Lost in Translation
Stefan Zieme Publishes New Findings on the History of Astronomy
Chapter 13 »On the arcs between the equator and the ecliptic« from the first book of the Almagest from Gerard of Cremona’s Latin translation from Arabic (A-family). The chapter includes the table of solar declinations newly recalculated for Gerard’s translation. The parchment manuscript shown here (Paris, BnF, lat 16200, fol. 13v-14r) is an early witness, copied in December 1213. Copyright: gallica.bnf.fr / Bibliothèque nationale de France
In its latest February issue, the Journal for the History of Astronomy has published the article »Gerard of Cremona’s Latin translation of the »Almagest« and the revision of tables« by Cluster member Stefan Zieme. In his article, Stefan shows that upon translating Ptolemy‘s »Almagest« from Arabic into Latin in the second half of the twelfth century, Gerard of Cremona intervened into the mathematical structure of the »Almagest« and adjusted the tables of mathematical astronomy according to the textual elements. Gerard possibly acted in a deliberate attempt to correct the ancient classic of astronomy, known not to be congruent between text and tables in Arabic and Greek. To show the intervening nature of Gerard’s translation, Stefan has focused on the mathematical practice and its analog code that derives from, what Stefan calls, hierarchical sexagesimal arithmetic. The article offers a novel approach to the history of astronomy by focusing on analog practices instead of their modern mathematical representations.
Link to open access journal article: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00218286221140848
Stefan Zieme presents his latest findings at a workshop in Munich on February 22nd, 2023.