[MR] medieval astronomy (Fwd: Aoife-Links Digest, Vol 15, Issue 4)

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In a message dated 1/26/2006 12:03:59 PM Eastern Standard Time,  
aoife-links-request at scatoday.net writes:

Today's  Topics:

1. Starry-eyed Surprise: Medieval Astronomy  (Aoife)


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Message:  1
Date: Wed, 25 Jan 2006 20:06:30 -0500
From: "Aoife"  <aoife at scatoday.net>
Subject: [Aoife-Links] Starry-eyed Surprise:  Medieval Astronomy
To: <aoife-links at scatoday.net>
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Greetings my Faithful Readers!

This week's  topic comes to you courtesy of Apollonia Voss, who kindly shot 
an entire  list of ideas my way. I thought it appropriate that I choose this 
one in  the week that modern Astronomers announced they may have found an  
inhabitable planet similar to earth in a far-off galaxy (in the  
constellation Sagittarius). The title, of course, is a tip of the hat to  
Paul Oakenfold, and you might recognize the line of  song lyrics from  a 
certain bubbly diet beverage's commercial.

If you read on, you'll  find out some fascinating things. For example, did 
you know that medieval  star maps were most likely globes, and the 
constellations appeared  backwards (such as they might appear to God)?

Read on, and learn  more...

Cheers

Aoife

Dame Aoife Finn of Ynos Mon
m/k/a  Lisbeth Herr-Gelatt
Riverouge
Endless Hills
Aethelmearc

The  Astrolabe
by Gary Agranat & Dave  Delligati
http://members.aol.com/chopstcks/gca7sky/astrolabe.htm
(Site  Excerpt) One purpose of the astrolabe was observational. It could be 
used  for finding the angle of the Sun, the Moon, the planets, or stars above 
 
the horizon or relative to the zenith. It could be used for surveying,  such 
as for determining the heights of towers and mountains, or the depths  of 
wells. However, other observing instruments existed before the  astrolabe. It 
was the astrolabe's ability to compute astronomical  information that made it 
more important.

Starry  Messenger
http://www.hps.cam.ac.uk/starry/starrymessenger.html
(Site  Excerpt) By drawing on the rich collection of instruments and books in 
the  Whipple Collection, the University Library and the Wren Library, we have 
 
sought to produce a history of astronomy which focuses on the uses of  
astronomy and its instruments, as well as on the practitioners of  astronomy.

Astronomy and  Islam
http://www.ummah.net/astronomy/
(Site Excerpt) Astronomy has been  called the "queen of sciences". It 
incorporates many disciplines such as  physics, particularly optics, 
mathematics and celestial mechanics. Since  ancient times, Muslim scientists 
have studied astronomy, contributing  greatly to human knowledge. Yaqub ibn 
Tariq, al-Kwarizmi, al-Battani,  al-Farghani, al-Sufi, al-Biruni, al-Tusi and 
Omar Khayyam are just a few  of the scholars who have left a lasting mark in 
the annals of  astronomy.

Rundetaarn: Oldest functioning opbservatory in  Europe
http://www.rundetaarn.dk/engelsk/frames.htm
(Site Excerpt)  Rundetaarn (The Round Tower) was built on the initiative of 
King Christian  IV (1588-1648) with Hans Steenwinkel the Younger as the 
architect. On 7  July, the foundation stone for Rundetaarn was laid. The 
tower was the  first stage of the Trinitatis complex, which was to gather 
three important  facilities for the scholars of the seventeenth century: an 
astronomical  observatory, a student church and a university library.

Humboldt  University: Practical Medieval  Astronomy
http://www.humboldt.edu/~rap1/EarlySciInstSite/Workshops/PracMedAstro_2.htm
(Site  Excerpt) Why did people care about astronomy? Curiosity of course was  
important to some. But an overriding concern was the proper determination  of 
when to celebrate Holy days, when to plant crops, etc. Of particularly  great 
concern was the determination of Easter, a non trivial task.  According to 
the Testament the Last Supper took place on a Thursday (the  Passover meal), 
the Crucifixion on Friday, and the Resurrection the  following Sunday.

Humboldt University: Medieval Astronomical and  Timekeeping  Instruments
http://www.humboldt.edu/~rap1/EarlySciInstSite/Workshops/MedAstTimeInstF04.htm
(Site  Excerpt) For this workshop I have brought instructions and materials 
for  you to make two different time keeping instruments typical of the  
11th-13th centuries. Before we begin the projects I will show you some  
instruments I have made which illustrate the operation of these  instruments 
in terms of astronomical observations and phenomena. I will  also discuss 
briefly some of the techniques I have used in making them,  and relate how my 
methods compare to techniques current in the late  Medieval period. You will 
find additional details about these instruments  and techniques on my 
web-site.

THE AURORA OF 1192: ITS CAUSES AND  EFFECTS by Lynn H.  Nelson
http://history.eserver.org/aurora-of-1192.txt?CFID=5867065&CFTOKEN=43168938
A  paper on the subject.

The Planets and Their Children
A Blockbook of  Medieval Popular Astrology by Marianne  Hansen
http://www.billyandcharlie.com/planets/
(Site Excerpt) The  influence of the planets on humans was a subject of 
popular interest in  mid-fifteenth century Europe. Addressed in many medical 
and astrological  manuscripts of the time, it made its mark in early printing 
through the  appearance of blockbooks which contained depictions of each 
planet in  anthropomorphic form together with an illustration of the 
pasttimes,  professions, and conditions of its "children" - people influenced 
at birth  by the planet.

Digital Mirror; Medieval manuscripts:  Astronomy
http://www.llgc.org.uk/drych/drych_s060.htm
(Site Excerpt) The  oldest scientific manuscript in the National Library is 
NLW MS 735C, which  contains various Latin texts on astronomy. The volume, 
written in Caroline  minuscule, consists of two sections, the first (ff. 
1-26) copied c. 1000,  in the Limoges area of France, probably in the milieu 
of Adémar de  Chabannes (989-1034), whilst the second (ff. 27-50), from a 
scriptorium in  the same region, may be dated c. 1150.

Aligning Earth and  Sky
Ancient Astronomy in the Kinki Area of Japan
By Steve Renshaw and  Saori Ihara
http://www2.gol.com/users/stever/sites.htm
(Site Excerpt)  Unfortunately, the changing winds of history and modern urban 
development  have obliterated many of the sites and relics of ancient 
astronomical  activity in Japan. However, the Kinki region (which includes 
not only the  large metropolis of Osaka but Kyoto, Nara, and the Asuka area 
to the  south), can provide the traveler with some glimpse of a past in which 
 
astronomical observation played a central role in affairs of state as well  
as the day-to-day life of ordinary citizens.

Commission for the  History of Ancient and Medieval Astronomy  (CHAMA)
http://chama.fltr.ucl.ac.be/chama2/index.htm
See especially the  Bibliography page.

A Catalog of Medieval Astronomical  Instruments
http://web.uni-frankfurt.de/fb13/ign/instrument-catalogue.html
(Site  Excerpt) The basic philosophy behind the preparation of the catalogue 
is  that it is essential to hold the instrument in one's hands, to take it  
apart, to examine each part carefully - in short, to play with it for a  
while - in order to begin to understand it properly. Photographs are  
inadequate for this purpose, but in some cases it must suffice. One may  need 
to examine some details with a magnifying glass, or even a  microscope. The 
task for the unsigned and undated instruments is then to  relate them to a 
school or a period. Again it is particularly useful, but  rarely possible, to 
examine related instruments together.

Models  and Machines in European Astronomy (13th - 15th Centuries) by Michael 
H  Shank
http://www.imss.fi.it/news/mechcos/eshank.html
(Site Excerpt)  Between the 13th through the 15th centuries, Robertus 
Anglicus testifies  to astronomers interest in the work of clockmakers, Guido 
de Marchia  criticizes al-Bitruji and designs an instrument intertwined with  
cosmological speculations about planetary rings in a fluid heaven, and  
Giovanni de Dondi constructs an astrarium that he sees as vindicating  
epicycles and eccentrics.

The Galileo  Project
http://galileo.rice.edu/science.html/copernican_system.html
(Site  Excerpt) Here you can find records of the other scientists and 
scientific  institutions of Galileo's time, as well as information about 
Galileo's  astronomical observations and instruments. Additionally, you can 
access a  document from the University of Bologna's Astronomical Museum about 
17th  century astronomical instruments...

Some Nautical Astronomical Terms in  the Western Mediterranean c1300
Alan H.  Hartley
http://www.d.umn.edu/~ahartley/Medieval_Astronomy.html
(Site  Excerpt) Boötes [= the constellation and its alpha Arcturus, and 
sometimes  the Bear(s)]
Lat. Bootes (Cicero); (med.) Boetes Artophilax (c1200  Lambert)
Port. Bootes (1572 Camões III.71; also Appleton)
1Sp. Bootes  (1272-75 Alfonso General Estoria I)
2It. Boöte

Some Computer  Programs
for Research in the History of
Ancient and Medieval Astronomy  By Benno van  Dalen
http://user.uni-frankfurt.de/%7Edalen/programs.htm
(Site Excerpt)  Below you will find links for downloading a number of 
computer programs  for DOS-PC / Windows, which I hope may be useful in doing 
research on the  history of ancient and medieval astronomy. I wrote these 
programs during  my doctoral research at the Mathematical Institute of 
Utrecht University  (Netherlands) and a postdoctoral fellowship of the 
Alexander von Humboldt  Foundation which enabled me to work at the Institute 
for History of  Science in Frankfurt am Main (Germany). Except for the 
database of  parameter values occurring in Islamic astronomy, the programs 
are  keyboard-driven DOS programs.

Star  Maps
http://www.ianridpath.com/startales/startales2a.htm
(Site Excerpt)  The earliest representations of the sky were actually globes, 
on which the  constellations were shown as though viewed from a God-like 
position beyond  the stars; this meant that the constellation shapes were 
represented back  to front by comparison with the way we see them from Earth. 
In the Museo  Nazionale, Naples, is a marble statue of Atlas holding on his 
shoulders  not the Earth but a globe of the heavens on which the 
constellations are  depicted in this mirror-image way (see picture at  right).