The Astronomy of Levi ben Gerson (1288–1344)
The Astronomy of Levi ben Gerson (1288–1344)

Author: Bernard R. Goldstein

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 315

ISBN-13: 1461385695

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It would seem that S. Munk was the first modern scholar to draw attention to the significance of Levi ben Gerson's Astronomy, surely the most original work on astronomy written in Hebrew in the Middle Ages. Munk (1859, p. 500) called for a specialist to undertake a serious study of this work, but there was little response to his plea in the succeeding century. Indeed, this is the first edition of the Hebrew text of any part of Levi's Astronomy but for the table of contents (Renan, 1893, pp. 624-32), and the poems celebrating the invention of the Jacob Staff that appear in chapter 9 (Carlebach, 191Oa, pp. 152-53). The text of Levi's Astronomy is written in a ponderous Hebrew style but the content sparkles with originality. The Ptolemaic tradition is subjected to a profound critique based on the idea that the planetary models must conform both to Levi's own observations as well as those of the ancients, and the claim that astronomical theory must be philosophically sound. The enduring vigor of the Ptolemaic tradition has been characterized by O. Neugebauer as fol lows: "There is no better way to convince oneself of the inner coherence of ancient and medieval astronomy than to place side by side the Almagest, al BaWini's Opus astronomicum and Copernicus's De Revolutionibus. Chapter by chapter, theorem by theorem, table by table, these works run parallel" (1957, pp. 205-6).

The Astronomical Tables of Giovanni Bianchini
The Astronomical Tables of Giovanni Bianchini

Author: José Chabás

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 161

ISBN-13: 9004176152

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This book describes and analyses, for the first time, the astronomical tables of Giovanni Bianchini of Ferrara (d. after 1469), explains their context, inserts them into an astronomical tradition that began in Toledo, and addresses their diffusion.

A Survey of European Astronomical Tables in the Late Middle Ages
A Survey of European Astronomical Tables in the Late Middle Ages

Author: José Chabás

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2012-05-31

Total Pages: 271

ISBN-13: 9004230580

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This is a survey of the numerous astronomical tables compiled in the late Middle Ages, which represent a major intellectual enterprise. Such tables were often the best way available at the time for transmitting precise information to the reader.

Levi Ben Gerson's Prognostication for the Conjunction Of 1345
Levi Ben Gerson's Prognostication for the Conjunction Of 1345

Author: Bernard Goldstein

Publisher: American Philosophical Society

Published: 2007-12

Total Pages: 72

ISBN-13: 9781422374238

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Levi ben Gerson (LBG) (1288-1344), was a prominent scholar in Orange (France) who wrote in Hebrew on biblical exegesis, philosophy, theology, & the sciences. Although Levi referred to astrology in his main work, ¿Milhamot Adonai¿ (¿The Wars of the Lord¿), his only known work in this domain is edited here for the first time. In this prognostication, based on the conjunction of Saturn & Jupiter to take place in 1345, Levi depended upon his own astronomical theories for the positions of the Sun & the Moon, & upon Abraham Ibn Ezra for astrological interpretations. Contents: LBG¿s Text in Hebrew: Transl¿n.; LBG¿s Latin Text: Transl¿n.; Transl¿n. of Iohannes de Muris¿ Latin Text; Notes to LBG¿s Prognostication; Notes to Iohannes de Muris¿ Latin Text.

Gersonides
Gersonides

Author: Ruth Glasner

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 152

ISBN-13: 0198735863

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Gersonides was a highly original Jewish philosopher, scientist and biblical exegete, active in Provence in the first half of the fourteenth century. Ruth Glasner explores his impressive achievements, and argues that the key to understanding his originality is his perspective as an applied mathematical scientist. It was this perspective that led him to examine Aristotelianism from directions different from those usually adopted by contemporary scholastic scholars. Gersonides started on his way, as he himself claims, as a 'mathematician, natural scientist, and philosopher', who believed in his power to solve the main problems of medieval science. He ended up concentrating on his work as a mathematical astronomer, developing techniques of observation and computation, and somewhat less optimistic about the prospect of scientific knowledge.

Studies in Medieval Astronomy and Optics
Studies in Medieval Astronomy and Optics

Author: J.L. Mancha

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-07-21

Total Pages: 353

ISBN-13: 1000944492

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In this selection of studies, J.L. Mancha explores aspects of the development of medieval optics and astronomy, including some medieval antecedents of the work of early modern astronomers. The articles deal with Latin, Hebrew and Arabic texts, and the process of translation and transmission of knowledge, and focus on three main themes. First, the theory and astronomical use of the pinhole camera in the 12th and 13th centuries; the texts edited here contain a solution to the problem of the formation of images cast by light through triangular apertures, equivalent to Kepler's, a description of the correct procedure for measuring solar apparent diameters using finite apertures, and a derivation of the Sun's eccentricity from its apparent diameters at apogee and perigee. Second, the characteristics of the Latin and Provençal versions of Levi ben Gerson's astronomical work, composed in collaboration with the author, as well as his tables and canons for finding syzygies and the mathematical methods used in the derivation of parameters. Third, different aspects of the survival of homocentric astronomy in the Middle Ages, especially al-Bitruji's model for trepidation and the technique for calculating the hippopede resulting from Eudoxan couples.

Time Matters
Time Matters

Author: T.M. Rudavsky

Publisher: SUNY Press

Published: 2000-02-10

Total Pages: 316

ISBN-13: 9780791444542

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Traces the development of the concepts of time, cosmology, and creation in medieval Jewish philosophy.

Philosophy and Rabbinic Culture
Philosophy and Rabbinic Culture

Author: Gregg Stern

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-09-05

Total Pages: 361

ISBN-13: 1135975604

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Philosophy and Rabbinic Culture is a study of the great, and curiously underappreciated, engagement of a Medieval European Jewish community with the philosophic tradition. This lucid description of the Languedocian Jewish community's multigenerational cultivation of - and acculturation to - scientific and philosophic teachings into Judaism fulfils a major desideratum in Jewish cultural history. In the first detailed account of this long-forgotten Jewish community and its cultural ideal, the author gives an expansive reappraisal of the role of the philosophic interpretation in rabbinic culture and medieval Judaism. Looking at how the cultural ideal of Languedocian Jewry continued to develop and flourish throughout the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, with particular reference to the literary style and religious teaching of the great Talmudist, Menahem ha-Meiri, Stern explores issues such as Meiri’s theory of "civilized religions", including Christianity and Islam, controversy over philosophy and philosophic allegory in Languedoc and Catalonia, and the cultural significance of the medical use of astrological images. This book will be of great interest to scholars and students of Religion, of Judaism in particular, and of Philosophy, History and Medieval Europe, as well as those interested in Jewish-Christian relations.