Raymond of Marseilles (fl. 1140) was a French astronomer and astrologer who is known only from his manuscripts on the use of astrolabes and translations of Arab astronomical texts of the period. His manuscript on astrolabes Traite de l'astrolabe or Vite presentis indutias silentio, a copy of which is in Paris served as a source for European astronomers in the Medieval period. The texts, originally of unknown authorship, were noted by Pierre Duhem in 1915 and in the 1920s by Lynn Thorndike and Charles Homer Haskins. The Paris manuscript which is the most complete version was found by Emmanuel Poulle in 1954. Another work was the first volume of Opera omnia which included Liber cursuum planetarum. Raymond's work included translations of the astronomical tables (Toledan Tables) of al-Zarqālī. [1] In 1972 another text, Liber judiciorum, on astrology was discovered by Marie-Thérèse d’Alverny. [2] [3]
Claudius Ptolemy was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importance to later Byzantine, Islamic, and Western European science. The first is the astronomical treatise now known as the Almagest, although it was originally entitled the Mathēmatikē Syntaxis or Mathematical Treatise, and later known as The Greatest Treatise. The second is the Geography, which is a thorough discussion on maps and the geographic knowledge of the Greco-Roman world. The third is the astrological treatise in which he attempted to adapt horoscopic astrology to the Aristotelian natural philosophy of his day. This is sometimes known as the Apotelesmatika but more commonly known as the Tetrábiblos, from the Koine Greek meaning "Four Books", or by its Latin equivalent Quadripartite.
The zodiac is a belt-shaped region of the sky that extends approximately 8° north or south of the ecliptic, the apparent path of the Sun across the celestial sphere over the course of the year. The paths of the Moon and visible planets are within the belt of the zodiac.
An astrolabe is an ancient astronomical instrument that was a handheld model of the universe. Its various functions also make it an elaborate inclinometer and an analogue calculation device capable of working out several kinds of problems in astronomy. In its simplest form it is a metal disc with a pattern of wires, cutouts, and perforations that allows a user to calculate astronomical positions precisely. Historically used by astronomers, it is able to measure the altitude above the horizon of a celestial body, day or night; it can be used to identify stars or planets, to determine local latitude given local time, to survey, or to triangulate. It was used in classical antiquity, the Islamic Golden Age, the European Middle Ages and the Age of Discovery for all these purposes.
Herman of Carinthia, also called Hermanus Dalmata or Sclavus Dalmata, Secundus, by his own words born in the "heart of Istria", was a philosopher, astronomer, astrologer, mathematician and translator of Arabic works into Latin.
Gerard of Cremona was an Italian translator of scientific books from Arabic into Latin. He worked in Toledo, Kingdom of Castile and obtained the Arabic books in the libraries at Toledo. Some of the books had been originally written in Greek and, although well known in Byzantine Constantinople and Greece at the time, were unavailable in Greek or Latin in Western Europe. Gerard of Cremona is the most important translator among the Toledo School of Translators who invigorated Western medieval Europe in the twelfth century by transmitting the Arabs' and ancient Greeks' knowledge in astronomy, medicine and other sciences, by making the knowledge available in Latin. One of Gerard's most famous translations is of Ptolemy's Almagest from Arabic texts found in Toledo.
'Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi (Persian: عبدالرحمن صوفی was a Persian astronomer also known as 'Abd ar-Rahman as-Sufi, 'Abd al-Rahman Abu al-Husayn, 'Abdul Rahman Sufi, or 'Abdurrahman Sufi and, historically, in the West as Azophi and Azophi Arabus. Al-Sufi published his famous Book of Fixed Stars in 964, which included both textual descriptions and pictures. Al-Biruni reports that his work on the ecliptic was carried out in Shiraz. He lived at the Buyid court in Isfahan.
Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Kathīr al-Farghānī, also known as Alfraganus in the West, was an astronomer in the Abbasid court in Baghdad, and one of the most famous astronomers in the 9th century. Al-Farghani composed several works on astronomy and astronomical equipment that were widely distributed in Arabic and Latin and were influential to many scientists. His best known work, Kitāb fī Jawāmiʿ ʿIlm al-Nujūmi, was an extensive summary of Ptolemy's Almagest containing revised experimental data. Christopher Columbus, used Al Farghani’s calculations for his voyages to America. In addition to making substantial contributions to astronomy, al-Farghani also worked as an engineer, supervising construction projects on rivers in Cairo, Egypt. The lunar crater Alfraganus is named after him.
John of Seville was one of the main translators from Arabic into Castilian in partnership with Dominicus Gundissalinus during the early days of the Toledo School of Translators. John of Seville translated a litany of Arabic astrological works, and is also credited with the production of several original works in Latin.
Mā Shā’ Allāh ibn Athari was an eighth-century Persian Jewish astrologer, astronomer, and mathematician. Originally from Khorasan he lived in Basra during the reigns of al-Manṣūr and al-Ma’mūn, and was among those who introduced astrology and astronomy to Baghdad in the late 8th and early 9th century. The bibliographer ibn al-Nadim in his Fihrist, described him "as virtuous and in his time a leader in the science of jurisprudence, i.e. the science of judgments of the stars". He served as a court astrologer for the Abbasid Caliphate and wrote numerous works on astrology in Arabic. Some Latin translations survive.
Plato Tiburtinus was a 12th-century Italian mathematician, astronomer and translator who lived in Barcelona from 1116 to 1138. He is best known for translating Hebrew and Arabic documents into Latin, and was apparently the first to translate information on the astrolabe from Arabic.
Abraham Zacuto was a Spanish astronomer, astrologer, mathematician, rabbi and historian who served as Royal Astronomer to King John II of Portugal.
Islamic astronomy comprises the astronomical developments made in the Islamic world, particularly during the Islamic Golden Age, and mostly written in the Arabic language. These developments mostly took place in the Middle East, Central Asia, Al-Andalus, and North Africa, and later in the Far East and India. It closely parallels the genesis of other Islamic sciences in its assimilation of foreign material and the amalgamation of the disparate elements of that material to create a science with Islamic characteristics. These included Greek, Sassanid, and Indian works in particular, which were translated and built upon.
The Toledo School of Translators is the group of scholars who worked together in the city of Toledo during the 12th and 13th centuries, to translate many of the Judeo-Islamic philosophies and scientific works from Classical Arabic.
An equatorium is an astronomical calculating instrument. It can be used for finding the positions of the Moon, Sun, and planets without arithmetic operations, using a geometrical model to represent the position of a given celestial body.
Jacob ben David ben Yom Tov, also known as ha-Poel, was a Catalan Jewish astronomer and astrologer. He lived, probably at Perpignan, in southern France in the fourteenth century.
John of Saxony or Johannes de Saxonia or John Danko or Dancowe of Saxony was a medieval astronomer. Although his exact birthplace is unknown it is believed he was born in Germany, most likely Magdeburg. His scholarly work is believed to date from the end of the 13th century into the mid 14th century. He spent most of his active career, from about 1327 to 1355, at the University of Paris.
Roger of Hereford ; a medieval astronomer, astrologer, alchemist and mathematician active in Hereford circa. 1178 - 1198.
David ben Yom Tov, also David Bonjorn del Barri, was a Catalan Jewish astronomer and astrologer who lived in the first half of the fourteenth century. He is reported to have been born at Cotlliure in Catalonia in around 1300, and to have died in Barcelona, probably before 1361.
The Equatorie of the Planetis is a 14th-century scientific work which describes the construction and use of an equatorium. It was first studied in the early 1950s by Derek J. Price, and was formerly attributed to Geoffrey Chaucer. However, in 2014 it was shown to be written in the hand of the St Albans monk John Westwyk. It is largely written in Middle English, with some additions in Latin. It is accompanied by extensive astronomical tables, with Latin headings and annotations.
Solomon Davin of Rodez was a Jewish astronomer who lived in the second half of the fourteenth century. He was a disciple of Immanuel Bonfils in Orange.