Ptolemy’s Science of the Stars in the Middle Ages

Ptolemy’s Science of the Stars in the Middle Ages

Editors David Juste, Benno van Dalen, Dag Nikolaus Hasse, and Charles Burnett

Book series: Ptolemaeus Arabus et Latinus - Tools and Studies, 1

Place: publisher, year: Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols Publishers, 2020

Pages: 473 p.

pISBN: 978-2-503-58639-7

eISBN: 978-2-503-58947-3

doi: 10.1484/M.PALS-EB.5.120189

Download: PDF(64.29MB)

Abstract:

Claudius Ptolemy (c. 100-170 ad) is one of the most influential scholars of all time. While he is also the author of treatises on geography, optics and harmonics, his fame primarily stems from two works on the science of the stars, dealing with mathematical astronomy (the Almagest) and astrology (the Tetrabiblos). The Almagest and the Tetrabiblos remained the fundamental texts on the science of the stars for some 1500 years. Both were translated several times into Arabic and Latin and were heavily commented upon, glossed, discussed, and also criticised and improved upon, in the Islamic world and in Christian Europe. Yet, the reception of Ptolemy in medieval cultures is still to a large extent a terra incognita of the history of science. The Arabic and Latin versions of the Almagest and the Tetrabiblos are for the most part unavailable in modern editions, their manuscripts remain largely unexplored and, generally speaking, their history has never been systematically investigated.

This volume gathers together fifteen contributions dealing with various aspects of the reception of Ptolemy’s astronomy and astrology in the Islamic world and in Christian Europe up to the seventeenth century. Contributions are by José Bellver, Jean-Patrice Boudet, Josep Casulleras, Bojidar Dimitrov, Dirk Grupe, Paul Hullmeine, Alexander Jones, Richard L. Kremer, Y. Tzvi Langermann, H. Darrel Rutkin, Michael H. Shank, Nathan Sidoli, Carlos Steel, Johannes Thomann and Henry Zepeda.

PDF (64.29MB)

Table of Contents

Front Matter (“Contents”, “Acknowledgements”), p. i https://doi.org/10.1484/M.PALS-EB.5.122157

Introduction, p. 1 https://doi.org/10.1484/M.PALS-EB.5.120171

• I. The Greek and Near Eastern Traditions

The Ancient Ptolemy, p. 11 Alexander Jones https://doi.org/10.1484/M.PALS-EB.5.120172

Mathematical Methods in Ptolemy’s Analemma, p. 35 Nathan Sidoli https://doi.org/10.1484/M.PALS-EB.5.120173

Was there a Ninth Sphere in Ptolemy?, p. 79 Paul Hullmeine https://doi.org/10.1484/M.PALS-EB.5.120174

‘Fort. recte’: Witnesses to the Text of Ptolemy’s Tetrabiblos in Its Near Eastern Transmission, p. 97 Bojidar Dimitrov https://doi.org/10.1484/M.PALS-EB.5.120175

• II. The Arabic Tradition

The Oldest Translation of the Almagest Made for al-Maʾmūn by al-Ḥasan ibn Quraysh: A Text Fragment in Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ’s Critique on al-Fārābī’s Commentary, p. 117 Johannes Thomann https://doi.org/10.1484/M.PALS-EB.5.120176

Thābit ibn Qurra’s Version of the Almagest and Its Reception in Arabic Astronomical Commentaries (based on the presentation held at the Warburg Institute, London, 5th November 2015), p. 139 Dirk Grupe https://doi.org/10.1484/M.PALS-EB.5.120177

Revamping Ptolemy’s Proof for the Sphericity of the Heavens: Three Arabic Commentaries on Almagest I.3, p. 159 Y. Tzvi Langermann https://doi.org/10.1484/M.PALS-EB.5.120178

The Arabic Versions of Jābir b. Aflaḥ’s al-Kitāb fī l-Hayʾa, p. 181 José Bellver https://doi.org/10.1484/M.PALS-EB.5.120179

The Astrological Computations Attributed to Ptolemy and Hermes in Medieval Arabic Sources, p. 201 Josep Casulleras https://doi.org/10.1484/M.PALS-EB.5.120180

• III. The Latin Tradition

Glosses on the Almagest by Campanus of Novara and Others in Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, lat. 7256, p. 225 Henry Zepeda https://doi.org/10.1484/M.PALS-EB.5.120181

A Discussion on Ptolemy’s Authority: Henry Bate’s Prologue to His Translation of Ibn Ezra’s Book of the World, p. 245 Carlos Steel https://doi.org/10.1484/M.PALS-EB.5.120182

The Medieval Latin Versions of Pseudo-Ptolemy’s Centiloquium: A Survey, p. 283 Jean-Patrice Boudet https://doi.org/10.1484/M.PALS-EB.5.120183

Regiomontanus versus George of Trebizond on Planetary Order, Distances, and Orbs (Almagest 9.1), p. 305 Michael H. Shank https://doi.org/10.1484/M.PALS-EB.5.120184

Optimus Malorum: Giovanni Pico della Mirandola’s Complex and Highly Interested Use of Ptolemy in the Disputationes adversus astrologiam divinatricem (1496), A Preliminary Survey, p. 387 H. Darrel Rutkin https://doi.org/10.1484/M.PALS-EB.5.120185

Longomontanus on Mars: The Last Ptolemaic Mathematical Astronomer Creates a Theory, p. 407 Richard L. Kremer https://doi.org/10.1484/M.PALS-EB.5.120186

Back Matter (“Indexes”, “List of Contributors”), p. 445 https://doi.org/10.1484/M.PALS-EB.5.122158