orbis signifer

Latin noun

Last edited: 2025-04-28
Primary meaning zodiac
Literal translation sign-bearing ring
Variants
orbis signifer
signifer e.g. at Sen. Q. N. 7.18.1, Plin. N. H. 2.3
Edited by
zodiac astronomical term, spatial concept

Quas antequam exponere incipiam, illud imprimis praesumendum est cometas non in una parte caeli aspici nec in signifero tantum orbe sed tam in ortu quam in occasu, frequentissime tamen circa septentrionem.

‘Before I undertake to describe them I must first state that comets are seen not in one part only of the sky or only in the one area of the zodiac but they are seen as much in the east as in the west; most frequently, however, towards the north.’

— Seneca, Natural Questions 7.11.1

Genre: philosophy
Date: 62/63 CE

Seneca. Natural Questions, Volume II: Books 4-7. Translated by Thomas H. Corcoran. Loeb Classical Library 457. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1972. 248-249

Cite this entry
APA (7th)
Meinhardt, K. (2025). orbis signifer (Lemma #1879). The ZODIAC Glossary: A Cross-Cultural Glossary of Ancient Astral Science. https://zodiacglossary.github.io/lemma/1879/
Chicago (Author-Date)
Meinhardt, K. (2025). orbis signifer (Lemma #1879). The ZODIAC Glossary: A Cross-Cultural Glossary of Ancient Astral Science. https://zodiacglossary.github.io/lemma/1879/
MLA (9th)
Meinhardt, K. (2025). orbis signifer (Lemma #1879). The ZODIAC Glossary: A Cross-Cultural Glossary of Ancient Astral Science. https://zodiacglossary.github.io/lemma/1879/
Harvard
Meinhardt, K. (2025) orbis signifer (Lemma #1879), The ZODIAC Glossary: A Cross-Cultural Glossary of Ancient Astral Science. Available at: https://zodiacglossary.github.io/lemma/1879/ (Accessed: December 1, 2025).
BibTeX 
@misc{zodiac1879,
	note = {[Online; accessed 2025-12-01]},
	author = {Meinhardt, Kierán},
	year = {2025},
	title = {orbis signifer ({Lemma} #1879)},
	url = {https://zodiacglossary.github.io/lemma/1879/},
	howpublished = {https://zodiacglossary.github.io/lemma/1879/},
}