Alfonsine Astronomy

This volume offers a fundamental re-evaluation of Alfonsine astronomy, moving beyond traditional narratives focused on origins to reveal a tradition far more dynamic and complex than previously understood. The contributions explore the Alfonsine corpus not as a fixed set of texts, but as a living enterprise deeply embedded in the material and computational practices of its users.

These studies examine how astronomers and scribes created customized manuscript ‘toolboxes’ from the Parisian Alfonsine Tables, how core texts were reshaped by the transition to print, and how the entire tradition was localized for new audiences in contexts as diverse as Byzantine scriptoria, the courts of France, and the humanist circles of Bohemia. Uncovering the constant negotiations between theory and practice, the chapters analyze everything from the management of error by Parisian masters and the creation of novel instruments in German universities to the development of new mathematical tools driven by the demands of astrology. This collection provides a rich, practice-oriented account of how astronomical knowledge was produced, circulated, and transformed across late medieval and early modern Europe. A concluding (digital) census of sources provides an invaluable resource for future inquiry, laying the groundwork for researchers to expand upon the new perspectives presented in this volume.

Introduction
Matthieu Husson & Richard L. Kremer

Part 1: The Structure of Alfonsine Legacy

The Parisian Alfonsine Tables in Manuscript, 1351-1525
Richard L. Kremer

John of Saxony’s Canons to the Parisian Alfonsine Tables and Eclipse Computation in Early Alfonsine Astronomy
José Chabás

Late Mediaeval Star Lists and the Computation of Precession: The case of Heinrich Selder and the Alfonsine Tradition
José Chabás & Bernard R. Goldstein

Dissemination of Treatises on the Astrolabe by Cristannus of Prachatice
Alena Hadravová & Petr Hadrava

Printing the “Tables of King Alfonso”
Clément Cartier

Part 2: Localized Alfonsine Astronomies

The Influence of Theon’s Short Commentary and of the Handy Tables on a Byzantine Adaptation of the Parisian Alfonsine Tables
Anne-Laurence Caudano

Defining Alfonsine Astronomy as an Actor’s Category at the Court of John II of Bourbon
Eleonora Andriani & Nick Jacobson

Alfonsine Astronomy in the Works of Four Czech Scholars and Humanists
Alena Hadravová

Part 3: Alfonsine Astronomy in Theory and Practice

History, Errors, and Corrections: Change According to Mediaeval Parisian Astronomers (1290–1335)
Sophie Serra

Theorice novelle Instruments: A Mid-15th-Century Appropriation of Alfonsine Astronomy at the Universities of Erfurt and Leipzig
Samuel Gessner

Bianchini’s Introduction of Planetary Latitudes to Mathematical Astrology
Glen Van Brummelen

Reading and Copying Annual Prognostications in the 15th Century
Alexandre Tur

Part 4: The Historiography of ‘Alfonsine Astronomy’ Over the longue durée

‘Alfonsine Astronomy’ Historiography (Late 15th to Early 20th Century)
Matthieu Husson & Jean-Claude Pénin

Appendix

Alfonsine Astronomy: A Digital Census
Ségolène Albouy, José Chabás, Alena Hadravová, Matthieu Husson, Richard L. Kremer, Marie-Madeleine Saby, and Galla Topalian