omprehended all human
knowledge. Book iii. treats of grammar, iv. of dialectics, v. of
rhetoric, vi. of geometry, vii. of arithmetic, viii. of astronomy, ix.
of music. These abstract discussions are linked on to the original
allegory by the device of personifying each science as a courtier of
Mercury and Philologia. The work was a complete encyclopaedia of the
liberal culture of the time, and was in high repute during the middle
ages. The author's chief sources were Varro, Pliny, Solinus, Aquila
Romanus, and Aristides Quintilianus. His prose resembles that of
Apuleius (also a native of Madaura), but is even more difficult. The
verse portions, which are on the whole correct and classically
constructed, are in imitation of Varro and are less tiresome.

A passage in book viii. contains a very clear statement of the
heliocentric system of astronomy. It has been supposed that Copernicus,
who quotes Capella, may have received from this work some hints towards
his own new system.

Editio princeps, by F. Vitalis Bodianus, 1499; the best modern edition
is that of F. Eyssenhardt (1866); for the relation of Martianus
Capella to Aristides Quintilianus see H. Deiters, _Studien zu den
griechischen Musikern_ (1881). In the 11th century the German monk
Notker Labeo translated the first two books into Old High German.

CAPE MAY, a city and watering-place of Cape May county, New Jersey,
U.S.A., on the Atlantic coast, 2 m. E.N.E. of Cape May, the S. extremity
of the state, and about 80 m. S. by E. of Philadelphia. Pop. (1890)
2136; (1900) 2257; (1905) 3006; (1910) 2471. Cape May is served by the
Maryland, Delaware & Virginia (by ferry to Lewes, Delaware), the West
Jersey & Seashore (Pennsylvania system), and the Atlantic City (Reading
system) railways, and, during the summer season, by steamboat to
Philadelphia. The principal part of the city is on a peninsula (formerly
Cape Island) between the ocean and Cold Spring inlet, which has been
dredged and is protected by jetties to make a suitable harbour. The
further improvement of the inlet and the harbour was authorized by
Congress in 1907. On the ocean side, along a hard sand beach 5 m. long,
is the Esplanade. There are numerous hotels and handsome cottages for
summer visitors, who come especially from Philadelphia, from New York,
from the South and from the West. Cape May offers good bathing, yachting
and fishing, with driving and hunting in the wooded country inland from