Duba, Pedersen†, Schabel, Nos enim sumus sicut talpae, Pierre Ceffons on the Scientific Limitations of Cosmology, with His Views on the Rotation of the Earth and the Plurality of Worlds: II Sentences, d. 1 (original) (raw)

The cosmological treatise d'Abbadie 109 (Hoffmann/Geus)

Rassegna di studi Etiopici, 2020

Hoffmann, Carsten; Geus, Klaus: The cosmological treatise in Ms. Paris, BnF Éth. Abb. 109: introduction, text and translation with notes. In: Rassegna di studi Etiopici, ser. III, 4 (2020), pp. 61–87. [ISSN: 0390-0096]. Abstract The present contribution examines a unique piece of Ethiopic literature, a short but quite comprehensive cosmological text, transmitted only in a late manuscript (Ms. Paris, BnF Éth. Abb. 109, 19th cent.?). It exhibits multi-faceted information, e.g., on planets, their respective sizes and revolutions, on celestial spheres, or on the influence of zodiacal signs. As the astronomical and astrological terminology, the names of the stars and planets, and the unit of measurement have, to our knowledge, no parallels in Ethiopic texts, but are similar to some Latin Renaissance handbooks (in the vein of Peter Apian or Christopher Clavius), we claim that the text derives ultimately from the Jesuit mission in Ethiopia. The most likely date of translation from Latin to Ethiopic is the early 17th century AD. Following the first edition of Ignatij Kračkovskij in 1912 and its re-edition by Sergey Frantsouzoff in 2015, we attempt to provide an improved Ethiopic text and an English translation. We also append some notes for the better understanding and reception of the text.

Unifying Heaven and Earth: Essays in the History of Early Modern Cosmology

One of the most significant events in the history of Western civilization was the cosmological revolution of the 16th and 17th centuries. Among the most salient factors in this change, described by Alexandre Koyré as the ‘destruction of the cosmos’ inherited from ancient Greece, were Copernican heliocentrism and the substitution of a homogeneous universe for the hierarchical cosmos of the Platonic and Aristotelian tradition. Starting with a new approach to the issue of the presence of Islamic astronomical devices in Copernicus’ work and a thorough reappraisal of the cosmological views of Paracelsus, the book deals mainly with the abolition of cosmological dualism and the ways in which it affected the decline of astrology over the 17th century. Other related topics include planetary order and theories of world harmony, the cause of planetary motion in the Tychonic world system or the discussion on comets in Germany through the first presentation of a manuscript treatise by Michael Maestlin on the great comet of 1618.