates removed, students need a working vocabulary of 133 words to read this novella.

In addition, I paid careful attention to the frequency that words appear in Latin literature. When choosing between synonyms, for example, I chose the more common word or compounds with frequently occurring words. I am also careful about what I consider to be a cognate and choose only words that I consider to be especially clear and in most students’ English vocabulary at the level that the book was written. After all, it doesn’t matter if a word is a clear cognate if it’s not in a typical student’s vocabulary.

Unlike the vocabulary, the grammar in this novella is not sheltered. This novella uses a variety of tenses and does use extensive past tense verbs. A repeated grammatical focus of this novella is comparatives, particularly to compare the relative sizes of the planets. This novella is set in the past tense, but it does include substantial dialogue, incorporating the present and future tenses. The grammar does include some uses of the subjunctive and participles.

About the Artwork

This novella makes extensive use of imagery that NASA and Hubble make available for use, some containing captions to help aid in understanding. In addition, artwork from the public domain or photographs from Unsplash help students understand the mythological stories that they’re reading. A complete bibliography of all artwork used is available at the end of the novella, and a sampling of the artwork is reproduced here.

About the Text Features

Astronomia: Fabula Planetarum has a full index of all the words in their various forms. In the index, the reader can look up all unknown words. The index lists verbs separately. As such, a reader could independently look up both posse and poterat without knowing the dictionary entry of the word. The index provides a general translation of the word. Verbs include a translation that is grammatically appropriate and would fit the context of the sentence.

If you would like to review the vocabulary used in Astronomia: Fabula Planetarum, the complete index is available here.