Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Alfonso X

  • Reference work entry
  • First Online:
Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers

Alternate Names

Alfonso el Sabio; Alfonso the Learned; Alfonso the Wise

Born Castile, (Spain), 1221

Died Castile, (Spain), 1284

King Alfonso X reigned from 1252 until 1284. He was a patron of literature and learning and made a great effort to recover Arabic and, very especially, Andalusian astronomical materials by translating them into Spanish, thus becoming a pioneer in the use of the vernacular as a scientific language. Later, probably coinciding with the period (1256–1275) in which he aspired to become the Emperor of Germany, he had some of these works retranslated into Latin. The highest expression of this cultural policy can be found in his Alfonsine Tables, in which we find an aspiration to universality very much in keeping with a project of producing a set of “imperial” astronomical tables.

His collaborators were a Muslim convert to Christianity (Bernardo el Arábigo), and eight Christians, of whom four were Spaniards (Fernando de Toledo, Garci Pérez, Guillén Arremón d’Aspa, and...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 1,099.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 549.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Selected References

  • Alfonso el Sabio (1961). Libro de las Cruzes, edited by Lloyd A. Kasten and Lawrence B. Kiddle. Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientifícas.

    Google Scholar 

  • — (1999). Libros del saber de astronomía del rey Alfonso X el Sabio. 2 Vols. Barcelona: Planeta DeAgostini. (A facsimile of the royal manuscript Libros del saber de astronomía).

    Google Scholar 

  • Ballesteros, Antonio (1963). Alfonso X el Sabio. Barcelona: Salvat. (The standard biography of Alfonso X. Reprinted with important indexes missing in the original publication, Barcelona: El Albir, 1984).

    Google Scholar 

  • Bossong, Georg (1978). Los canones de Albateni. Tubingen: Niemeyer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chabás, José (1998). “Astronomy in Salamanca in the Mid-fifteenth Century: The Tabulae resolutae.” Journal for the History of Astronomy 29: 167-175.

    Article  ADS  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • — (2000). “Astronomía alfonsí en Morella a finales del siglo XIV.” Cronos 3: 381-391.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chabás, José and Bernard R. Goldstein (2003). The Alfonsine Tables of Toledo. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

    Book  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Comes, Mercè (1991). Ecuatorios andalusíes: Ibn al-Samh, al-Zarqālluh y Abū-l-Salt. Barcelona.

    Google Scholar 

  • Comes, Mercè, Roser Puig, and Samsó Julio (eds.) (1987). De Astronomia Alphonsi Regis: Proceedings of the Symposium on Alfonsine Astronomy Held at Berkeley (August 1985) together with Other Papers on the Same Subject. Barcelona: Instituto “Millás Vallicrosa” de Historia de la Ciencia Árabe.

    Google Scholar 

  • Comes, Mercè, Honorino Mielgo, and Julio Samsó (eds.) (1990). “Ochava espera” y “Astrofísica”: Textos y estudios sobre las fuentes árabes de la astronomía de Alfonso X. Barcelona: Instituto “Millás Vallicrosa” de Historia de la Ciencia Árabe.

    Google Scholar 

  • D’Agostino, Alfonso (1979). Il “Libro sulla magia dei segni” ed altri studi di filologia spagnola. Brescia.

    Google Scholar 

  • — (1992). Astromagia. Naples: Liguori.

    Google Scholar 

  • Diman, Roderic C. and Lynn W. Winget (eds.) (1980). Lapidario and Libro de las formas e ymagenes. Madison, Wisconsin: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goldstein, Bernard R. and José Chabás (2001). “The Maximum Solar Equation in the Alfonsine Tables.” Journal for the History of Astronomy 32: 345-348.

    Article  ADS  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • Goldstein, Bernard R., José Chabás, and José Luis Mancha (1994). “Planetary and Lunar Velocities in the Castilian Alfonsine Tables.” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 138: 61-95.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hilty, Gerold (1955). “El libro conplido en los iudizios de las estrellas.” Al-Andalus 20: 1-74.

    Google Scholar 

  • — (ed.) (1954). El libro conplido en los iudizios de las estrellas. Madrid: Real Academia Española.

    Google Scholar 

  • — (2005). El libro conplido em los Iudizios de las Estrellas. Partes 6a8. Zaragoza: Instituto de Estudios Islámicos y del Oriente Próximo.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kasten, Lloyd A., John Nitti and W. Jonxis-Henkemans (1997). The Electronic Texts and Concordances of the Prose Works of Alfonso X, El Sabio. 7 pp. +1 CD-ROM. Madison, Wisconsin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Millás Vallicrosa, José María (1943-1950). Estudios sobre Azarquiel. Madrid-Granada.

    Google Scholar 

  • — (1956). “Una nueva obra astronómica alfonsí: El Tratado del cuadrante ‘sennero’.” Al-Andalus 21: 59-92.

    Google Scholar 

  • North, J. D. (1996). “Just Whose Were the Alfonsine Tables?” In From Baghdad to Barcelona: Studies in the Islamic Exact Sciences in Honour of Prof. Juan Vernet, edited by Josep Casulleras and Julio Samsó. Vol. 1, pp. 453-475. Barcelona: Instituto “Millás Vallicrosa” de Historia de la Ciencia Árabe.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pingree, David (1986). Picatrix: The Latin Version of the Ghāyat al-hakīm. London: Warburg Institute.

    Google Scholar 

  • Poulle, Emmanuel (1984). Les tables alphonsines avec les canons de Jean de Saxe. Paris: C.N.R.S.

    Google Scholar 

  • — (1988). “The Alfonsine Tables and Alfonso X of Castille.” Journal for the History of Astronomy 19: 97-113.

    Google Scholar 

  • Procter, Evelyn S. (1951). Alfonso X of Castile, Patron of Literature and Learning. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rico y Sinobas, Manuel (1863-1867). Libros del saber de astronomía del rey D. Alfonso X de Castilla, copilados, anotados y comentados por Don Manuel Rico y Sinobas. 5 Vols. Madrid. Real Academia de Ciencias Exactas Físìcas y Naturels (This complete edition [which includes the text of the Spanish canons of the Alfonsine Tables] is of poor quality).

    Google Scholar 

  • Romano, David (1971). “Le opere scientifiche di Alfonso X e l’intervento degli ebrei.” In Oriente e Occidente nel Medioevo: Filosofia e Scienze. Convegno Internazionale 9-15 aprile 1969, pp. 677-711. Rome: Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei. Reprinted in De historia judía hispánica, Barcelona, 1991, pp. 147-181.

    Google Scholar 

  • Roth, Norman (1990). “Jewish Collaborators in Alfonso’s Scientific Work.” In Emperor of Culture: Alfonso X the Learned of Castile and His Thirteenth-Century Renaissance, edited by Robert I. Burns, pp. 59-71 and 223-230. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Samsó, Julio (1994). Islamic Astronomy and Medieval Spain. Aldershot: Variorum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Swerdlow, Noel M. (1974). “The Origin of the Gregorian Civil Calendar.” Journal for the History of Astronomy 5: 48-49.

    Article  ADS  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • — (1977). “A Summary of the Derivation of the Parameters in the Commentariolus from the Alfonsine Tables with an Appendix on the Length of the Tropical Year in Abraham Zacuto’s Almanach Perpetuum.” Centaurus 21: 201-213.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vernet, Juan (1978). “Un texto árabe de la corte de Alfonso X el Sabio.” Al-Andalus 43: 405-421.

    Google Scholar 

  • — (ed.) (1981). Textos y estudios sobre astronomía española en el siglo de Alfonso X. Barcelona: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas; Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona.

    Google Scholar 

  • — (ed.) (1983). Nuevos estudios sobre astronomía española en el siglo de Alfonso X. Barcelona: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientifícas.

    Google Scholar 

  • Viladrich, Mercè (1982). “On the Sources of the Alphonsine Treatise Dealing with the Construction of the Plane Astrolabe.” Journal for the History of Arabic Science 6: 167-171.

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

    Julio Samsó

Authors
  1. Julio Samsó
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Julio Samsó .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth Science, University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA, USA

    Thomas Hockey

  2. University of California, Irvine School of Physical Sciences, Irvine, CA, USA

    Virginia Trimble

  3. Rice University, Houston, TX, USA

    Thomas R. Williams

  4. Whitman College, Walla Walla, WA, USA

    Katherine Bracher

  5. York Univesity, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Richard A. Jarrell

  6. University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA

    Jordan D. Marché II

  7. University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA

    JoAnn Palmeri

  8. Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Daniel W. E. Green

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York

About this entry

Cite this entry

Samsó, J. (2014). Alfonso X. In: Hockey, T., et al. Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-9917-7_33

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation