Publications

ALFA Brepols series

Collective books prepared by the ALFA team

Alfonsine astronomy: the Written Record (link)

- R. L. Kremer, M. Husson and J. Chabás, Introduction
- Part 1: Contexts of Practice and Diffusion as Attested by Manuscripts and Manuscript Collections
  - L. Fernández Fernández, The Libro de las tablas alfonsíes: New Documentary and Material Sources
  - J.-P. Boudet and L. Miolo, Alfonsine Astronomy and Astrology in Fourteenth-Century Oxford: The Case of MS Bodleian Library Digby 176
  - R. L. Kremer, Exploring a Late-Fifteenth-Century Astrologer’s Toolbox: British Library Add MS 34603
  - A. Tur, From Computus Material to Preacher’s Toolbox: Manufacturing a Bat-Book Almanac in the Fifteenth Century
  - E. Ramírez-Weaver, Bohemian King Wenceslas IV’s Copy of the Alfonsine Tables and Their Place Within his Astronomical and Astrological Corpus
- Part 2: Authors, Texts and their Receptions in Various Milieus
  - M.-M. Saby, Editing the Tables of 1322 by John of Lignères José Chabás
  - A. Hadravová, P. Hadrava, John of Lignères’s Quia ad inveniendum loca planetarum: An Edition and Translation
  - J. Chabás, New Texts and Tables Attributed to John of Lignères: Context and Analysis
  - M. Husson, Work Cohesion as a Test of Manuscript Transmission: The Case of John of Lignères’ Tabule magne
  - L. Miolo, Retracing the Tradition of John of Genoa’s Opus astronomicumThrough Extant Manuscripts
  - G. Van Brummelen, All In: Fifteenth-Century Manuscripts Devoted to Giovanni Bianchini’s Astronomy
- Postface: From Documents to Data
  - G. Topalian and M. Husson, The Digital Projects of ALFA

Alfonsine astronomy: Computational Practices (in press)
- M. Husson, J. Chabás and R. Kremer, Introduction
- Part 1: Procedural texts
  - E. Andriani, S. Gessner, N. Jacobson, A Note on Arabes maxime: A Testimony of Alfonsine Astronomers’ Interest in the Toledan Tables
  - E. Andriani, C. Bui, N. Jacobson, Conrad Heingarter’s Treatise on Planetary Latitudes: An Introduction and Critical Edition
  - S. Gessner, M-M. Saby, The Planicelium of John Vimond: Edition, Translation, and Interpretation of a Text Describing an Astronomical Instrument from the Early Fourteenth Century
  - N. Jacobson, Exempla in Figura in Alfonsine Canon Commentaries
- Part 2: reconfiguring tables
  - P. Hadrava, Mathematical Treatment of Alfonsine Trepidation and its Sources
  - G. Van Brummelen, The Emergence of Auxiliary Astronomical Tables in Europe
  - J. Chabás and B. R. Goldstein, Computing Solar and Lunar Velocities and Radii: The Table of John of Genoa and his Predecessors
  - J-C. Penin, The Trigonometric Tables of Jean Fusoris (1365-1436)
  - E. Andriani, S. Zieme, Regiomontanus on the Equation of Time: Computational Practices of an Alfonsine Astronomer
- Part 3: Operating with numbers
  - A. Hadravová, P. Hadrava, Cyclical Radices in the Tabule resolute and their Adaptation to the Meridian of another City
  - J. Chabás, Computational Practices in Alfonsine Astronomy: Hermann of Saxony’sPractica motuum planetarum
  - M. Husson, Proportional Parts and Interpolation Practices in Alfonsine Astronomy: Unfolding Astronomers’ Works with a Mathematical Procedure
- Part 4: On the border of mathematical astronomy
  - R. L. Kremer, What Can We Learn about Computational Practices from a Study of Medieval Ephemerides?
  - A. Tur, From Astronomical Computation to Astrological Interpretation: figurae caeli and ‘Astrological Squares’ in Fifteenth-Century Annual Prognostication

Alfonsine astronomy: Expanding the Scenes (Provisional title , in preparation)
- J. Chabás, R. Kremer, M. Husson Introduction
- Part 1: Historiographical papers
  - R. L. Kremer, Circulation of the Parisian Alfonsine Tables in Latin Manuscripts
  - J. Chabás, Computing eclipses in early Alfonsine astronomy
  - J. Chabás and B. R. Goldstein, Late mediaeval star lists and the computation of precession: The case of Heinrich Selder and the Alfonsine tradition
  - A. Hadravová and P. Hadrava, Spreading of treatises on astrolabe by Cristannus of Prachatice
  - C. Cartier, Printing the “Tables of King Alfonso”
  - J.-C. Penin and M. Husson, Alfonsine astronomy historiography (late 15th c. to early 20th c.),
- Part 2: Specifics milieus views on Alfonsine astronomy
  - A.-L. Caudano, A Byzantine Version of the Alfonsine Tables of Paris in an Astronomical Compilation of John Chortasmenos
  - S. Serra, History, errors and corrections: Change according to Medieval Parisian Astronomers,
  - E. Andriani & N. Jacobson, From the Court of Alfonso to the Court of John of Bourbon: Alfonsine Astronomy as an actor’s category
  - S. Gessner, Fifteenth Century Forms of Appropriation of Alfonsine Astronomy at the Universities of Erfurt and Leipzig
  - L. Fernández Fernández, Alfonsine Astronomy, Salamanca and the Oxford Canon. Misc. 27
  - A. Hadravová, Reception of the Alfonsine astronomy by Czech humanists in the age of printing at the end of the 15th and in the 16th century
- Part 3: Trends of practices
  - A. Tur, Reading and copying annual prognostications in the 15th century
  - G. Van Brummelen, Bianchini’s reform of mathematical astrology
  - S. Zieme, OnThe Equation of time in the Alfonsine tradition

Critical editions and studies

J. Chabás and M.-M. Saby,The Tables of John of Lignères: An Edition with Commentary, Brepols, 2023 (link)
M.-M. Saby, John of Lignières Cuiuslibet and Priores: introduction, critical edition and commentary (In preparation, 2024)
P. Hadrava and A. Hadravova, Tabule Resolute: The Central European Type of Alfonsine Tables (In preparation, 2024)
N. Jacobson, Ordering Language to Order the Heavens:Alfonsine Astronomical Canons in an Italian Context (1350-1500) (In preparation, 2024)
E. Andriani and M. Husson, John of Lignères texts and tables dedicated to Roberto de’ Bardi: critical edition and commentary (In preparation, 2024-25)
R. Kremer, Alfonsine Astronomers at Work: Compu4ng Planetary Posi4ons in Europe, 1330-1560 (In preparation, 2025)

ALFA in Collaboration

As a means to extend the circle of discussion on the history of astronomy, ALFA has actively constructed collaborations with neighbouring scholarly fields, in particular with the fields of Manuscript studies and History of mathematics. These collaborations are linked to specific publications.

Center for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (Hamburg)

Brita, Antonella, Karolewski, Janina, Husson, Matthieu, Miolo, Laure and Wimmer, Hanna. Manuscripts and Performances in Religions, Arts, and Sciences, (De Gruyter, Link)

This collective publication is the result of the collaboration of ALFA with the Center for the Study of Manuscript Culture in Hamburg. It investigates in multiple contexts how manuscripts are shaped for and by performance, how they are ‘performers’ of some kind as well. For ALFA team members this collaboration was an occasion to reflect about ways to find clues of astronomical practices in the Alfonsine corpus at large.

ERC SAW, Mathematical Practices in the Ancient World

Karine Chemla, Matthieu Husson, Mathematical Practices in Relation to Astral Sciences (In preparation, 2024 vol. 1-2025 vol. 2)

These two volumes, in preparation, will be one of the major outputs of the ERC project SAW. They seek to weave new links between the history of mathematics and the history of astronomy on a deep methodological level and a broad range of sources from the ancient and medieval periods. Team members from ALFA contribute both to the methodological reflection and with specific case study and thus deepen their own understanding.

Agathe Keller, Matthieu Husson, Positive, negative special issue Historia Mathematica (in Preparation)

This special issue of Historia Mathematica revisits the standard historiography on a “emergence of negative numbers’”. It does so in particular, by extending the historical analysis beyond arithmetical and algebraic sources to astronomical ones and more specifically those of the Alfonsine corpus.

Individual publications (articles, chapters, books)

2017

J. Chabás, 2017. “An Early Witness of Alfonsine Astronomy: The London Tables for 1336”, Journal for the History of Astronomy, 48, 324–328.

2018

J. Chabás and B. R. Goldstein, 2018. “Adaptations of the Oxford Tables to Paris, Mantua, and Louvain”, Journal for the History of Astronomy, 49(1), 99–115.
B. R. Goldstein and J. Chabás, 2018. “New evidence on Abraham Zacut’s astronomical tables”, Archive for History of Exact Sciences, 72, 21–62.
Glen Van Brummelen, 2018. “The end of an error: Bianchini, Regiomontanus, and the tabulation of stellar coordinates”, Archive for History of Exact Sciences, 72, 547-563.

2019

J.-P. Boudet, 2019. “Jean des Murs, Astrologer”, Erudition and the Republic of Letters, 4, 123-145.
J. Chabás and B. R. Goldstein, 2019. “The Master and the Disciple: The Almanac of John of Lignères and the Ephemerides of John of Saxony”, Journal for the History of Astronomy, 50, 82–96.
J. Chabás and B. R. Goldstein, 2019. “The Medieval Moon in a Matrix: Double Argument Tables for Lunar Motion”, Archive for History of Exact Sciences, 73, 335–359.
J. Chabás, 2019. Computational Astronomy in the Middle Ages: Sets of Astronomical Tables in Latin, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas: Madrid.
L. Fernández Fernández, 2019. “Arab stars in the Castilian sky: Al-Sūfī’s Book of Fixed Stars amongst the manuscripts of Alfonso X”. In The Stars in the Classical and Medieval Traditions. Eds. A. Hadravová, P. Hadrava, K. Lippincott, Prague: Scriptorium, 93-114.
D. Raynaud, S. Gessner, B. Mota, 2019. “Andalò di Negro’s De compositione astrolabii: a critical edition with English translation and notes”, Archive for History of Exact Sciences, 73, 551–617.
S. Gessner, 2019. “The perspective of the instrument maker: The planispheric projection with Gemma Frisius and the Arsenius workshop at Louvain”, in S. Dupré ed., Perspective as practice. Renaissance Cultures of Optics, Turnhout, Brepols Publishers, 103-122, 480.
B. R. Goldstein, 2019. “The Alfonsine Tables in Hebrew”, Aleph, 19, 269-80.
M. Husson, 2019. “Mathematical astronomy and the production of Multiple Texts Manuscripts in late medieval Europe: a comparison of BnF lat. 7197 and BnF lat. 7432”, in F. Bausi, M. Friedrich, M. Maniaci. the emergence of Multiple Texts Manuscript (MTM), De Gruyter, 247-274
M. Husson, 2019. “Coping with the Tiny: Measures, Computations, and Reasoning with Small Amounts in Jean des Murs’s Quadrivial Works”, in Desmond, Husson, Nothaft Jean des Murs and his quadrivial works, special issue of Erudition and the Republic of letters, 4, 146-165
M. Husson and M-M. Saby, 2019. “Le manuscrit Erfurt F. 377 et l’astronomie Alphonsine parisienne”, Micrologus, 27, 205-234
L. Miolo, 2019. “In quest of Jean des Murs’ Library”, Erudition and the Republic of Letters, 4, 13-39.
P. Hadrava, 2019. ‘Medieval Catalogues of Stars’. in The Stars in the Classical and Medieval Traditions. Eds. A. Hadravová, P. Hadrava, K. Lippincott, Prague: Scriptorium, 115–169.

2020

J. Chabás, 2020. “Episodes on the Diffusion of Astronomical Tables in Europe”, in The Islamic Sciences in the Western World, Sismel – Edizioni del Galluzzo, Micrologus, 15–24.
J. Chabás and B. R. Goldstein, 2020. “The Lunar Cycle of 11,325 Days”, in O. Elior, G. Freudenthal, and D. Wirmer (eds.), Gersonides’ Afterlife, (Brill: Leiden-Boston), 343–358.
J. Chabás and B. R. Goldstein, 2020. “New Approaches and Parameters in the Parisian Alfonsine Tables”, Suhayl, 18: 51–68.
S. Gessner, K. Gaulke, M. Korey, 2020. “The Anomalous Sun: Variant Mechanical Realizations of Solar Theory on Planetary Automata of the Renaissance”, Nuncius. Journal for the history of material and visual culture of science, 35(2), 191–234.
L. Miolo, 2020. “La Scientia stellarum entre la France et l’Angleterre”, in France et Angleterre: manuscrits médiévaux entre 700 et 1200, éd. C. Denoël, F. Siri, Bibliologia 57, Turnhout: Brepols, 389-412.
L. Miolo, 2020. “Un manuscrit de Pierre de Limoges († 1306) à la British Library. À propos du codex London, BL, Additional MS 38688”, Scriptorium, 74, 79-111.
J. Samsó, 2020. “Ibn Ishaq and the Alfonsine Tables”, Journal for the History of Astronomy, 50, 360-365.

2021

G. V. Brummelen, 2021. “Before the end of an error: Giovanni Bianchini’s original flawed treatise on the conversion of stellar coordinates”, Archive for History of Exact Sciences, 74, 109-124.
B. R. Goldstein and José Chabás, 2021. “Levi ben Gerson and Augustinus Ricius on the Moon”, Aleph, 21.1: 191–198.
J. Chabás and B. R. Goldstein, 2021. “The Tabulae eclypsium by Giovanni Bianchini”, Aestimatio, ns 2.1: 17–57.
B. R. Goldstein and José Chabás, 2021. “Augustinus Ricius, On the Motion of the Eighth Sphere”, Aleph, 21.2: 359–377.
J. Chabás and B. R. Goldstein, 2021. “The Almanac of Jacob ben Makhir”, in M. Husson, C. Montelle, and B. van Dalen (eds.), Editing and Analysing Numerical Tables: Towards a Digital Information System for the History of Astral Sciences (Brepols: Turnhout), pp. 53–78.
J. Chabás, 2021. “Early astronomical printing in Portugal: a crossroad of traditions”, Suplemento do Boletim da Sociedade Portuguesa da Matemática, 79: 83–88.
R. L. Kremer, 2021. Cracking the Tabulae permanentes of John of Murs and Firmin of Beauval with exploratory data analysis. In Editing and analysing astronomical tables: Towards a digital information system for the history of astral sciences,Eds. M. Husson, C. Montelle and B. v. Dalen. Turnhout, Brepols, 363-422.
L. Miolo, 2021. “A new astronomical text by Jean des Murs”, Cahiers de recherches médiévales et humanistes, 2/42, 329-360.
S. Gessner, 2021. “Trepidation spheres: variant representations of the Eighth Sphere and the debate about the movement of the apogees and the fixed stars in Alfonsine astronomy”, Centaurus. An International Journal of the History of Science and its Cultural Aspects, vol. 63, no. 4, 714-754.
A. Hadravova and P. Hadrava, 2021. ‘The Eclipse Instrument by John Šindel’. In: Studying the Arts in Late Medieval Bohemia: Production, Reception and Transmission of Knowledge. Studia Artistarum: Études sur la faculté des arts dans les universités médiévales 48. Ed. Ota Pavlíček, Turnhout: Brepols, 305–340.
M. Husson, 2021. “The art of Astrological computations: Conrad Heingarter and the Manuscript paris, BnF latin 7295A”, In Exploring written artefacts, Objects, Methods and Concepts, ed. Jörg B. Quenzer, De Gruyter, 513-533.
M. Husson, 2021.“Computing with manuscripts: Time between Mean and True Syzygies in John of Lignères’ Tabule Magne”, In Editing and analysing astronomical tables: Towards a digital information system for the history of astral sciences, Eds. M. Husson, C. Montelle and B. v. Dalen. Turnhout, Brepols, 425-469.
M. Husson, 2021. “Physical signs and minutes of days: mean motion computations in the Parisian Alfonsine Tables”, Micrologus 100.

2022

J. Chabás and B. R. Goldstein, 2022. “The Set of Alfonsine Tables Underlying Giovanni Bianchini’s Planetary Tables”, Aestimatio, ns 3.1, 39–52.
E. Andriani, 2022. « Foreseeing the Future in Unexpected Events : the Case of the Liber introductorius of Michael Scot », in Archives d’histoire doctrinale et littéraire du Moyen Âge 89 (2022), 7-33.

2023

B. R. Goldstein and J. Chabás, 2023. “Joseph Ibn Waqār and the treatment of retrograde motion in the middle ages”, Archive for History of Exact Sciences, 77: 175–199.
B. R. Goldstein and José Chabás, 2023. “Continuity and change: The planetary equation tables of John Vimond and Nicolaus Copernicus”, Physis, 58: 61–83.
J. Chabás, 2023. “Astronomía Alfonsí en Europa”, Asclepio, 75(2): 1–4.
B. R. Goldstein and J. Chabás, 2023. “Tables for the radii of the Sun, the Moon, and the shadow from John of Gmunden to Longomontanus”, Archive for History of Exact Sciences, online , not yet paginated.
L. Miolo and S. Zieme, 2023. “Lewis Caerleon and the Equation of Time: Tabular Astronomical Practices in Late Fifteenth-Century England”, Archive of the History of Exact Sciences, accepted pending revisions.
L. Miolo, 2023. “A bibliophile performing eclipse computations Lewis Caerleon and his notebook”, in Studies in Manuscript Cultures, Berlin: De Gruyter, [in press].
M. Husson and S. Gessner, 2023. “Astronomical Computation as a Performance: Determining Planetary Positions with the Manuscript Erfurt, Anger Museum, 3134”, Studies in Manuscript Cultures, Berlin: De Gruyter, [in press].
G. V. Brummelen, 2023. “Decimal fractional notation and the decimal point in 15th-century Italy”, Historia Mathematica, accepted pending revisions.
M. Husson, 2023. “Les manuscrits d’astronomie mathématique dans la bibliothèque du couvent San Marco à la fin du quinzième siècle : quelle image de l’astronomie alphonsine?” in Joël Chandelier and Aurélien Robert, Savoirs profanes dans les ordres mendiants en Italie (XIIIe-XVe), Ecole Française de Rome, 179-199.