Collection ID: 0001 | Metadata type: TEI | TEI XML | Data

Title

Book on the configuration of the orb.

Authors

• Dunash ibn Tamim, active 10th century
  دنش بن تميم

Other related names

• Māshāʼallāh, 730?-815?, attributed name
  ما شاء الله,
• Schoenberg, Lawrence J, former owner

Call number

LJS 439
(3420 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-6206, University of Pennsylvania, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts)

Alternate identifiers

• bibid: 9948302563503681
• http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/793011033
• http://hdl.library.upenn.edu/1017/d/medren/4830256

Publisher

University of Pennsylvania

Language

Arabic

Origin

Date

13--?

Place

Seville?, Spain

Summary

One of two known manuscripts of the Arabic original of the Book on the configuration of the orb, otherwise known through its use by Maimonides and through Latin translations, which are often attributed to the Abbasid court astrologer Māshāʼallāh. 14th-century copy of a 10th-century cosmological treatise with discussion of the theory of the four elements, meterology, geology, and astronomy, with the material on natural philosophy presented from an Aristotelian perspective. Manuscript is incomplete (25 chapters and parts of 4 additional chapters out of 39 in the complete work) and misbound; the correct order of pages is: p. 21–23, 1–2, 27–30, 23–26, 35–48, 11–12, 9–10, 13–14, 17–19, 7–8, 3–6, 15–16, 19–20, 31–34, and 49–50 (Taro Mimura).

Notes

• Ms. codex.
   
• Title and author identified by Taro Mimura, University of Manchester.
   

Extent

25 leaves : 235 x 165 (163 x 113) mm. bound to 238 x 168 mm

Foliation

Paper, i (modern paper) + 25 + i (modern paper) leaves; [1-50]; modern pagination in pencil, upper outer corners. Also modern foliation in pencil, upper left recto. References in this record are to modern pagination.

Support

Paper

Binding

Modern morocco with earlier blind-tooled morocco covers laid on new covers; manuscript has holes affecting small areas of text and has been extensively repaired.

Layout

Written in 21 long lines.

Decoration

Cosmological diagrams (p. 1, 5-6, 14-15, 18, 22, 35, 37, 39, 41-42, 46) and diagrams of lunar phases and eclipses (p. 10, 12, 16-17) in ink.

Script

Written in neat, Andalusian maghribi script in brown ink; pointed, partially vocalized.

Provenance

• Sold by Sam Fogg Ltd. (London) to Lawrence J. Schoenberg, October 2002.
   
• Deposit by Lawrence J. Schoenberg and Barbara Brizdle, 2011.
   
• Gift of Barbara Brizdle Schoenberg, 2016.
   

Subjects topical

• Four elements (Philosophy)--Early works to 1800
• Islamic philosophy--Early works to 1800
• Islamic cosmology--Early works to 1800
• Physics--Early works to 1800

Genres

• Codices (bound manuscripts)
• Diagrams
• Treatises
• Manuscripts, Arabic--14th century
• Manuscripts, Medieval

Licenses

• Text

  These images and the content of Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts LJS 439: Book on the configuration of the orb. are free of known copyright restrictions and in the public domain. See the Creative Commons Public Domain Mark page for usage details, http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/.

  URL

  http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

• Text

  Metadata is © and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License version 4.0 (CC-BY-4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. For a description of the terms of use see the Creative Commons Deed https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

  URL

  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode

Decorations

• 1 — Diagram, p. 1
• 5 — Diagram, p. 5
• 6 — Diagram, p. 6
• 10 — Diagram, p. 10
• 12 — Diagram, p. 12
• 14 — Diagram, p. 14
• 15 — Diagram, p. 15
• 16 — Diagram, p. 16
• 17 — Diagram, p. 17
• 18 — Diagram, p. 18
• 22 — Diagram, p. 22
• 35 — Diagram, p. 35
• 37 — Diagram, p. 37
• 39 — Diagram, p. 39
• 41 — Diagram, p. 41
• 42 — Diagram, p. 42
• 46 — Diagram, p. 46