PAL

Ptolemaeus Arabus et Latinus

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London, British Library, Or. 4104

[Colour scanned images of the textblock and covers.]
Collection of six main works: Hebrew and Judaeo-Arabic, with some marginalia in Arabic.  Date:

9th/15th c. (British Library Archives and Manuscripts).

Or.:

Yemen (British Library Archives and Manuscripts); unknown scribe.

Prov.:

acquired by the British Museum in 1890 from Mrs. Mavrocordato (IIav). Library stamps of the British Museum (1v, 178v). Neubauer (p. 619 n. 1) suggests that the first part of the manuscript had been detached by the vendor.

Cod.: paper, II+178+IIIa ff. (foliated with Arabic-European numerals in pencil above the body text on rectos; irregular quire numbers; no catchwords). One main hand in black with a clear ‘Yemenite square and semi-cursive script’ (British Library Archives and Manuscripts), occasionally vocalised. Titles of works and chapters in larger letters with outlines only; first folio nicely decorated with frame and floral motives in red and black. Diagrams in red with black labels; tables with red lines and headings. Possible later additions by cursive hands, some of them sketchier than others, in black or brown (67v–68r, 120v–124r). Codex in good condition except for the beginning and end; moisture stains (ff. 11–163) and restored margins (ff. 1–12 and 150–178), occasionally affecting the reading. Dimensions: 275×200 mm, written area: 205×145 mm; 24 lines per page. Modern black leather binding by the British Museum.

Cont.: chronology, mathematics, geometry, astronomy. — Index: Joseph ben Japhet ha-Levi, Ner Yisraʾel (1r–15r, Judaeo-Arabic); a partial Hebrew translation of the previous treatise, with additional tables (15v–28r); anonymous, Kitāb al-Misāḥa (28v–67r); sketchy notes, including birth notes (dated 1479–1485) and an astronomical poem (67r–68r); Muḥammad b. Abī Bakr al‐Fārisī, al-Zīj al-Muẓaffarī (68v–118r, almost complete set of tables); several notes in Judaeo-Arabic and Arabic, partially by different hands, some attributed to Hermes, Balīnūs and Aristotle, filling empty spaces on the title pages for the five planetary equations in the previous work (84r, 86r, 89r, 93r, 96r); anonymous, Mā l-dalīl ʿalā anna li-l-shams ḥaraka dhātiyya (118v–120v, fragment, with attribution ‘qāla Aflāṭūn’ on f. 119v); fragmentary notes (120v–124r); al-Fārisī, Kitāb Maʿārij al-fikr al-wahīj fī ḥall mushkilāt al-zīj (124v–171r); Ptolemaica (171v–176r); Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. Ibrahīm al-Ashʿarī, treatise on geometry (176v–178v, incomplete). Blank: none.

Bibl.: Adolf Neubauer, ‘The Literature of the Jews in Yemen’, The Jewish Quarterly Review 3 (1891), pp. 604–622, here pp. 619–621; George Margoliouth and Jacob Leveen, Catalogue of the Hebrew and Samaritan Manuscripts in the British Museum, vol. IV, London: The British Museum, 1935, p. 154; Bernard R. Goldstein, ‘The Survival of Arabic Astronomy in Hebrew’, Journal for the History of Arabic Science 3 (1979), pp. 31–39, here pp. 31–32 n. 2, item (c); Régis Morelon, Thābit ibn Qurra. Œuvres d’astronomie, Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1987, pp. xxxixxl. British Library Archive and Manuscripts: http://searcharchives.bl.uk/permalink/f/79qrt5/IAMS032-003312274 (with scans).

171v–⁠176r

\171v\ הד֗א כתאב תסהיל אלמגסטי קאל ת֗אבת בן קרה מעדל אלנהאר הי אלדאירה אלעצׄמא אלתי תכ֗ט עלי קטבי אלסמא אלד֗ין עליהמא תתחרך מן אלמשרק אלי אלמג֗רב אלבלדאן פהו דאירה֗ נצף נהאר ד֗לך אלבלד והד֗ה אלדאירה הי אפאק מן כאן תחת מעדל אלנהאר — \176r\ ואוגאת אפלאכהא אלכׄארגה אלמראכז תסיר מת֗ל סיר אלכואכב אלת֗אבתה. וכד֗אלך איד֗א אלחאל פי אוג עטארד וד֗אלך עלי קול בטלמיוס ומד֗הבה פי כתאב אלמגסטי. תם כתאב תסהיל אלמגסטי לת֗אבת אבן קרה אלחראני.

\171v\ هذا کتاب تسهیل المجسطي قال ثابت بن قرّة معدّل النهار هي الدائرة العظمی التي تخطّ علی قطبي السماء الذین علیهما تتحرّك من المشرق إلی المغرب — \176r\ وأوجات أفلاکها الخارجة المراکز تسیر مثل سیر الکواکب الثابتة. وكذلك أیضاً الحال في أوج عطارد وذلك علی قول بطلمیوس ومذهبه في کتاب المجسطي. تمّ کتاب تسهیل المجسطي لثابت ابن قرّة الحرّانيّ.

= Thābit b. Qurra, Tashīl al-Majisṭī (C.1.3)

, Judaeo-Arabic. — Title: Kitāb Tashīl al-Majisṭī (171v). — Undated scribal colophon (176r). Major glosses in Arabic in a mixture of Hebrew and Arabic characters; one of the glosses, which is incorporated in the main text (175r–v), is a quote from the Planetary Hypotheses. Five added figures that are not part of the original treatise (Morelon).