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Jews and the Natural Sciences: Astronomy

Understanding science in the widest possible sense, this guide offers resources for how Jews investigate, react to, and engage with the physical universe.

Astronomy

Almosnino, Moses b. Baruch

This sixteenth century manuscript contains two astronomical works together with their commentaries.

Rare Book and Manuscript Library. LJS 42

 

Alter, George

“David Gans:  a renaissance Jewish astronomer,” Aleph 11 (2001) 61-114

https://muse.jhu.edu/article/423509/pdf

 

Ben-Zaken, Avner

“Bridging Networks of trust:  practising astronomy in late sixteenth-century Salonika,” Jewish History 23 (2009) 343-361

http://www.jstor.org/stable/25653803

 

Bloch, Joshua

“Zacuto and His Almanach Perpetuum,” pp. 59-62 in, Hebrew Printing and Bibliography (New York, New York Public Library and Ktav, 1976) ed. Charles Berlin

Katz Center - Reference Room. Z228.H4 H43 1976
 

Brown, Jeremy  

New Heavens and a New Earth: The Jewish Reception of Copernican Thought

New York : Oxford University Press, 2013

Van Pelt Library. BM538.A76 B76 2013

 

Burnett, Charles, Stephen Johnston and Josefina Rodríguez-Arribas

Astrolabes in Medieval Jewish Society Project

http://warburg.sas.ac.uk/mnemosyne/astrolabes_poster.pdf 

 

Chabás, José and Bernard R. Goldstein

Astronomy in the Iberian Peninsula:  Abraham Zacut and the Transition from Manuscript to Print

Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, n.s. 90 part 2

Philadelphia:  American Philosophical Society, 2000
Van Pelt Library. Q11.P6

 

Efron, N. and Menachem Fisch

“Astronomical Exegesis: An Early Modern Jewish Interpretation of the Heavens,” Osiris 16 (2001) 72-87

Research Annex (LIBRA). Q1.O7

http://www.jstor.org/stable/301980

 

Feldman, William Moses

Rabbinical Mathematics and Astronomy

London, M.L. Cailingold, 1931

Katz Center - Stacks. Q128.F45 1931

 

Glasner, Ruth

“The Question of Celestial Matter in the Hebrew Encyclopedias,” pp. 313-334 in, The Medieval Hebrew Encyclopedias of Science and Philosophy (Dordrecht ; Boston ; London : Kluwer Academic Publishers, c2000) ed. Steven Harvey

Katz Center - Stacks. AE1 .M43 2000

 

Goldstein, Bernard R.

The Astronomy of Levi ben Gerson

New York ; Berlin : Springer-Verlag, 1985

Van Pelt Library. QB41 .G477 1985


Goldstein, Bernard R.

“Astronomy and the Jewish Community in Early Islam,” Aleph: Historical Studies in Science and Judaism 1 (2001) 17–57

Katz Center - Stacks. BM538.S3 A447

Van Pelt Library. BM538.S3 A447

http://www.jstor.org/stable/40385447

 

Goldstein, Bernard R.

“Astronomy among Jews in the Middle Ages,” pp. 136–146 in, Science in medieval Jewish cultures

(New York : Cambridge University Press, 2011) ed. Gad Freudenthal

Van Pelt Library. Q128 .S35 2011

 

Joseph Ibn Nahmias; ed. and transl. Robert G. Morrison

The Light of the World: Astronomy in Al-Andalus

Berkeley ; Los Angeles : University of California Press, 2016

Van Pelt Library. QB23 .J5713 2016

 

Klein-Franke, F.

“A Hebrew Yemenite Manuscript of the Book “Elements of Astrology” by al-Bīrūnī,” Kiryat Sefer, 47 (1972) 720

Katz Center – Periodicals Gallery. Z6367 .K57
Van Pelt Library.
Z6367 .K57

 

Kozodoy, Maud

“Jewish Astronomy: Between Maimonides and Gersonides,” pp. 83-91 in, The Secret Faith of Maestre Honoratus. Profayt Duran and Jewish Identity in Late Medieval Iberia (Philadelphia:  University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015)

Katz Center - Stacks. DS135.S8 D875 2015

Van Pelt Library. DS135.S8 D875 2015

https://muse.jhu.edu/chapter/1598582

 

Langermann, Y. Tzvi

“The Astronomy of Rabbi Moses Isserles,” pp. 83-98 in, Physics, Cosmology and Astronomy 1300-1700 : tension and accommodation (Dordrecht ; Boston : Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1991) ed. Sabetai Unguru

Research Annex (LIBRA). Q174 .B67 v.126

 

Langermann, Y. Tzvi

“The Hebrew Astronomical Codes MS Sassoon 823,” The Jewish Quarterly Review 78 (1988) 253-292 [repr. as essay X pp. 253-285 in Y. Tzvi Langermann, The Jews and the Sciences in the Middle Ages (Ladershot:  Ashgate, 1999)]

Katz Center - Periodicals Gallery. DS101 .J48
Research Annex (LIBRA). 
DS101 .J48

 

Langermann, Y. Tzvi

“Hebrew Astronomy.  Deep Soundings from a Rich Tradition,” pp. 555–584 in, Astronomy Across Cultures : the history of non-Western astronomy  (Dordrecht:  Kluwer Academic, 2000) ed. Helaine Selin

Van Pelt Library. QB16 .A75 2000

 

Langermann, Y. Tzvi

“Peurbach in the Hebrew Tradition,” Journal for the History of Astronomy 29 (1998) 137-150

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/002182869802900206

 

Leicht, R.

“Towards a History of Hebrew Astrological Literature: A Bibliographical Survey,” pp. 255-291 in, Science in medieval Jewish cultures (New York : Cambridge University Press, 2011) ed. Gad Freudenthal

Van Pelt Library. Q128 .S35 2011

 

Levine, H.

“Paradise not Surrendered: Jewish Reactions to Copernicus and the Growth of Modern Science,” pp. 203-225 in, Epistemology, Methodology, and the Social Sciences (Dordrecht, Holland ; Boston : D. Reidel ; Hingham, MA : Kluwer Boston, distributor, c1983) edd. R.S. Cohen and M.W. Wartofsky

Research Annex (LIBRA). Q174 .B67 v.71

 

Levy, Raphael and Francisco Cantera, edd.

The Beginning of Wisdom: an Astrological Treatise by Abraham Ibn Ezra

Baltimore: The John Hopkins Press, 1939

Katz Center - Stacks. QB26 .I33 1939

Van Pelt Library.  QB26.I33 1939

 

Mancha, Jose Luis

“Demonstrative Astronomy: Notes on Levi ben Gersom's answer to Guide II.24,” pp. 323-346 in, Studies in the history of culture and science:  a tribute to Gad Freudenthal (Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2011) ed. Resianne Fontaine

Katz Center - Stacks. BM538.S3 S78 2011

Van Pelt Library. BM538.S3 S78 2011

 

Millás-Vallicrosa, José M.

“Un Nuevo tratado de astrolabio de R. Abraham ibn Ezra,” Al-Andalus 5 (1940) 1-29

Research Annex (LIBRA). DP102 .A6

 

Morrison, Robert

“The Role of Oral Transmission for Astronomy among Romaniot Jews,” pp. 10-28 in, Texts in Transit in the Medieval Mediterranean (Philadelphia:  University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016) edd. Y. Tzvi Langermann and Robert G. Morrison

Van Pelt Library. Z106.5.M43 T49 2016

 

Morrison, Robert G.

“The Solar Model in Joseph Ibn Joseph Ibn Nahmias’ ‘Light of the World’,” Arabic Sciences and Philosophy 15 (2005) 57–108

Van Pelt Library. Q127.A5 A733

 

Neher, André, trans. David Maisel

Jewish thought and the scientific revolution of the sixteenth century:  David Gans and his times

Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986 

Katz Center - Stacks. QB36.G36 N4413 1986

 

Neher, André

“Copernicus in the Hebraic Literature from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century,” Journal of the History of Ideas 38 (1977) 211-26

Research Annex (LIBRA). B1 .J75

 

Robinson, James T.

“The first references in Hebrew to al-Biṭrūjī’s On the principles of astronomy,” Aleph 3 (2003) 145-163

Katz Center - Stacks. BM538.S3 A447

Van Pelt Library. BM538.S3 A447

https://muse.jhu.edu/article/407524/pdf

 

Rodríguez-Arribas, Josefina

“Medieval Jews and Medieval Astrolabes:  Where, Why, How, and What For?,” pp. 221-272 in, Time, Astronomy, and Calendars in the Jewish Tradition (Leiden : Brill, 2014) edd. Sacha Stern and Charles Burnett

Katz Center - Stacks. CE35 .T46 2014

https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/upenn-ebooks/detail.action?docID=1579901

 

Rodríguez-Arribas, Josefina

“Reading Astrolabes in Medieval Hebrew,” pp. 89- 112 in, Language as a Scientific Tool: Shaping Scientific Language Across Time and National Traditions (New York:  Routledge, 2016) edd. Miles MacLeod, Rocio G. Sumillera, Jan Surman and Ekaterina Smirnova

Van Pelt Library. Q223 .L264 2016

 

Ruderman, David B.

“Jewish thought in Newtonian England:  the career and writings of David Nieto,” Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research 58 (1992) 193-219

Katz Center - Periodicals Gallery. DS101 .A34

Van Pelt - Judaica/Ancient Near East Resource Room (401). DS101 .A34

http://www.jstor.org/stable/3622633

 

Samsó, Julio

“On the Arabic translation of the colophon of the Almanach Perpetuum,” pp. 1-6 in, Astronomy and Astrology in al-Andalus and the Maghrib (Aldershot ; Burlington, VT : Ashgate, c2007) Samsó, Julio

Van Pelt Library. QB23 .S259 2007

 

Samsó, Julio

“In pursuit of Zacut’s Almanach Perpetuum in the Eastern Islamic World,” Zeitschrift für Geschichte der Arabisch-Islamischen Wissenschaften 15 (2002-03) 67-93

Van Pelt Library. Q127.A5 Z458

 

Sela, Shlomo

“The Fuzzy Borders between Astronomy and Astrology in the Thought and Work of Three Twelfth-Century Jewish Intellectuals,” Aleph 1 (2001) 59-100

Katz Center - Stacks. BM538.S3 A447

Van Pelt Library. BM538.S3 A447

 

Sela, Shlomo

Abraham Ibn Ezra’s Introductions to Astrology: A Parallel Hebrew-English Critical Edition of the Book of the Beginning of Wisdom and the Book of the Judgments of the Zodiacal Signs. Abraham Ibn Ezra’s Astrological Writings, Volume 5

Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2017

Katz Center - Stacks. BF1714.J4 I27213 2017

Van Pelt Library. BF1714.J4 I27213 2017

 

Sela, Shlomo

“Astrology in Medieval Jewish Thought,” pp. 292-300 in, Science in medieval Jewish cultures (New York : Cambridge University Press, 2011) ed. Gad Freudenthal

Van Pelt Library. Q128 .S35 2011

 

Sela, Shlomo

“A Newly Identified Essay on Anniversary Horoscopy Embedded in Abraham Bar Ḥiyya’s Astronomical Tables: Hebrew Edition, Translation and Commentary,” 13.1 Aleph (2013) 27–76

Katz Center - Stacks. BM538.S3 A447

Van Pelt Library. BM538.S3 A447

 

Stern, Sacha

“David Gans on the Gregorian reform, modern astronomy, and the Jewish calendar,” Judaica Bohemiae 51 (2016) 127-147

Katz Center - Periodicals B1. DS135.C95 J82

 

Stern, Sacha and Charles Burnett, edd.

Time, Astronomy, and Calendars in the Jewish Tradition

Leiden : Brill, 2014

Katz Center - Stacks. CE35.T46 2014

https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/upenn-ebooks/detail.action?docID=1579901

 

Unguru, Sabetai, ed.

Physics, Cosmology and Astronomy 1300-1700:  tension and accommodation

Dordrecht ; Boston : Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1991

Research Annex (LIBRA). Q174 .B67 v.126

 

Zacuto, Abraham ben Samuel

Almanach perpetuum celestum motuum (Radix 1473) … facsimile edition

Katz Center - Stacks. VK549 .B6 1915

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