Abstract
The anonymous set of astronomical tables preserved in Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS lat. 10262, is the first set of displaced tables to be found in a medieval Latin text. These tables are a reworking of the standard Alfonsine tables and yield the same results. However, the mean motions are defined differently, the presentation of the tables is unprecedented, and some new functions are introduced for computing true planetary longitudes. The absence of any instructions as well as unusual technical terms in the headings make it difficult to appreciate the cleverness that went into the construction of these tables that are extant in a unique copy. In this article we provide a detailed analysis of these tables and their underlying parameters.
The displaced tables are typical of a pervasive tendency in Islamic science to provide extensive and elegant numerical tables for the convenience of practitioners. The underlying astronomical theory is neither questioned nor affected.
Edward S. Kennedy
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Chabás, J., and B.R. Goldstein. 2003. The Alfonsine Tables of Toledo. Archimedes: New studies in the history and philosophy of science and technology, vol. 8. Dordrecht: Kluwer.
Chabás J., Goldstein B.R. (2004) Early Alfonsine astronomy in Paris: The tables of John Vimond (1320). Suhayl 4: 207–294
Chabás J., Goldstein B.R. (2009) John of Murs’s tables of 1321. Journal for the History of Astronomy 40: 297–320
Chabás, J., and B.R. Goldstein. 2012. A survey of European astronomical tables in the late middle ages. Boston.
Debarnot, M.-T. 1987. The Zīj of ābash al-Ḥāsib: A survey of MS Istanbul Yeni Cami 784/2. In King and Saliba 1987, pp. 35–69.
Goldstein, B.R. 1974. The astronomical tables of Levi ben Gerson. In Transactions of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, vol 45. New Haven.
Goldstein B.R., Chabás J., Mancha J.L. (1994) Planetary and Lunar velocities in the Castilian Alfonsine Tables. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 138: 61–95
Hogendijk J., Sabra A.I. (2003) The Enterprise of Science in Islam. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA
Jensen C. (1971) The Lunar theory of al-Baghdādī. Archive for History of Exact Sciences 8: 321–328
Kennedy E.S. (1977) The astronomical tables of Ibn al-Aclam. Journal for the History of Arabic Science 1: 13–23
King, D.A., and M.H. Kennedy (eds.). 1983. Studies in the Islamic exact sciences by E. S. Kennedy, Colleagues and Former Students. Beirut.
King, D.A., and G. Saliba (eds.). 1987. From deferent to equant: A volume of studies in the of history science in the ancient and medieval Near East in honor of E. S. Kennedy. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, vol 500. New York.
Kremer R.L., Dobrzycki J. (1998) Alfonsine meridians: Tradition versus experience in astronomical practice c. 1500. Journal for the History of Astronomy 29: 187–199
Mercier R. (1989) The parameters of the Zīj of Ibn al-Aclam. Archives Internationales d’Histoire des Sciences 39: 22–50
Nallino, C.A. 1903–1907. Al-Battānī sive Albatenii Opus Astronomicum, 2 vols. Milan.
Neugebauer, O. 1975. A History of Ancient Mathematical Astronomy. Berlin.
Pedersen, F.S. 2002. The Toledan Tables: A review of the manuscripts and textual versions with an edition. Copenhagen.
Poulle, E. 1984. Les tables alphonsines avec les canons de Jean de Saxe. Paris.
Ratdolt, E. (ed.). 1483. Tabule astronomice illustrissimi Alfontij regis castelle. Venice.
Saby, M.-M. 1987. Les canons de Jean de Lignères sur les tables astronomiques de 1321. Unpublished thesis: École Nationale des Chartes, Paris. A summary appeared as: “Les canons de Jean de Lignères sur les tables astronomiques de 1321” École Nationale des Chartes: Positions des thèses, pp. 183–190.
Salam, H., and E.S. Kennedy. 1967. Solar and Lunar tables in early Islamic astronomy. Journal of the American Oriental Society 87: 493–497. (Reprinted in King and Kennedy 1983, pp. 108–113).
Saliba G. (1976) The Double-argument Lunar tables of Cyriacus. Journal for the History of Astronomy 7: 41–46
Saliba G. (1977) Computational techniques in a set of late medieval astronomical tables. Journal for the History of Arabic Science 1: 24–32
Samsó, J. 2003. On the Lunar tables in Sanjaq Dār’s Zīj al-Sharīf. In Hogendijk and Sabra 2003.
Samsó, J., and E. Millás. 1998. The computation of planetary longitudes in the Zīj of Ibn al-Bannā. Arabic Sciences and Philosophy 8: 259–286.
Solon P. (1970) The six wings of Immanuel Bonfils and Michael Chrysokokkes. Centaurus 15: 1–20
Thorndike L. (1957) Notes on some astronomical, astrological and mathematical manuscripts of the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 20: 112–172
Tihon, A. 1977–1981. Un traité astronomique chypriote du XIVe siècle. Janus 64: 281–308; 66: 49–81; 68: 65–127. (Reprinted in Tihon 1994, Essay VII).
Tihon, A. 1994. Études d’astronomie byzantine. Aldershot.
Toomer G.J. (1968) A survey of the Toledan tables. Osiris 15: 5–174
Toomer, G.J. 1984. Ptolemy’s Almagest. New York.
Van Brummelen, G. 1998. Mathematical methods in the tables of planetary motion in Kūshyār ibn Labbān’sJāmic Zīj. Historia Mathematica 25: 265–280.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding authors
Additional information
Communicated by George Saliba.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Chabás, J., Goldstein, B.R. Displaced tables in Latin: the Tables for the Seven Planets for 1340. Arch. Hist. Exact Sci. 67, 1–42 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00407-012-0106-9
Received:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00407-012-0106-9