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Alfonsine tables

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Alfonsine Tables

TheAlfonsine Tables(Spanish:Tablas Alfonsíes,Latin:Tabulae Alphonsinae), sometimes spelledAlphonsine Tables,provided data for computing the position of theSun,Moonandplanetsrelative to thefixed stars.

The tables were named afterAlfonso X of Castile,who sponsored their creation. They were compiled inToledo, Spain,and contain astronomical data starting on June 1, 1252, the date of the coronation of the King.

Production

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Frontispiece of the 1545 edition of theTabulae astronomicae

Alfonso X assembled a team of scholars, known as theToledo School of Translators,[dubious–discuss]who among other translating tasks, were asked to produce new tables that updated theTables of Toledo.The new tables were based on earlier astronomical works and observations byIslamic astronomers,adding observations by astronomers Alfonso had gathered in Toledo, among them several Jewish scholars, likeYehuda ben MosheandIsaac ibn Sid.[1]He also brought Aben Raghel y Alquibicio and Aben Musio y Mohamat, fromSeville,Joseph Aben Alí and Jacobo Abenvena, fromCórdoba,and fifty more fromGasconyandParis.[2][failed verification]

The instructions for theAlfonsine tableswere originally written inCastilian Spanish.The first printed edition of theAlfonsine tablesappeared in 1483, and a second edition in 1492.[3]

Georg Purbachused theAlfonsine tablesfor his book,Theoricae novae planetarum(New Theory of the Planets).Nicolaus Copernicusused the second edition in his work. One use of these and similar astronomical tables was to calculateephemerides,which were in turn used byastrologersto casthoroscopes.[4]Canons on the tables included those byJohn of Saxonyand his teacherJohn of Lignères(fl 1320 to 1335).[5]

Methodology

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The methods ofClaudius Ptolemywere used to compute the table, dividing the year into 365 days, 5 hours, 49 minutes, 16 seconds—very close to the currently accepted figure. Copernicus's observation that his system could explain the planetary motions with no more than 34 circles has been taken to imply that a large number of additionalepicycleshad been subsequently introduced into the Ptolemaic system in an attempt to make it conform with observation.[6](There is a famous (but probably apocryphal)[7]quote attributed to Alfonso upon hearing an explanation of the extremely complicated mathematics required to demonstratePtolemy'sgeocentric modelof the solar system: "If the Lord Almighty had consulted me before embarking on creation thus, I should have recommended something simpler." ) However, modern computations[8]using Ptolemy's unmodified theory have replicated the published Alfonsine tables.

Popularity

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TheAlfonsine tableswere the most popular astronomical tables in Europe and updated versions were regularly produced for three hundred years.Nicolaus Copernicus,known as the father of modern astronomy, bought a copy while at theUniversity of Cracow,and cared about it enough to have it professionally bound with pieces of wood and leather.[9]Alexander Bogdanovmaintained that these tables formed the basis for Copernicus's development of aheliocentricunderstanding in astronomy.[10]In 1551, thePrutenic Tables(orPrussian Tables) ofErasmus Reinhold's were published. These tables used the Copernican heliocentric model of the solar system. Copernicus's publication,De revolutionibus,was not easy to use and the Prutenic tables were intended to make the heliocentric model more usable by astrologers and astronomers. However, the Prutenic tables were not widely adopted outside German speaking countries and newephemeridesbased on the Alfonsine tables continued to be published[11]until the publication ofJohannes Kepler'sRudolphine Tablesin 1627.

See also

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References

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  1. ^Noah J. Efron,Judaism and Science: A Historical Introduction(Greenwood Publishing Group, 2007).
  2. ^Jean Meeus & Denis Savoie, "The history of the tropical year", Journal of the British Astronomical Association, 1992, pp.40–42
  3. ^Vegas Gonzalez, Serafín,La Escuela de Traductores de Toledo en la Historia del pensamiento,Toledo, Ayuntamiento de Toledo, 1998
  4. ^Owen Gingerich,Gutenberg's Giftpp. 319-28 inLibrary and information services in astronomy V(Astron. Soc. Pacific Conference Series vol. 377, 2007).
  5. ^Chabás, José; Goldstein, Bernard R. (2019)."The Master and the Disciple: The Almanac of John of Lignères and the Ephemerides of John of Saxony".Journal for the History of Astronomy.50(1): 82–96.doi:10.1177/0021828618820215.ISSN0021-8286.
  6. ^Gingerich, Owen (2005).The Book Nobody Read.London: Arrow. p. 306.ISBN0-09-947644-4.quotes theEncyclopædia Britannica(article unspecified) of 1969 as implying 40-60 epicycles per planet; in the 1974 edition no similar quantified claim can be found
  7. ^Owen Gingerich,"Alfonso X as a Patron of Astronomy," pp. 30-45 inAlfonso X of Castile, the Learned King (1221-1284)(Harvard Studies in Romance Languages 43, 1990).
  8. ^Owen Gingerich:The Book Nobody Read.Walker, 2004, Ch. 4 (ISBN0-8027-1415-3)
  9. ^Rosen, Edward (November 1976). "Alfonsine Tables And Copernicus".Manuscripta.20(3): 163–174.doi:10.1484/J.MSS.3.851.
  10. ^Bogdanov, Alexander (1996).Bogdanov's Tektology: Book!.Hull: Centre for Systems Studies. p. 27.
  11. ^"Starry Messenger: Astronomical Tables".Archived fromthe originalon 2012-04-01.Retrieved2007-07-18.
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