History of Ancient Mathematical Astronomy (Studies in the History of Mathematics and Physical Sciences)(3 Volumes Set)

Science & Math

Neugebauer, O.

Astronomy & Space Science

Springer

From the reviews:   "This monumental work will henceforth be the standard interpretation of ancient mathematical astronomy. It is easy to point out its many virtues: comprehensiveness and common sense are two of the most important. Neugebauer has studied profoundly every relevant text in Akkadian, Egyptian, Greek, and Latin, no matter how fragmentary; [...] With the combination of mathematical rigor and a sober sense of the true nature of the evidence, he has penetrated the astronomical and the historical significance of his material. [...] His work has been and will remain the most admired model for those working with mathematical and astronomical texts.  D. Pingree in Bibliotheca Orientalis, 1977  "... a work that is a landmark, not only for the history of science, but for the history of scholarship. HAMA [History of Ancient Mathematical Astronomy] places the history of ancient Astronomy on a entirely new foundation. We shall not soon see its equal.  N.M. Swerdlow in Historia Mathematica, 1979

History of Ancient Mathematical Astronomy: Part 1

The collection of papers assembled here on a variety of topics in ancient and medieval astronomy was originally suggested by Noel Swerdlow of the University of Chicago. He was also instrumental in making a selection* which would, in general, be on the same level as my book The Exact Sciences in Antiquity. It may also provide a general background for my more technical History of Ancient Mathematical Astronomy and for my edition of Astronomi cal Cuneiform Texts. Several of these republished articles were written because I wanted to put to rest well-entrenched historical myths which could not withstand close scrutiny of the sources. Examples are the supposed astronomical origin of the Egyptian calendar (see [9]), the discovery of precession by the Babylonians [16], and the "simplification" of the Ptolemaic system in Copernicus' De Revolutionibus [40]. In all of my work I have striven to present as accurately as I could what the original sources reveal (which is often very different from the received view). Thus, in [32] discussion of the technical terminology illuminates the meaning of an ancient passage which has been frequently misused to support modern theories about ancient heliocentrism; in [33] an almost isolated instance reveals how Greek world-maps really looked; and in [43] the Alexandrian Easter computus, held in awe by many historians, is shown from Ethiopic sources to be based on very simple procedures.

Astronomy and History Selected Essays

Based on a series of lectures delivered at Cornell University in the fall of 1949, and since revised, this is the standard non-technical coverage of Egyptian and Babylonian mathematics and astronomy, and their transmission to the Hellenistic world. Entirely modern in its data and conclusions, it reveals the surprising sophistication of certain areas of early science, particularly Babylonian mathematics. After a discussion of the number systems used in the ancient Near East (contrasting the Egyptian method of additive computations with unit fractions and Babylonian place values), Dr. Neugebauer covers Babylonian tables for numerical computation, approximations of the square root of 2 (with implications that the Pythagorean Theorem was known more than a thousand years before Pythagoras), Pythagorean numbers, quadratic equations with two unknowns, special cases of logarithms and various other algebraic and geometric cases. Babylonian strength in algebraic and numerical work reveals a level of mathematical development in many aspects comparable to the mathematics of the early Renaissance in Europe. This is in contrast to the relatively primitive Egyptian mathematics. In the realm of astronomy, too, Dr. Neugebauer describes an unexpected sophistication, which is interpreted less as the result of millennia of observations (as used to be the interpretation) than as a competent mathematical apparatus. The transmission of this early science and its further development in Hellenistic times is also described. An Appendix discusses certain aspects of Greek astronomy and the indebtedness of the Copernican system to Ptolemaic and Islamic methods. Dr. Neugebauer has long enjoyed an international reputation as one of the foremost workers in the area of premodern science. Many of his discoveries have revolutionized earlier understandings. In this volume he presents a non-technical survey, with much material unique on this level, which can be read with great profit by all interested in the history of science or history of culture.

The Exact Sciences in Antiquity

History & Philosophy

Dover Publications

What we know about Greek astronomy is dominated by Ptolemy s Almagest (written c. 140 A.D.) & closely related works like Theon s Handy Tables (end of 4th C.) but we have only very little info. about the practice of computing the positions of sun, moon, & planets during any period of antiquity. Now, the Greek horoscopes are available for study as a group which could be expected to reflect the current techniques of Greek astronomy. About 60 horoscopes from the first 5 centuries of our era have been published since Young (1828) & Champollion-Figeac (1840) in the papyrological literature, which comprises 18,000 texts. This vol. includes all horoscopes from this widely scattered material & a few unpublished pieces. Illustrations.

Greek horoscopes

Politics & Social Sciences

Philosophy

Reprinted for American Philosophical Society by University Microfilms International

Mathematical Cuneiform Texts (American Oriental)

History

Sachs, Abraham

Ancient Civilizations

American Oriental Society

When I first laid out the framework for A History of Ancient Mathe matical Astronomy, I intended to carry the discussion down to the last applications of Greek astronomical methodology, i. e. Copernicus, Brahe, and Kepler. But as the work proceeded, it became evident that this plan was much too ambitious, and so I decided to terminate my History with late antiquity, well before Islam. Nevertheless, I did not discard the running commentary that I had prepared when studying De revolutionibus in its relation to the methodology of the Almagest. Only recently, E. S. Kennedy and his collaborators had opened access to the" Maragha School" (mainly Ibn ash-Shalir), revealing close parallels to Copernicus's procedures. Accordingly, it seemed useful to make available a modern analysis of De revolutionibus, and thus in 1975 I prepared for publication "Notes on Copernicus. " In the meantime, however, Noel Swerdlow, also starting from Greek astronomy, not only extended his work into a deep analysis of De revolu tionibus, but also systematically investigated its sources and predecessors (Peurbach, Regiomontanus, etc. ). I was aware of these studies through his publications as well as from numerous conversations on the subject at The Institute for Advanced Study and at Brown University. It became clear to me that my own investigations lay at too superficial a level, and I therefore withdrew my manuscript and suggested to Swerdlow that he undertake a thoroughgoing revision and amplification of my "Notes. " His acceptance of my proposal initiated the present publication.

Mathematical Astronomy in Copernicus' De Revolutionibus: Part 1 (Studies in the History of Mathematics and Physical Sciences)

Crafts, Hobbies & Home

Swerdlow, N.M. M.

Gardening & Landscape Design

Neugebauer, O., Exact Sciences In Antiquity, The

The exact sciences in antiquity

Mathematics

Barnes&Noble

Ethiopic Astronomy and Computus is one of the seminal works of the late Otto Neugebauer. It is still the only detailed work for the English reader on the astronomical/calendar aspect of the Book of Enoch and the calculations of Easter and other movable Christian feasts in the Ethiopian Tewahido Orthodox Church.   The material here investigated originates from two different classes of sources: the primitive astronomy of the Book of Enoch on the one hand, and the cleverly arranged Computus of the church calendar on the other. These two groups of sources are separated from each other not only chronologically but also geographically: the Book of Enoch was composed in the last centuries B. C. in the Palestinian area (also represented in the Qumrân archives) while the Computus reflects conditions centuries later within Alexandrian Christianity.   from the Introduction

Ethiopic Astronomy and Computus

Thomas Leiper Kane Collection (Library of Congress Hebraic Section)

Verl. D. Osterr. Akad. D. Wiss

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