Studies in the history of the exact sciences in honour of David Pingree / / edited by Charles Burnett ... [et al.].

• TeilnehmendeR: Burnett, Charles; Pingree, David, 1933-2005.
• Year of Publication: 2004
• Language: English
• Series: Islamic philosophy, theology, and science, v. 54; Islamic Philosophy, Theology and Science. Texts and Studies
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (xiii, 890 p. ); ill.
• Notes: Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

This collection of essays reflects the wide range of David Pingree's expertise in the scientific texts (above all, concerning astronomy and astrology) of Ancient Mesopotamia, Greece, India, Persia, and the medieval Arabic, Hebrew and Latin traditions. Both theoretical aspects and the practical applications of the exact sciences-in time keeping, prediction of the future, and the operation of magic-are dealt with. The book includes several critical editions and translations of hitherto unknown or understudied texts, and a particular emphasis is on the diffusion of scientific learning from one culture to another, and through time. Above all, the essays show the variety and sophistication of the exact sciences in non-Western societies in pre-modern times.

Table of Contents

Constellation into Planet / Erica Reiner -- Stars, Cities, and Predictions / Hermann Hunger -- An Early Observation Text for Mars: HSM 1899.2.112 (= HSM 1490) / John P. Britton -- A Babylonian Rising Times Scheme in Non-Tabular Astronomical Texts / Francesca Rochberg -- Babylonian Mathemagics: Two Mathematical Astronomical-Astrological Texts / Lis Brack-Bernsen, John M. Steele -- An 'Almagest' Before Ptolemy's? / Alexander Jones / Ptolemy's Harmonics and the 'Tones of the Universe' in the Canobic Inscription / N.M. Swerdlow Neither Observation nor Astronomical Tables: An Alternative Way of Computing the Planetary Longitudes in the Early Western Middle Ages / David Juste -- Les Tables Faciles de Ptolemee: une edition critique / Anne Tihon -- Arabic and Latin Astrology Compared in the Twelfth Century: Firmicus, Adelard of Bath and 'Doctor Elmirethi' ('Aristoteles Milesius') / Charles Burnett -- On the Dimension of the Astral Bodies in Zoroastrian Literature: Between Tradition and Scientific Astronomy / Antonio Panaino -- Jambudvipa: Apples or Plums? / Dominik Wujastyk -- Setting Up the Water Clock for Telling the Time of Marriage / Sreeramula Rajeswara Sarma -- Planet Worship in Ancient India / Michio Yano -- Competing Cosmologies in Early Modern Indian Astronomy / Christopher Z. Minkowski -- Two Benares Manuscripts of Narayana Pandita's Bijaganitavatamsa / Takao Hayashi -- Indian Rules for the Decomposition of Fractions / Takanori Kusuba -- Area of a Bow-Figure in India / R.C. Gupta -- A Survey of Rules for Computing the True Daily Motion of the Planets in India / Setsuro Ikeyama -- The Problem of the Sun's Corner Altitude and Convergence of Fixed-Point Iterations in Medieval Indian Astronomy / Kim Plofker --Sanskrit Scientific Texts in Indo-Persian Sources, with Special Emphasis on Siddhantas and Karanas / S.M. Razaullah Ansari --The Fragments of Abu Sahl al-Kuhi's Lost Geometrical Works in the Writings of al-Sijzi / J.L. Berggren, Jan P. Hogendijk.

A Hellenistic Astrological Table Deemed Worthy of Being Penned in Gold Ink: the Arabic Tradition of Vettius Valens' Auxiliary Function for Finding the Length of Life / David A. King -- Magic Squares for Daily Life / Jacques Sesiano -- A Prognostication Based on the Conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in 1166 (561 A.H.) / Bernard R. Goldstein -- Astrology and Prophecy: The Ikhwan al-Safa and the Legend of the Seven Sleepers / Godefroid de Callatay -- Ibn al-Haytham and Eudoxus: The Revival of Homocentric Modeling in Islam / F. Jamil Ragep -- Reform of Ptolematic Astronomy at the Court of Ulugh Beg / George Saliba -- The Zij-i Nasiri by Mahmud ibn Umar: the Earliest Indian Zij and Its Relation to the Ala i Zij / Benno van Dalen -- Current Bibliography of David Pingree / Index of names of ancient and medieval authors.