Science Art: Comet observations from Libra astronomica, y philosophica by Carlos de Siguenza y Gongora, 1690.

Scientific illustration from the 1600s showing comet orbits and distances from the Sun.
Scientific illustration from the 1600s showing comet orbits and distances from the Sun.

I can’t make out exactly what this is illustrating. My Spanish is barely good enough to tell, in section 309 of Carlos de Siguenza y Gongora’s Libra astronomica, y philosophica (on page 145, which I found on archive.org), that we’re talking about objects that move around the sun (Sol, A) or more likely points that the sun moves between at the same time of the year (“se mueve en el algun tiempo del año“) something something with respect to the other comets I, K, L for other intents proved somethingly by Rene Descartes in his Philosophy, Part 3 (“…respeto de los otros Cometas I, K, L como a otro intento prueba bastantemente Renato Des-Cartes en su Philosophia parte 3…“).

If anyone else can describe better what’s going on, let me know – I’m curious. But in general, we’re calculating where comets are going and what this means about how they got there or how they move in general.