Joël Chandelier

Cornelius Gemma. Cosmology, Medicine and Natural Philosophy in Renaissance Louvain

astrolabes were used for establishing the prayer times and the direction of Mekka (qibla), for purely observational purposes, and for astrological calculations. The languages are Arabic, Persian, and Sanskrit. As well as the common astrolabe, there are included examples of a universal astrolabe (no. 3), fakes (no. 36 47), an astrolabe with fake parts (no. 12), quadrants (‘Other Instruments’ A D), a diopter (E), three qibla indicators (F G, I, the first with quatrains of Persian poetry written on it), sundials (H, J, K), artillery levels (L O), celestial globes (Q W, described by Emilie Savage-Smith), and magic bowls, characterised by having signs of the zodiac on the outside (X Z), as well as ‘a fake instrument Bconsisting of a plate of no apparent significance’ (P). Appendixes catalogue the Arabic and Sanskrit star-names, the lords of the terms, decans and triplicities, and the lunar mansions, whilst Bruce Stephenson adds a metallurgical analysis of the astrolabes. It is a pity that all the references in the index to the pages numbered with roman numerals are wrong, in a book which, otherwise, is a paradigm of mathematical accuracy.

Manuscrits médicaux latins de la bibliothèque nationale de France: Un index des ?uvres et des auteurs

L’index des textes medievaux de medecine conserves a la Bibliotheque nationale de France ici presente est le premier fruit d’un travail collectif etale sur plusieurs decennies. Deliberement limite aux œuvres medicales stricto sensu (a l’exclusion de l’art veterinaire, de l’alchimie ou de la philosophie naturelle) et aux textes rediges avant 1500, il regroupe pres de 2300 entrees, reparties entre anonymes (environ 740) et auteurs (environ 1540), le tout refletant le depouillement de plus de 500 manuscrits.