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Andalò di Negro’s De compositione astrolabii: a critical edition with English translation and notes

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Abstract

In this article, we publish the critical edition of Andalò di Negro’s De compositione astrolabii, with English translation and commentary. The mathematician and astronomer Andalò di Negro (Genoa ca. 1260–Naples 1334) presumably redacted this treatise on the astrolabe in the 1330s, while residing at the court of King Robert of Naples. The present edition has three purposes: first, to make available a text missing from the previous compilations of works by Andalò di Negro (ed. Bonus Opus preclarissimum astrolabij compositum a domino Andalo de nigro genuensi foeliciter incipit…Explicit tractatus astrolabij excellentissimi mathematici Andalonis genuensis, emendatus per celeberrimum et doctissimum astronomum magistrum Petrum Bonum Avogarium in foelici gymnasio ferrariensi. [Ferrara]: magister Johannes Picardus, 1475; Bertolotto II Trattato sull’Astrolabio di Andalò di Negro, riprodotto dall’edizione ferrarese del 1475, con prefazione del socio G. Bertolotto. Atti della società ligure di storia patria 25, 51–141, 1892; Fornaciari and Faracovi Trattato sull’astrolabio di Andalò di Negro, a cura di P.E. Fornaciari e O.P. Faracovi. Pubblicazione del Comune di Livorno in occasione della “Primavera della Scienza a Livorno” (febbraio-maggio 2005). Ospedaletto: Pacini editore, 2005); second, to revise a privately circulated edition of the text (Cesari L’astrolabio di Andalò di Negro, Parte I, edizione critica. Milano: s.n., 1984a; Practica Astrolabii di Andalò di Negro, Parte I. Edizione critica. Bergamo: Istituto Universitario di Bergamo, 1984b); and third, to help disseminating one of the rare Latin texts presenting the principles of the stereographic projection which underlie the construction of the astrolabe.

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Notes

  1. “Induxi igitur sepe generosum atque venerabilem senem, Andalo de Nigro Ianuensem, olim in motibus astrorum doctorem meum, cuius quanta fuerit circumspectio, quanta morum gravitas, quanta syderum notitia, tu nosti, rex optime; tibi enim, ut aiebat ipse, cum adhuc iuvenis esses, ratione conformitatis studiorum familiarissimus fuit, et, ut ipse vidisse potuisti, non solum regulis veterum, ut plurimum facimus, astrorum motus agnovit, sed, cum universum fere peragrasset orbem, sub quocunque climate, sub quocunque etiam orizonte, experientia discursuum certior factus, visu didicit, quod nos discimus auditu.” De Genealogiis deorum gentilium XV, 6 (Boccaccio 1953: 760).

  2. Figure 10 shows the design of a tympan for 66° 26′ 30″, latitude of the arctic circle according to the values of the Toledan tables (see Chabas and Goldstein 2012: 23). Figure 11 shows a tympan for 69° 45′. Figure 12 shows a tympan for 78° 30′. According to the text, these latitudes correspond to places where the Sun never sets when its longitude is in the Signs of Gemini and Cancer, or the places where the Sun never sets when it is in the four Signs of Taurus, Gemini, Cancer et Leo.

  3. The deletion of the star with the greatest angular deviation (delfinet, ε Del: − 40°) reduces the mean precession from − 14° 25′ to − 12° 48′, thus fixing the epoch of the astrolabe to  925 A.D.

  4. There are only a few rare copies of this text, which does not even appear in the Italian libraries’ Union Catalog. We are grateful to Mrs. Daniela Pozzi for having kindly sent us a copy of this mimeograph (Firenze, Museo Galileo, Misc 587/29).

  5. For example, line 7: artico] articolo!, line 27: que quantitas… distantia] 14 words missing; line 113: exirent linee 24] 23!; line 177: strictiores] secationes!, lines 209, 212, 227, 228, 229, 237, 238, 240, 244: existente] exeunte!, line 258: medie noctis] medietatis!, line 270: rete] recte!, line 273: capricorni] cancri!.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Université Grenoble Alpes, Grenoble, France

    Dominique Raynaud

  2. CIUHCT, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal

    Samuel Gessner

  3. Centro de Estudos Clássicos, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal

    Bernardo Mota

Authors
  1. Dominique Raynaud
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  2. Samuel Gessner
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  3. Bernardo Mota
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Correspondence to Dominique Raynaud.

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Communicated by Alexander Jones.

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Raynaud, D., Gessner, S. & Mota, B. Andalò di Negro’s De compositione astrolabii: a critical edition with English translation and notes. Arch. Hist. Exact Sci. 73, 551–617 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00407-019-00235-x

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