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[Liber de astronomia].

Kislak Center for Special Collections - Manuscripts Oversize Ms. Codex 826
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Format:
Book
Manuscript
Author/Creator:
Geber, active 13th century
Contributor:
Cánovas del Castillo, Antonio, 1828-1897, former owner.
Gherardo, da Cremona, 1113 or 1114-1187, translator.
Voynich, Wilfred Michael, 1865-1930, former owner.
Language:
Arabic
Latin
Subjects (All):
Astronomy--Early works to 1800.
Astronomy.
Trigonometry--Early works to 1800.
Trigonometry.
Genre:
codices (bound manuscripts)
diagrams
Manuscripts, Latin -- 13th century.
Manuscripts, Medieval.
Penn Provenance:
Formerly owned by Don A. Canovas del Castillo (bookplate, inside upper cover).
Formerly owned by Wilfred M. Voynich, 1920 (Thomas R. Adams).
Purchased, 1949.
Physical Description:
64 leaves : parchment, illustrations ; 261 x 198 (193 x 128) mm bound to 270 x 203 mm
Other Title:
Geber de astronomias et motibus stellarum.
Geber de astronomia et stellis.
Place of Publication:
[Paris?, France or Oxford? England], [between 1225 and 1275?]
Language Note:
Latin.
Summary:
7 of the usual 9 books of this astronomical work (Zacour-Hirsch Catalogue) translated by Gherardo da Cremona, with glosses and diagrams.
Notes:
Ms. codex.
Title from title page (front flyleaf recto).
Foliation: Parchment, ii + 64 + i; [1-64]; modern foliation in pencil, upper right recto.
Layout: Written in 50 long lines; frame-ruled in lead.
Script: Written in a Gothic script by several hands.
Decoration: Decorated initial in red and blue (f. 1r); decorative ascenders and descenders added by a later hand beginning at the end of Book 5 (f. 31v), some with red ink (f. 33v-34r); trigonometric and spherical trigonometric diagrams throughout, most commonly in the margins; occasionally the text is shaped to accommodate a larger diagram (for example, f. 23v); replacement strips for diagrams (f. 3-4).
Binding: 17th-century vellum (Zacour-Hirsch).
Origin: Probably written in Paris, France, or Oxford, England, in the mid-13th century (Georges/Juste).
Incipit: Scientia species habet quarum melior post scientiam fidei.
Explicit: ... i[n] duo media s[ed] q[uod] e[st] i[n] figura prima.
Contemporary and near-contemporary marginal notes throughout.
Illegible note with the date 1440 (f. 63v).
Cited in:
Described in Zacour, Norman P. and Hirsch, Rudolf. Catalogue of Manuscripts in the Libraries of the University of Pennsylvania to 1800 (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1965), p. 2 (Ms. Latin 3).
L. Thorndike and Pearl Kibre, A catalog of incipits (Cambridge, 1963), col. 1403
Publications about:
Juste, David. ‘MS Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania – Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, Ms. Codex 826 (olim Lat. 3)’ (update: 20.10.2021). Ptolemaeus Arabus et Latinus. Manuscripts (http://ptolemaeus.badw.de/ms/462).
Cited as:
Geber, Liber de astronomia (Ms. Codex 826). Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania.
OCLC:
155922207

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