Pub Date : 2023-05-01DOI: 10.1177/00218286231159361
Andrea L. Winkler, Michael Zellmann-Rohrer
A pictorial horoscope in a late Ptolemaic papyrus (P.Kramer 17) may be assigned more precisely to late 56 or early 55 BC based on the preserved astronomical data, making it the earliest such representation from Egypt. Instead of a copy for presentation to a client, the papyrus is rather a draft for the depiction of a zodiac, probably in a funerary monument, where it would have represented the planetary positions at the time of birth of the person commemorated. The central pictorial element can be identified as a dog, and contextualized in a complex tradition of Egyptian and Greek concepts and iconography related to Sirius-Sothis, and the beginning of the new year.
{"title":"Zodiacs and monuments: An early pictorial “horoscope” from Egypt","authors":"Andrea L. Winkler, Michael Zellmann-Rohrer","doi":"10.1177/00218286231159361","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00218286231159361","url":null,"abstract":"A pictorial horoscope in a late Ptolemaic papyrus (P.Kramer 17) may be assigned more precisely to late 56 or early 55 BC based on the preserved astronomical data, making it the earliest such representation from Egypt. Instead of a copy for presentation to a client, the papyrus is rather a draft for the depiction of a zodiac, probably in a funerary monument, where it would have represented the planetary positions at the time of birth of the person commemorated. The central pictorial element can be identified as a dog, and contextualized in a complex tradition of Egyptian and Greek concepts and iconography related to Sirius-Sothis, and the beginning of the new year.","PeriodicalId":56280,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the History of Astronomy","volume":"54 1","pages":"125 - 152"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2023-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47818393","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-05-01DOI: 10.1177/00218286231167157
M. J. Martínez Usó, Francisco J. Marco Castillo
The total solar eclipse on July 29, AD 1478, went unnoticed by most of Europe. Although several scholars accurately predicted it, very few observations made by professional astronomers have survived, and these contain very little relevant information. In contrast, several observations, many of which unknown or unpublished, made by casual eyewitnesses have reached our days from the different kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula in the 15th century. We present six such observations. These descriptions, collected in observations, chronicles, or diaries, although not professional, provide interesting information that, in some cases, lead us to obtain valid values for the ΔT parameter.
{"title":"The total eclipse of the sun of July 29, AD1478, in contemporary Spanish documents","authors":"M. J. Martínez Usó, Francisco J. Marco Castillo","doi":"10.1177/00218286231167157","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00218286231167157","url":null,"abstract":"The total solar eclipse on July 29, AD 1478, went unnoticed by most of Europe. Although several scholars accurately predicted it, very few observations made by professional astronomers have survived, and these contain very little relevant information. In contrast, several observations, many of which unknown or unpublished, made by casual eyewitnesses have reached our days from the different kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula in the 15th century. We present six such observations. These descriptions, collected in observations, chronicles, or diaries, although not professional, provide interesting information that, in some cases, lead us to obtain valid values for the ΔT parameter.","PeriodicalId":56280,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the History of Astronomy","volume":"54 1","pages":"153 - 170"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2023-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44399971","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-05-01DOI: 10.1177/00218286231169116
Kathrin Chlench-Priber
With Computational Astronomy in the Middle Ages José Chabás has created a handbook and valuable reference work of medieval astronomical sets of tables in Latin. More than 350 manuscripts were evaluated, in addition to the already edited sets. The sets of tables thus cataloged are listed in chronological order and assigned to the following chapters: Before Al-Andalus, From East to West, The Making of Alfonsine Tables, and From about 1350 to 1500. This clear structure makes it possible to study in more detail the epochs of development of computational astronomy in the European Middle Ages. However, I see an even greater benefit in using the book as a reference tool to identify astronomical tables witnessed in manuscripts. For each set of tables, the state of research and a short characterization is given. Especially valuable is the detailed and reliable listing of the individual tables. In particular, the indications of characteristic numerical values allow a quick orientation when it comes to assigning a hitherto unknown table. In addition, selected manuscript illustrations (48 in total, mostly in color) give an impression of the mise-en-page of the plates, which can also be an aid in assignment. Often, even after the listing of the individual panels there is a summary section in which the further reception of the set is discussed or its underlying sources are presented. A useful bibliography of the transmitted manuscripts and secondary literature concludes the subchapters on each of the table sets discussed. The special achievement of this approach lies not only in the clear structuring and the handbook-like compilation of all previous research, but especially in its expansion through the evaluation of the manuscripts. The in-depth examination of the manuscripts and prints justifiably revises decisions of the present editions (see, e.g., p. 257), so that it will be essential for future researchers to consult Chabás’s volume in addition to the manuscripts. The handbook also includes preparatory remarks that may spur further research. In the chapter on John of Lignères, for example, 11 different manuscripts with related tables are presented (pp. 193–196), whose exact relation to each other still needs further examination. 1169116 JHA0010.1177/00218286231169116Journal for the History of AstronomyBook Reviews book-review2023
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Pub Date : 2023-05-01DOI: 10.1177/00218286231165331
F. Marcacci
According to Giovanni Battista Riccioli (1598–1671), planets describe orbits in a fluid heaven in a helio-geocentric model of cosmos. In his Almagestum Novum (1651) he stresses the need for a novel and rigorous geometrical explanation for the motion of heavenly bodies, which considers a separate Primum Mobile as an unnecessary hypothesis. Riccioli rejects the standard eccentric-epicycle theory as unsatisfactory and argues for what he calls “Eccentrepicyclos” or “Epicepicycles.” He takes the Keplerian elliptical theory into account and includes a variable oscillation of both the mobile eccentric center and the variation of the epicycle’s diameter. As a result, planets move along spiral orbits that have variable sizes. The inequalities, which astronomers had always tried to explain, are now justified: the spiral trajectory, obtained by means of the oscillation of the eccentric center, warrants the first inequality, about the variation of the planets’ velocity. The variable amplitude of the spirals, obtained by the variation of the epicycle’s diameter, explains the second inequality, namely the apparent retrograde or progressive planetary motion. In the later work Astronomia Reformata (1665), Riccioli uses explicitly the term “ellipse.” Riccioli’s innovations are of great interest and help to understand the complexity of the astronomical debates about the best world-system.
{"title":"G.B. Riccioli’s geo-heliocentric use of Epicepicycles, ellipses and spirals","authors":"F. Marcacci","doi":"10.1177/00218286231165331","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00218286231165331","url":null,"abstract":"According to Giovanni Battista Riccioli (1598–1671), planets describe orbits in a fluid heaven in a helio-geocentric model of cosmos. In his Almagestum Novum (1651) he stresses the need for a novel and rigorous geometrical explanation for the motion of heavenly bodies, which considers a separate Primum Mobile as an unnecessary hypothesis. Riccioli rejects the standard eccentric-epicycle theory as unsatisfactory and argues for what he calls “Eccentrepicyclos” or “Epicepicycles.” He takes the Keplerian elliptical theory into account and includes a variable oscillation of both the mobile eccentric center and the variation of the epicycle’s diameter. As a result, planets move along spiral orbits that have variable sizes. The inequalities, which astronomers had always tried to explain, are now justified: the spiral trajectory, obtained by means of the oscillation of the eccentric center, warrants the first inequality, about the variation of the planets’ velocity. The variable amplitude of the spirals, obtained by the variation of the epicycle’s diameter, explains the second inequality, namely the apparent retrograde or progressive planetary motion. In the later work Astronomia Reformata (1665), Riccioli uses explicitly the term “ellipse.” Riccioli’s innovations are of great interest and help to understand the complexity of the astronomical debates about the best world-system.","PeriodicalId":56280,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the History of Astronomy","volume":"54 1","pages":"171 - 192"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2023-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47202932","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-05-01DOI: 10.1177/00218286231154233
{"title":"The coolest book cover ever","authors":"","doi":"10.1177/00218286231154233","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00218286231154233","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":56280,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the History of Astronomy","volume":"54 1","pages":"246 - 248"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2023-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42478472","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-05-01DOI: 10.1177/00218286231154232
H. Gaab
{"title":"A biography of Gottfried Kirch","authors":"H. Gaab","doi":"10.1177/00218286231154232","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00218286231154232","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":56280,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the History of Astronomy","volume":"54 1","pages":"245 - 246"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2023-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47133503","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-05-01DOI: 10.1177/00218286231168349
J. Steele
In a sense, the book offers a chronological catalog of the development of the sets of tables, a history of progress in Latin astronomy. What the presented material does not allow, however, is a reconstruction of the reception of the individual sets. While it is clear for each set what tradition it is in, or how it has influenced the tradition, one cannot trace how long sets were used or where they continued to be copied. This would have been possible if the dating and provenance of considered manuscripts had been given. However, this information, which might be quite relevant for further research questions, would need to be assembled. The volume is written in a fluid, readable style. Complex content is presented in an understandable way. In particular, clarifying summaries, such as the discussion of the relationships between the Castilian and Parisian Alfonsine tables and the Alfonsine corpus (see pp. 238–239), are very illuminating and go far beyond a mere compilation of individual sets of tables. Technical definitions are interspersed only occasionally and rather unsystematically (e.g. the explanation of sidereal and tropical coordinates is given on p. 78 but the first use of the term can be found on p. 22). Since the book is aimed at a highly specialized audience and is primarily intended for use as a reference work, this approach is unproblematic; an explanatory glossary would probably have overloaded the book. The accompanying useful glossaries include lists of manuscripts, printed editions, incipits, and parameters and a combined index of persons and things. The latter allows for quick orientation, but it would have been desirable to highlight the most important references in bold, especially with the high-frequency keywords. But this wish is a marginal point and does not question the undisputed high value of this book, which is extremely useful for further research in the Latin manuscripts of late medieval Europe.
{"title":"Numerical tables in the history of astronomy","authors":"J. Steele","doi":"10.1177/00218286231168349","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00218286231168349","url":null,"abstract":"In a sense, the book offers a chronological catalog of the development of the sets of tables, a history of progress in Latin astronomy. What the presented material does not allow, however, is a reconstruction of the reception of the individual sets. While it is clear for each set what tradition it is in, or how it has influenced the tradition, one cannot trace how long sets were used or where they continued to be copied. This would have been possible if the dating and provenance of considered manuscripts had been given. However, this information, which might be quite relevant for further research questions, would need to be assembled. The volume is written in a fluid, readable style. Complex content is presented in an understandable way. In particular, clarifying summaries, such as the discussion of the relationships between the Castilian and Parisian Alfonsine tables and the Alfonsine corpus (see pp. 238–239), are very illuminating and go far beyond a mere compilation of individual sets of tables. Technical definitions are interspersed only occasionally and rather unsystematically (e.g. the explanation of sidereal and tropical coordinates is given on p. 78 but the first use of the term can be found on p. 22). Since the book is aimed at a highly specialized audience and is primarily intended for use as a reference work, this approach is unproblematic; an explanatory glossary would probably have overloaded the book. The accompanying useful glossaries include lists of manuscripts, printed editions, incipits, and parameters and a combined index of persons and things. The latter allows for quick orientation, but it would have been desirable to highlight the most important references in bold, especially with the high-frequency keywords. But this wish is a marginal point and does not question the undisputed high value of this book, which is extremely useful for further research in the Latin manuscripts of late medieval Europe.","PeriodicalId":56280,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the History of Astronomy","volume":"54 1","pages":"242 - 244"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2023-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49042850","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-05-01DOI: 10.1177/00218286231170402
D. Juste
This note examines an astronomical gloss mentioning the ‘new tables of Alfunsus’ in 1304, that is, some 20 years before the documented history of the Alfonsine Tables.
本笔记研究了1304年提到“新星表”的天文学注释，也就是说，比有记载的阿方辛星表早20年。
{"title":"The Alfonsine Tables mentioned in 1304","authors":"D. Juste","doi":"10.1177/00218286231170402","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00218286231170402","url":null,"abstract":"This note examines an astronomical gloss mentioning the ‘new tables of Alfunsus’ in 1304, that is, some 20 years before the documented history of the Alfonsine Tables.","PeriodicalId":56280,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the History of Astronomy","volume":"54 1","pages":"213 - 219"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2023-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42094472","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-05-01DOI: 10.1177/00218286231170596
W. Crozier
Addressing a subject which has received very little attention, this article explores the interpretations of comets offered by St. Albert the Great (c. 1190–1280) and Robert Grosseteste (1168–1253). It shows how, despite prima facie convergences between the two 13th-century bishops concerning the nature and causation of comets, there are nonetheless several previously unobserved subtle differences between them. For Grosseteste the celestial bodies (i.e. the stars and the planets) are the primary, and indeed sole, efficient causes of cometary phenomena, serving to draw up rarefied matter to the upper atmosphere whereupon it is inflamed as it is assimilated to the celestial nature itself. For Albert, by contrast, while the celestial bodies may help to stir up combustible vapours within the atmosphere, and at times precipitate their ascension to the heavenly vault by means of their motion and conjunction, it is not always the case that a comet arises as a result of the direct efficient causality of the celestial bodies.
{"title":"St. Albert the Great and Robert Grosseteste on the nature and causes of comets","authors":"W. Crozier","doi":"10.1177/00218286231170596","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00218286231170596","url":null,"abstract":"Addressing a subject which has received very little attention, this article explores the interpretations of comets offered by St. Albert the Great (c. 1190–1280) and Robert Grosseteste (1168–1253). It shows how, despite prima facie convergences between the two 13th-century bishops concerning the nature and causation of comets, there are nonetheless several previously unobserved subtle differences between them. For Grosseteste the celestial bodies (i.e. the stars and the planets) are the primary, and indeed sole, efficient causes of cometary phenomena, serving to draw up rarefied matter to the upper atmosphere whereupon it is inflamed as it is assimilated to the celestial nature itself. For Albert, by contrast, while the celestial bodies may help to stir up combustible vapours within the atmosphere, and at times precipitate their ascension to the heavenly vault by means of their motion and conjunction, it is not always the case that a comet arises as a result of the direct efficient causality of the celestial bodies.","PeriodicalId":56280,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the History of Astronomy","volume":"54 1","pages":"220 - 240"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2023-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41797606","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-05-01DOI: 10.1177/00218286231167185
Koji Murata, H. Hayakawa, M. Sộma
This study analysed four records of questionable authenticity of total solar eclipses between the fourth and sixth centuries CE in Byzantine narrative sources. As it has been difficult to evaluate their credibility, they have not been utilised in modern astronomical studies. Three records originated in the fourth century, all of which have problems with accurate dating and provenance. The one remaining record concerns the total solar eclipse on 512 June 29. This study first reveals the problems with and questions around the reliability of all these records from astronomical perspectives based on the latest ΔT spline curve and recently proposed ΔT constraints. It then explores their philological and historical contexts to understand how and why these records were written.
{"title":"A critical assessment of questionable solar eclipse memories in the Byzantine Empire from the fourth to sixth centuries CE","authors":"Koji Murata, H. Hayakawa, M. Sộma","doi":"10.1177/00218286231167185","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/00218286231167185","url":null,"abstract":"This study analysed four records of questionable authenticity of total solar eclipses between the fourth and sixth centuries CE in Byzantine narrative sources. As it has been difficult to evaluate their credibility, they have not been utilised in modern astronomical studies. Three records originated in the fourth century, all of which have problems with accurate dating and provenance. The one remaining record concerns the total solar eclipse on 512 June 29. This study first reveals the problems with and questions around the reliability of all these records from astronomical perspectives based on the latest ΔT spline curve and recently proposed ΔT constraints. It then explores their philological and historical contexts to understand how and why these records were written.","PeriodicalId":56280,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the History of Astronomy","volume":"54 1","pages":"193 - 212"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2023-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47223140","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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