Petrarch and the Textual Origins of Interpretation

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The Astrolabe

An ancient instrument for solving problems of location and distance, as well as time

Astrolábon órganon is the word used in Ptolemaeus Syntaxis 5.1 to describe a form of armillary sphere consisting of both fixed and rotating rings for determining the ecliptic co-ordinates of stars. Also called astrolabe were two-dimensional representations of the celestial sphere: over fixed disks with a representation of the horizon of the earth (in each case for a specific geographic latitude) and its parallels up to the zenith lies a rotating representation of the heavens (called ‘spider’ or ‘net’) with zodiac and indicators for some of the brightest stars. On the back is an indicator (‘alidade’) with visor plates for calculating the height of the stars. The astrolabe allows its user to determine the hours of day and night, the positions of stars, and the height and depth of objects on earth (mountains, buildings, wells). The oldest extant descriptions of the flat, planispheric astrolabe come from Iohannes Philoponus, 6th century AD, and (in Syrian) from Severus Sebokht, c. 660 AD. Indirect references may date back as early as Theon (4th cent.). Between the 8th and the 9th centuries the Arabs appropriated the knowledge of the astrolabe. At the end of the 10th century and again in the 12th century, they passed it on to Western Europe, where astrolabes were constructed up until the 17th cent. Today, one Byzantine astrolabe (from 1062) is extant, as are some 750 Arabic-Islamic astrolabes and approximately the same number of European astrolabes.

This information is abstracted from Brill's New Pauly, the English edition of the authoritative Der Neue Pauly, Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World. The encyclopaedic coverage and high academic standard of the work, the interdisciplinary and contemporary approach and clear and accessible presentation have made the New Pauly the unrivalled modern reference work for the ancient world. For more information see www.brillsnewpauly.com or visit our website catalog: www.brill.nl/bnp
Brill’s New Pauly and the complete original Der Neue Pauly, the recognized standard reference works for students and scholars of the ancient world are also available online. This dual-language edition offers basic and advanced search facilities and is fully browsable. New English translations are added as they become available. See www.paulyonline.brill.nl for more information and a demo version.

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Petrarch and the Textual Origins of Interpretation

Edited by Teodolinda Barolini and H. Wayne Storey

Books

Available
Publication year: 2007


Series:	Columbia Studies in the Classical Tradition, 31
ISBN-13 (i)The ISBN (International Standard Book Number) has been changed from 10 to 13 digits on 1 January 2007:	978 90 04 16322 5
ISBN-10:	90 04 16322 0

Cover:	Cloth with dustjacket
Number of pages:	xii, 268 pp.

List price:	€ 99.00 / US$ 147.00

Readership

All those interested in Petrarch, the development of the lyric sequence, the development of the epistolary collection, medieval/Renaissance studies, Italian literature, the juncture of philology and hermeneutics, manuscript culture, and intellectual history.

About the author(s)

Teodolinda Barolini, Ph.D. (1978) Columbia University, is Lorenzo Da Ponte Professor of Italian at Columbia University and the author of Dante’s Poets (Princeton, 1984), The Undivine Comedy (Princeton, 1992) and Dante and the Origins of Italian Literary Culture (Fordham, 2006).
H. Wayne Storey, Ph.D. (1983) Columbia University, is Professor of Italian at Indiana University and Editor-in-Chief of Textual Cultures. His studies of Petrarch include Transcription and Visual Poetics (Garland, 1993), “Voce e grafia nei Triumphi”, and his essays in the 2003-2004 facsimile edition of the Rerum vulgarium fragmenta (Antenore).

This volume addresses one of the most far-reaching aspects of Petrarch research and interpretation: the essential interplay between Petrarch’s texts and their material preparation and reception. The essays look at various facets of the interaction between Petrarchan philology and hermeneutics, working from the premise that in Petrarch’s work philological issues are so authorially driven that we cannot in fact read or interpret him without understanding the relevant philological issues and reapplying them in our critical approach to his works. To read and interpret Petrarch we must come to grips with the fundamentals of Petrarchan philology. This volume aims to show how a Petrarchan hermeneutics must be based on an understanding of Petrarchan philology.

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