ISAAC IBN Al-Hadib and Flavius Mithridates: The Diffusion of an Iberian Astronomical Tradition in the Late Middle Ages

Goldstein B. R. , “Abraham Zacut and the medieval Hebrew astronomical tradition”, Journal for the history of astronomy , xxix (1998), 177–86, p. 179.

Steinschneider M. , Mathematik bei den Juden , 2nd edn (Hildesheim, 1964), 168; Goldstein B. R. , “Descriptions of astronomical instruments in Hebrew”, in Essays in honor of E. S. Kennedy, ed. by King D. A. Saliba G. , Annals of the New York Academy of Science, d (1987), 105–41, p. 128.

Rubió i Lluch A. , Documents per l'història de la cultura mig-eval (Barcelona, 1908–21); Millás J. M. , Las tablas astronómicas del Rey Don Pedro el Ceremonioso (Madrid and Barcelona, 1962); Chabás J. Roca A. Rodríguez X. , L'astronomia de Jacob ben David Bonjorn (Barcelona, 1992).

See, e.g., Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Opp. Add. 8° 42, f. 17b. Cf. Burgos Cantera F. , “El judío salmantino Abraham Zacut”, Revista de la Academia de Ciencias Exactas, Físico-Químicas y Naturales de Madrid , xxvii (1931), 63–398, espec. pp. 113, 171.

See Lippincott K. Pingree D. , “Ibn al-Hātim on the talismans of the lunar mansions”, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes , I (1987), 57–81, pp. 58–59. Although Raymond William of Moncada did not take Flavius Mithridates as his nom de plume until the 1480s, we generally refer to him by the name by which he is best known.

Cf. Starrabba R. , “Ricerche storiche su Guglielmo Raimondo Moncada, ebreo convertito siciliano del XV”, Archivio storico siciliano , iii (1878), 15–91, p. 87.

Scandaliato A. , “Le radici familiari culturali di Guglielmo Raimondo Moncada, ebreo convertito del rinascimento, nella Sicilia del. sec. XV”, in Una manna buona per Mantova. Man Tov le-Man Tovah. Studi in onore di Vittore Colorni , ed. by Perani M. (Florence, 2004), 203–40; Engel E. , “A palaeographical analysis of Mithridates' Hebrew autographs”, in Guglielmo Raimondo Moncada: Ebreo di Caltabellotta. La vita e l'opera. Atti del convegno internazionale, Caltabellotta (Agrigento), 23–24 ottobre 2004 , ed. by Perani M. (in press).

Starrabba , “Guglielmo Raimondo Moncada” (ref. 6), 39, 41, and 47–48; Steinschneider M. , Die hebraeischen Übersetzungen des Mittelalters (Berlin, 1893), 986–7.

Busi G. , The Great Parchment: Flavius Mithridates' Latin translation, the Hebrew text, and an English version (Turin, 2004), 16–17; Wirszubski C. , Pico della Mirandola's encounter with Jewish mysticism (Cambridge MA and London, 1989).

Munich , Staatsbibliothek, MS Heb. 246, f. 83a; see Steinschneider M. , Die hebraeischen Handschriften der K. Hof- und Staatsbibliothek in Muenchen (Munich, 1895), 120.

For other approaches to this problem, see Chabás J. Goldstein B. R. , “Computational astronomy: Five centuries of finding true syzygy”, Journal for the history of astronomy , xxviii (1997), 93–105. On Ibn al-Kammād (early 12th century), see Chabás J. Goldstein B. R. , “Andalusian Astronomy: Al-Zīj al-Muqtabis of Ibn al-Kammād”, Archive for history of exact sciences , xlviii (1994), 1–41; and on Ibn al-Raqqām (d. 1315), see Kennedy E. S. , “The astronomical tables of Ibn al-Raqqām a scientist of Granada”, Zeitschrift für Geschichte der Arabisch-Islamischen Wissenschaften , xi (1997), 35–72.

See, e.g., ben Jacob Bonfils Immanuel , Sefer shesh kenafayim [Hebrew edition of The six wings, bound with Isaac ben Solomon, Sefer or ha-levanah] (Zhitomir, 1872); Millás , Las tablas astronómicas (ref. 3); Chabás J. , “The astronomical tables of Jacob ben David Bonjorn”, Archive for history of exact sciences , xlii (1991), 279–314; Chabás , L'astronomia (ref. 3); Goldstein B. R. , Levi ben Gerson's astronomical tables (New Haven, 1974); idem, “Astronomy in the medieval Spanish Jewish community”, in Between demonstration and imagination: Essays in the history of science and philosophy presented to John D. North, ed. by Nauta L and Vanderjagt A. (Leiden, 1999), 225–41; Chabás J. Goldstein B. R. , Astronomy in the Iberian Peninsula: Abraham Zacut and the transition from manuscript to print (Philadelphia, 2000); Goldstein B. R. , “The astronomical tables of Judah ben Verga”, Suhayl , iv (2001), 227–89.

Tihon A. Mercier R. , Georges Gémiste Pléthon: Manuel d'astronomie (Louvain-la-Neuve, 1998), 12.

For a detailed table of contents and discussion of items 1 and 3, see Lippincott and Pingree , “Ibn al-Ḥātim” (ref. 5); Lippincott K. , “More on Ibn al-Ḥātim”, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes , li (1988), 188–90.

Cf. Lippincott and Pingree, “Ibn al-Ḥātim” (ref. 5), 58.

Vatican, MS Heb. 379, f. 2a.

Almagest VI. 5; Toomer G. J. , Ptolemy's Almagest (New York, 1984), 286–7.

Pedersen O. , A survey of the Almagest (Odense, 1974), 229–30.

See Chabás J. Goldstein B. R. , The Alfonsine tables of Toledo (Dordrecht and Boston, 2003), 217–18.

On Gascon , see Goldstein B. R. , “The Hebrew astronomical tradition: New sources”, Isis , lxxii (1981), 237–51.

Another copy of Jacob's commentary is extant in London, British, Library, Or. 2806, ff. 20b–39b.

Chabás and Goldstein , “Ibn al-Kammād” (ref. 11), 6ff.

Nallino C. A. , Al-Battānī sive Albatenii opus astronomicum (2 vols, Milan, 1903–7), ii, 78ff.

Tabule astronomice illustrissimi Alfontij regis castelle , ed. by Ratdolt E. (Venice, 1483), e2v–e4r.

Cf. Chabás and Goldstein , “True syzygy” (ref. 11).

See Bonfils , op. cit. (ref. 12), 38–40; cf. Solon P. , “The Hexapterygon of Michael Chrysococces”, Ph.D. dissertation, Brown University, 1968; and idem, “The Six wings of Immanuel Bonfils and Michael Chrysokokkes”, Centaurus , xv (1970), 1–20, p. 7.

Toomer , Almagest (ref. 17), 307; Neugebauer O. , A history of ancient mathematical astronomy (Berlin and New York, 1975), 136.

Goldstein B. R. , “Colors of eclipses in medieval Hebrew astronomical tables”, Aleph , v (2005), 11–34.

For colours of eclipses according to Ibn al-Kammād, see Chabás and Goldstein , “Ibn al-Kammād” (ref. 11), 18–19.

Bonfils , op. cit. (ref. 12), 38–40; cf. Solon, “The six wings” (ref. 26), 7.

Ibid. .

See Stahlman W. D. , “The astronomical tables of Codex Vaticanus Graecus 1291”, Ph.D. dissertation, Brown University, 1959; University Microfilms, No. 62–5761, 268–9; Nallino , Al-Battānī (ref. 23), ii, 95.

See Stahlman , “Astronomical tables” (ref. 32), 272–3; Nallino , Al-Battānī (ref. 23), ii, 97.

See Stahlman , “Astronomical tables” (ref. 32), 274–5; Nallino , Al-Battānī (ref. 23), ii, 98.

See Stahlman , “Astronomical tables” (ref. 32), 276–7; Nallino , Al-Battānī (ref. 23), ii, 99.

See Stahlman , “Astronomical tables” (ref. 32), 278–9; Nallino , Al-Battānī (ref. 23), ii, 100.

In addition to the value 5;15 for this parameter, there are variants 5;13 and 5;14: See Almagest IV.6; transl. Toomer , Almagest (ref. 17), 197, 202, and 209.

Chabás Goldstein , Zacut (ref. 12), 33–34, 62, 118–22.

See Chabás Goldstein , “Ibn al-Kammād” (ref. 11), 23; Millás , Las tablas astronómicas (ref. 3), 237; and Chabás J. , “Astronomía andalusí en Cataluña: Las tablas de Barcelona”, in From Baghdad to Barcelona: Studies in the Islamic exact sciences in honour of Prof. Juan Vernet , ed. by Casulleras J. Samsó J. (Barcelona, 1996), 477–525, pp. 511–12.

See, e.g., Maimonides : Sanctification of the new moon , transl. by Gandz S. , introduction by Obermann J. , astronomical commentary by Neugebauer O. (New Haven, 1956), 116.

Neugebauer , Maimonides (ref. 40), 115.

Comes M. , “The ‘Meridian of water’ in the tables of geographical coordinates of al-Andalus and North Africa”, Journal for the history of Arabic science , x (1992–94), 41–51.

Chabás Goldstein , “True syzygy” (ref. 11), 102.