The Alfonsine Tables and Alfonso X of Castille

Perez Sanchez José A. , Alfonso X el Sabio (Madrid, 1944), 111, refers back to the chronicle of Bernat Descole, but I have not found the story there, though there is frequent mention of it. See the Note added in proof (below, p. 113).

Bossong Georg , Probleme der Übersetzung wissenschaftlicher Werke aus dem Arabischen in das Altspanische zur Zeit Alfons des Weisen (Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie, 169; Tübingen, 1979), 59–83. Hilty Gerold (ed.), Aly Aben Ragel: El libro complido en los judizios de las estrellas, tr. hecha en la corte de Alfonso el Sabio (Madrid, 1954), pp. LVII–LXI. Kasten Lloyd A. and Kiddle Lawrence B. (eds), Alfonso el Sabio: Libro de las cruzes (Madrid, 1961), p. XV. Cardenas Anthony J. , “The complete Libro del saber de astrologia and cod. Vat. lat. 8174”, Manuscripta, xxv (1981), 14–22.

The counting of the stars involves some uncertainties. The editors of Ptolemy's catalogue, Peters Christian H. F. and Knobel Edward B. (Ptolemy's catalogue of stars: A revision of the Almagest (Washington, D.C., 1915)), make the total 1028, and I adopt this number for convenience, but they have counted twice two stars that are listed simultaneously in two constellations (nos. 96 and 147, on the one hand, and 230 and 400 on the other). Ptolemy spoke of “1022 plus the Coma”, which ought to bring the total to 1025, but he enumerated 1023 (without counting the three of the Coma and counting only once the two stars common to two constellations). Olaf Pedersen (A survey of the Almagest (Odense, 1974), 250) makes the total 1022 stars, but his count, constellation by constellation, produces 1016 (lacking, in addition to the three stars of the Coma, six stars in Hydra and one in Piscis Austrinus). Alfonso X has only 1017 stars.

In my Les tables alphonsines avec les canons de Jean de Saxe (Sources d'histoire médiévale publiées par l'Institut de Recherche et d'Histoire des Textes; Paris, 1984), 7, n. 1, I have cited many manuscripts where the astronomical Alfonsine Tables are well prescribed by a title and an explicit, between which the catalogue of stars is not found. That there is constant repetition of the claim that the star catalogue forms part of the Alfonsine Tables (again, recently, by Kunitzsch Paul , “The star catalogue commonly appended to the Alfonsine Tables”, Journal for the history of astronomy, xvii (1986), 89–98, p. 89) is obviously not enough to make the claim true.

Poulle , Les tables alphonsines…, 23–26.

Libros del saber de astronomia del rey D. Alfonso X de Castilla, ed. by Rico Manuel y Sinobas , i (Madrid, 1863), 7–142.

As no modern edition of Alfonso's star table exists, I have used the one found in the editio princeps of the Alfonsine Tables (Venice, 1483), fol. H²−J⁹v. See Kunitzsch , op. cit.

Poulle E. , “Jean de Murs et les tables alphonsines”, Archives d'histoire doctrinale et littéraire du moyen âge, xlvii (1980), 241–71.

It is well known that the tables published by Rico , op. cit., iv (Madrid, 1866), 189 seq., to accompany the canons are a Portuguese almanac having nothing to do with the canons and that he perpetrated a falsehood pointed out by Alfred Wegener in “Die astronomische Werke Alfons X”, Bibliotheca mathematica, ser. 3, vi (1905), 129–85.

Published by Rico , op. cit., iv, 111–83. The Canones de Albateni (edited by Bossong G. (Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie, 165; Tübingen, 1978)), an Alfonsine translation into Castilian of the canons compiled in the ninth century by al-Battani, clearly have nothing to do with the Alfonsine Tables.

Poulle , Les tables alphonsines…. I have been reproached for giving too narrow a definition (Isis, lxxvi (1985), 431–3; Archives internationales d'histoire des sciences, xxxv (1985), 486), but this in itself does not prove I am wrong. In general, one should not give too much credit to the editio princeps merely because it is a printed text.

It is by mistake that in my Tables alphonsines… it is pointed out that the change of the reference sphere had no impact on the tables of mean motions. As to the effect of this change on the tables of equations, this is a more complicated matter, as we shall shortly see.

Edited by Poulle in “Jean de Murs…”.

Edited by Saby-Rousset Marie-Madeleine , “Les canons de Jean de Lignères sur les tables astronomiques de 1321: Edition critique, traduction et étude” (thesis in typescript, École des Chartes; cf. École Nationale des Chartes: Positions des thèses, (1987), 183–90).

MSS Erfurt F.388, fol. 1–42 (tables); Erfurt 4°.366, fol. 28–32v (canons); Lisbon Ajuda 52-VI-25, fol. 67–92v (incomplete tables); Paris lat. 7281, fol. 201v–205v (canons); Paris lat. 10263, fol. 70–78 (canons).

On the conception and the application of the double-entry tables of equations, see Poulle E. and De Smet Antoine , Les tables astronomiques de Louvain 1528 par Henri Baers ou Vekenstyl (Brussels, 1976).

Poulle E. , Les instruments de la théorie des planètes selon Ptolémée: Équatoires et horlogerie planétaire du XIIIe au XVIe siècle (Hautes études médiévales et modernes, 42; Geneva, 1980), 213–16 and 363–74.

MSS Lisbon Ajuda 52–VI–25, fol. 26v–66; Oxford Canon. misc. 501, fol. 45–106v.

Some of the technical problems that the Latin Alfonsine Tables pose in relation to the Castilian canons have already been mentioned: The definition of the Alfonsine radix, the nature of the movement of the eighth sphere, and sexagesimalization; others, such as the choice of the sphere of reference, have not as yet been examined in sufficient detail. This said, the logical conclusion — namely, that the Latin tables are not authentic — has never been drawn. As a result, the hypotheses formulated in attempts to explain these difficulties have no real foundation and they are of purely historiographic interest; they are nevertheless the subject of much discussion, as we see from Estudios sobre Azarquiel by Maria José Vallicrosa Millas (Madrid-Grenada, 1943–50), 407–13, and “The Alfonsine Tables in England” by North John , in Prismata: Festschrift für Willy Hartner (Wiesbaden, 1977), 269–301.

Saby-Rousset , op. cit.

The role attributed to this person is not necessarily purely mythical. It should be noted that Alfonso x's grandson, Alfonso de la Cerda, was received at Philip the Fair's and his sons' courts, and that this could have been at the source of the King's scientific repute in Paris. But the basic incompatibility between the Parisian and the Castilian astronomies makes it impossible for Alfonso de la Cerda to have been any sort of real intermediary.

John of Murs says 1° in 72.5 years ( Poulle , “Jean de Murs…”, 258), but the daily value that he gives (ibid., 257) leads to 1° in 136 years.

Carmody Francis J. (ed.), Al-Bitruji: De motibus celorum (Berkeley, 1952), 101. Cf. also Goldstein Bernard R. (ed.), Al-Bitruji: On the principles of astronomy: An edition of the Arabic and Hebrew versions with translation (New Haven, 1971), 90.

John of Murs contents himself with saying ( Poulle , “Jean de Murs…”, 261) that the apogee of the Sun was, in the time of Ptolemy , “at the beginning of Gemini”.

Between this date and the time of Alfonso, the movement in precession established itself at 9°4′ and the difference between the two equations at 8°4′. We note that the motion of access and recess cancels itself out exactly in this year 15.

Poulle , “Jean de Murs…”, 255.

Since we are still without an edition of the Toledan Tables, their apogees are to be found in Toomer G. J. , “A survey of the Toledan Tables”, Osiris, xv (1968), 5–174, p. 45. The apogees for the epoch of Alfonso (see Table 1) are obtained by adding the radices of the motion in precession to the equation of the motion of access and recess, which is given for the king's era as 8;4,1° ( Poulle , Les tables alphonsines, 124–6); this equation is slightly inexact — it should be 8;4,6°.

The apogees for the time of Nabonassar are given by Pedersen , op. cit. (ref. 3), 423–9. See Table 2.

Nallino C. A. (ed.), Al-Battani sive Albatenii Opus astronomicum, i (Milan, 1903), 239–42. Nallino's formulation is not as brutal, but it essentially says the same thing.

Poulle , “Jean de Murs…”, 263.

On the Patefit, see Plassard Joël , “Projets de réforme du calendrier à Paris au début du XIV^e siècle” (thesis in typescript, École des Chartes; cf. École Nationale des Chartes: Positions des thèses, (1975), 175–81).