Arch. Hist. Exact Sci.
DOI 10.1007/s00407-012-0106-9
Displaced tables in Latin: the Tables for the Seven
Planets for 1340
José Chabás · Bernard R. Goldstein
Received: 5 June 2012
© Springer-Verlag 2012
Abstract The anonymous set of astronomical tables preserved in Paris, Bibliothèque
nationale de France, MS lat. 10262, is the first set of displaced tables to be found in
a medieval Latin text. These tables are a reworking of the standard Alfonsine tables
and yield the same results. However, the mean motions are defined differently, the
presentation of the tables is unprecedented, and some new functions are introduced
for computing true planetary longitudes. The absence of any instructions as well as
unusual technical terms in the headings make it difficult to appreciate the cleverness
that went into the construction of these tables that are extant in a unique copy. In this
article we provide a detailed analysis of these tables and their underlying parameters.
The displaced tables are typical of a pervasive tendency
in Islamic science to provide extensive and elegant
numerical tables for the convenience of practitioners.
The underlying astronomical theory is neither
questioned nor affected.
1
Edward S. Kennedy
Communicated by George Saliba.
J. Chabás (B )
Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain
e-mail: jose.chabas@upf.edu
B. R. Goldstein (B )
Arts and Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA
e-mail: brg@pitt.edu
1
Kennedy (1977, p. 16).
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