Names
The English astronomer William Gilbert was the first to give a name to this mare, calling it Insula Medilunaria ("Middlemoon Island"). The idea for its present name originates with Michael Van Langren, who labelled it Sinus Medius in his 1645 map. Johannes Hevelius called the feature Mare Adriaticum ("The Adriatic Sea") in his 1647 map. Giovanni Riccioli called it Sinus Aestuum ("Bay of Hot Days") in his 1651 map.
Read more about this topic: Sinus Medii
Famous quotes containing the word names:
“If goodness were only a theory, it were a pity it should be lost to the world. There are a number of things, the idea of which is a clear gain to the mind. Let people, for instance, rail at friendship, genius, freedom, as long as they willthe very names of these despised qualities are better than anything else that could be substituted for them, and embalm even the most envenomed satire against them.”
—William Hazlitt (17781830)
“It was a poetic recreation to watch those distant sails steering for half-fabulous ports, whose very names are a mysterious music to our ears.... It is remarkable that men do not sail the sea with more expectation. Nothing was ever accomplished in a prosaic mood.”
—Henry David Thoreau (18171862)
“Being the dependents of the general government, and looking to its treasury as the source of all their emoluments, the state officers, under whatever names they might pass and by whatever forms their duties might be prescribed, would in effect be the mere stipendiaries and instruments of the central power.”
—Andrew Jackson (17671845)