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
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“In a time of confusion and rapid change like the present, when terms are continually turning inside out and the names of things hardly keep their meaning from day to day, it’s not possible to write two honest paragraphs without stopping to take crossbearings on every one of the abstractions that were so well ranged in ornate marble niches in the minds of our fathers.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)
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