The Collaborative International Dictionary
Primum mobile \Pri"mum mob"i*le\ [L., first cause of motion.] (Astron.) In the Ptolemaic system, the outermost of the revolving concentric spheres constituting the universe, the motion of which was supposed to carry with it all the inclosed spheres with their planets in a daily revolution from east to west. See Crystalline heavens, under Crystalline.
The motions of the greatest persons in a government
ought to be, as the motions of the planets, under
primum mobile.
--Bacon.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Wiktionary
n. 1 (context historical English) The outermost sphere of the heavens in Ptolemaic astronomy. 2 (context theology philosophy English) The prime mover or first cause.
WordNet
n. a self-caused agent that is the cause of all things; "God is the first cause" [syn: first cause, prime mover]
Wikipedia
In classical, medieval and Renaissance astronomy, the Primum Mobile, or "first moved," was the outermost moving sphere in the geocentric model of the universe.
The concept was introduced by Ptolemy to account for the apparent daily movement of the heavens around the Earth, producing the east-to-west rising and setting of the sun and stars, and reached Western Europe via Avicenna.
Usage examples of "primum mobile".
The self-admission of failure lasted but an instant in Eth-eriel, and then, quite suddenly, he lifted his being as brightly and highly as he dared in the presence of the Chief and his glory was a tiny dot of light in the infinite Primum Mobile.
And you see a Wheel with two planispheres: one displays and teaches all the scientia of the Primum Mobile, and the second the doctrine of the Octava Sphaera and the fixed stars, and motion.
The self-admission of failure lasted but an instant in Etheriel, and then, quite suddenly, he lifted his being as brightly and highly as he dared in the presence of the Chief and his glory was a tiny dot of light in the infinite Primum Mobile.
The Indians have the same number of elements, and according to Macrobius's mystics, they are the supreme God, or primum mobile, the intelligence, or mens, born of him, the soul of the world which proceeds from him, the celestial spheres, and all things terrestrial.
It girds, with light and love, the primum mobile, the utmost and swiftest of the material heavens.
Lee, according to Alexander Hamilton, was the primum mobile of a more cautious plan, to keep up a vain parade of annoying them by detachment.
Himation let Truck and Tiny through an outer shell, a primum mobile, of workshops, where pandemonium reigned among powerful lifting rigs and ships components to which Truck could put no name.
In the Nine the poet includes the seven planets, the fixed stars and the Aristotelian Primum Mobile.
The movements of the heavenly bodies were not spontaneous, but were passed on to them from the primum mobile, which was the outermost of the moving spheres, and itself derived its motion from the Unmoved Mover, i.
Central and the Optimen were the 'primum mobile' in control of all celestial systems.