Pseudo-Masha’allah, On the Astrolabe: A Critical Edition of the Latin Text with English Translation

Abstract

The astrolabe was the most important scientific instrument in the Middle Ages, and the treatise ascribed to Masha’allah (but not actually by him) is the most important text on the subject. It was much copied and survives in all or in part in almost 200 manuscripts. Generally there are more than 100 copies of each part of the treatise.

The 1929 edition published by R. T. Gunther was based on only three or four local manuscripts, and as such is defective in many places. Missing phrases, or mis-copied or mis-read phrases at times make that text unintelligible.

This edition is based on the collation of almost all the extant manuscripts (and eventually, it is hoped, all manuscript copies). What is now being published here is the text of the Prologue and of the twenty-two chapters of the Compositio text, an edition of the Lists of Stars normally found with the text, and the Prologue and first thirty-five chapters of the Practica text. (Chapters 36-47 of the Practica are in preparation.)

The edition is available in six PDF files:

Part I: Introduction containing the preface and introductory material, including manuscript information;

Part II: Critical Edition of the Compositio text – the Latin text and diagrams, the critical apparatus and a facing English translation;

Part III: Lists of Stars, edited and translated, with an appendix containing information about all the stars mentioned in the text and tables;

Part IV: A critical edition and translation of the Practica text, or how to use an astrolabe;

Part V: Latin Text containing the Latin text and diagrams, without the apparatus criticus, but maintaining the line numbers of the critical edition;

Part VI: English Text containing the English text and diagrams, for those who are interested in consulting only the translation.

Over time these texts will be updated and expanded, when the remaining manuscript copies are collated, and when the editing of further sections have been completed. However, it is not expected that the present Latin version will change – the rest of the manuscripts will expand the apparatus criticus but are unlikely to modify the text itself.

The editor is interested in the receiving comments on the text, and further insights into its interpretation, from others. He is willing to incorporate such additions into later versions for the benefit of others who would consult this edition in the future. Comments can be sent to thomson@chass.utoronto.ca

Permission is given for scholars to print out (and bind) any or all of these texts for non-commercial uses: research, study, criticism and citation. Commercial reproduction of all or part of the texts is not permitted without the prior consent of the copyright owner.

This work has been revised. The most recent version is available at: https://hdl.handle.net/11244/14221.3