Editing and Analysing Numerical Tables. Towards a Digital Information System for the History of Astral Sciences

Hardback, ix + 615 pages, Size:178 x 254 mm, Illustrations:58 b/w, 16 col., Language: English. ISBN 9782503596068. Summary Astronomical tables are a significant yet understudied part of the scientific historical corpus. They circulated among many cultures, and were adopted and transformed by astronomical practitioners for a variety of purposes. The numerical data conveyed in these tables provides rich evidence for pre-modern scientific practices. In the last fifty years, new approaches to the analysis and critical editing of astronomical tables have flourished due to advances in computing power and associated modern mathematical tools. In more recent times, the rapid growth of digital humanities and modern data analysis promises exciting further developments in this area. The present collection of studies on astronomical tables captures this momentum. It is a result of long-term collaborative work on building a database of astronomical tables and other objects found in manuscripts, released under the name DISHAS (Digital Information System for the History of Astral Sciences). The fourteen contributions in this volume provide a broad coverage of astronomical traditions throughout Eurasia and North Africa, which, with very few exceptions, find their roots in the mathematical astronomy of Ptolemy. The contributions include critical editions of previously unexamined astronomical tables along with insightful mathematical analyses, as well as reflective methodological surveys that open up new perspectives for research on these fundamental sources for the history of mathematics and astronomy. TABLE OF CONTENTS Matthieu Husson, Clememcy Montelle and Benno van Dalen Introduction Part 1 : Classical Approaches to Table Cracking Glen Van Brummelen , Matthieu Husson, and Clemency Montelle Tools of the Table Crackers: Using Quantitative Methods to Analyze Historical Numerical Tables José Chabás and Bernard R. Goldstein The Almanac of Jacob ben Makhir Sebastian Falk Copying and Computing Tables in Late Medieval Monasteries Kailyn Pritchard Determining the Sine Tables Underlying Early European Tangent Tables Part 2 : Editing and Analysing Astronomical Tables Clemency Montelle Editing Sanskrit Astronomical Tables: The Candr?rk? of Dinakara (1578 CE) Anuj Misra Recomputing Sanskrit Astronomical Tables: The Am?talahar? of Nity?nanda (c. 1649/50 CE) Part 3: Computational Practices and Table Cracking Li Liang Tables of Sunrise and Sunset in Yuan and Ming China (1271-1644) and their Adoption in Korea Glen Van Brummelen The Tables of Planetary Latitudes in Jamsh?d al-K?sh?'s Kh?q?n? Z?j Sho Hirose Equation Tables in the D?gga?ita of Parame?vara Richard Kremer Cracking the Tabulae permanentes of John of Murs and Firmin of Beauval with Exploratory Data Analysis Part 4: Pushing Approaches to Table Analysis Further Matthieu Husson Computing with Manuscripts: Time between Mean and True Syzygies in John of Lignères' Tabule magne Johannes Thomann Reverse Engineering Applied to Ephemerides: Analysis and Edition of the Arabic Ephemeris of 1326/27 CE (MS Cairo, D?r al-Kutub, m?q?t 817) Benno van Dalen The Geographical Table in the Sh?mil Z?j: Tackling a 13th-Century Arabic Source with the Aid of a Computer Database 0 g.