Abū Ma‘shar’s Eight Treatises Regarding the Great Conjunctions, the Annual Revolutions, and Their Origins

Content

Ja‘far ibn Muḥammad al-Balkhī (787–886), known as Abū Ma‘shar (and as Albumasar in the Latin West), was one of the most-renowned astronomers of the Middle Ages. His fame in Europe rested upon numerous Latin translations of his astronomical works from the original Arabic. He was born in the Persian city of Balkh (present-day Afghanistan), on 20th of Ṣafar, 171 AH (August 10, 787). He most likely received his early education in Balkh prior to moving to Baghdad, as his works are often colored by a distinct Persian nationalism. According to Ibn al-Nadīm, the tenth-century scholar and bibliographer, Abū Ma‘shar abandoned the study of hadith to focus instead on astronomy and astrology when he was 47 years old. Ibn al-Nadīm lists more than 30 astronomical titles by Abū Ma‘shar. Shown here is Kitāb aḥkām taḥāwil sinī al-mawālīd (Book of the annual revolutions of nativities), translated by Johannes Hispalensis (John of Seville, flourished mid-12th century) under the title De magnis coniunctionibus et annorum revolutionibus ac eorum profectionibus octo continens tractatus, and first printed at Augsburg in 1489. The first five books were also translated into Latin in the 13th century from an earlier Greek translation and published in Basel in 1559. Presented here is a Venice edition of 1515, printed in the shop of Melchiorre Sessa the elder (active 1506–49), identifiable by his printer’s mark: the initials “MS” beside a crown above the image of a cat that has just caught a mouse.

Extent and format

99 items

Physical characteristics

188 pages : illustrations ; 21 centimeters

Written in

Latin in Latin script

Type

Book

Access & Reference

Original held at

Qatar National Library

Access conditions

Unrestricted

Archive reference

10681

History of this record

Date(s)

1515 (CE, Gregorian)

Subjects

PlanetConstellationArab AstronomyMedieval AstronomyAstrology

Places

IraqVeniceAfghanistan

People & organisations

Hispalensis JoannesMelchiorre SessaAbū Ma‘shar

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Abū Ma‘shar’s Eight Treatises Regarding the Great Conjunctions, the Annual Revolutions, and Their Origins, Qatar National Library, 10681, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/qnlhc/10681> [accessed 23 April 2024]

Link to this record

https://www.qdl.qa/en/archive/qnlhc/10681

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