- 46
Astronomical, Calendrical, and other works, in Latin [Germany, c.1500, and early 16th century]
Description
- ink on vellum
Catalogue Note
Ampleforth Abbey, formerly MS 11, with their purple ink-stamp and shelfmark label ‘M/14/S.S.’; described by Stevenson, Historical Manuscripts Commission, 2nd Report, p.109 no.2, and Ker, Medieval Manuscripts in British Libraries, II, 1977, pp.24-25.
TEXT
John of Lignères, table of sines (p.1) and 44 canons (p.3); Paulus Germanus de Middelburgo, ‘Compendium correctionis calendarii pro recta pasche celebracione’; 14 propositions for calendar reform (p.32); a letter of Pope Leo X to the Emperor Maximilian concerning the correction of the calendar, dated 21 July 1514 (p.40); Capitula published in 1513 by Leo X on the defense of the faith, ecclesiastical liberty, and reform of the church, by two scribes (p.44).
John of Lignères (d. c.1350) published astronomical and mathematical works in Paris in the 1320s and is credited with diffusion of the Alfonsine tables in the Latin West. ‘The canons of the primum mobile, in forty-four chapters, correspond to the trigonometric part of the tables and consider the problems linked to the daily movement of the sun. Three of the canons describe the instruments used in astronomical observation: Ptolemaic parallactic rulers and a quadrant firmly fixed in the plane of the meridian’ (Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography).