Friday, 7 October 2022, 9.30 a.m.-6.30 p.m.

Trinity College Dublin, Long Room Hub

Organizers: Philipp Nothaft, Immo Warntjes

Registration: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/alternatives-to-ptolemy-in-medieval-latin-astronomy-tickets-390102796967

 

The translations of Ptolemy’s Almagest into Latin during the twelfth century have traditionally been framed as one of the key episodes in the broader history of medieval science, one which ensured that European astronomy developed under a Ptolemaic paradigm until the rise of Copernican planetary theory in the sixteenth century. At the same time, historians have long been aware that medieval Europeans had a range of alternatives to Ptolemy at their disposal, from circumsolar orbits to homocentric planetary models, while also operating with various modifications to ‘orthodox’ Ptolemaic theory, such as non-linear theories of precession. The goal of this workshop is to expand and add nuance to our understanding of these non-Ptolemaic strands in medieval Latin astronomy and of the ways in which alternative models of the heavens coexisted, interacted, or conflicted with the Ptolemaic tradition. It spotlights non-Ptolemaic descriptions of the material heavens documented from any period of the Latin Middle Ages.

 

 

                                    WORKSHOP PROGRAM

 

9.30–9.45 a.m.:      Introduction

9.45-10.30 a.m.:     David Juste (Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities) – Ptolemaic and non-Ptolemaic Astronomy in the Latin Middle Ages

10.30-11.15 a.m.: Isabelle Draelants (CNRS) – The 'Liber Nemroth' as an Example of Non-Ptolemaic Astronomy Before the Ninth Century

11.15 -11.45 a.m.: coffee break

11.45 a.m.-12.30: Charles Burnett (The Warburg Institute) – Hildegard of Bingen’s Folk Astronomy

12.30-2.30 p.m.:    lunch break

2.30-3.15 p.m.:       Barbara Obrist (CNRS) – Alternatives to Ptolemy in Twelfth-Century Cosmology

3.15-4.00 p.m.:       Irène Caiazzo (CNRS) – Reading Martianus Capella in the Long Twelfth Century

4.00-4.30 p.m.:       coffee break

4.30-5.15 p.m.:       Philipp Nothaft (TCD) – Non-Ptolemaic Interpretations of Computational Models in Twelfth-Century Sources

5.15-6.00 p.m.:       Richard L. Kremer (Dartmouth) – The So-Called ‘Astronomischer Tisch’ in Stams (c.1430)

6.00-6.30 p.m.:       Final discussion