Beschreibung:

A collection of 8 texts bound in one volume.
N.p.: mid-16th century. 4to (202 x 148 mm). 200 leaves; old foliation in ink in Hebrew letters. Written by several different hands in various Ashkenazi semi-cursive scripts; brown ink. 25 full-page illustrations, 52 pp. of tables, numerous small diagrams in text. Modern brown half morocco over cloth. Condition: corners restored, not affecting text; the 12 leaves of the 2nd tractate torn vertically through text and expertly restored without obscuration of text, leaf 75 defective, 2 leaves of tables from 5th tractate inlaid. Provenance: Samuel David Luzzatto and Solomon Halberstam (shelf mark 134); Montefiore College collection (MS 423, library label). The 8 texts are as follows: I) fol 1 - 66v. Abraham Bar Hiyya. Zurat ha-Arez [" Form of the Earth and Figure of the Celestial Spheres" ]. 1st 9 leaves missing according to Hebrew foliation. Fol 66 is a blank. Composed in the 12th century, this is one of the earliest scientific texts written in Hebrew, and almost certainly the 1st exposition of the Ptolemaic system in Hebrew. Zurat ha-Arez is in large part a "geography", and it long remained the chief source of geographic knowledge among Jews. II) fol 67r - 78v. Judah ha-Nasi. Abridgement of Bar Hiyya's Zurat Ha-Arez . A little known text by a little known figure. The text composed no later than the 15th century. Apparently unpublished. III-V) fol 79r-100r; fol 100v-101v; fol 102r-130v. Anonymous Commentaries on Immanuel ben Jacob Bonfils' Shesh Kanafayim ["6 Wings" - a set of tables delineating planetary positionings, eclipses, conjunctions, appositions, etc. -- the popular masterwork of the famous 14th-century French-Jewish mathematician and astronomer, Bonfils]. All apparently unpublished. VI) fol 131r-144v. Ahmad ibn Saffar. On the Astrolabe. Translated in the 13th century from the Arabic by Jacob ben Makhir, a French Jew. VII) fol 145r-193v. George Purbach. Iyyun ha-Kokhavim ha-Meshartim [ Theorica planetarum ]. Fol 170r-193v are illustrations accompanying the treatise. Puerbach's text is known to have been translated by one Efraim Mizrahi for Solomon Cavaliero, but nothing further is known about either figure. Some of the images on 185r-193v are Hebrew versions of tables and notes from Erasmus Rheinhold's work on Purbach ( Theoricae novae planetarum Georgii Pubacchii Germani ), first published in 1542 (2nd ed. 1551). Figures similar to those on 179v-183v are to be found in a Bodleian MS. Purbach's text is especially notable for having been the first astronomy book printed (1472). Another extant Hebrew copy of this Puerbach text is dated 1571. VIII) fol 196r-200v. Abraham ibn Ezra. Kali ha-Nehoshet. On astronomical instruments similar to astroblabe. This text represents a portion of the work only. a rare collection of jewish scientific texts illustrating the continued jewish concern with the science of astronomy during the later renaissance, and including mention of elliptical orbits of the moon and mercury prior to kepler. The Jews acted as the conduit for Astronomy's introduction to Europe in the 12th Century, and were highly active in its dissemination over the next 300 years. Jewish involvement in Astronomy is, however, less visible and less well-chronicled during the later stages of the Renaissance. The inclusion of text VII in this collection is especially intriguing because of its pre-Keplerian mention and illustration of the "elliptical" orbits of the Moon and Mercury (here referenced as a beytza: "an egg"). This manuscript is written in several distinct hands the collection assembled to an individuals taste. It contains many marginal notes in different hands. The early provenance of the manuscript is unknown (though the presence of text VII in this collection suggests a possible connection to the circle of "Solomon Cavalieri," an unidentified figure associated with another extant Hebrew copy of this particular text). Hebrew scientific manuscripts are rare, and extant copies of any particular text are relatively small