Details

Subjects:

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

Form/Genre:

Codices (bound manuscripts)
Diagrams.
Treatises.
Manuscripts, Arabic.
Manuscripts, Medieval.

Language:

Arabic.

Biography/History:

Student of Isaac Israeli, Jewish physician and philosopher in the Fatimid court (Taro Mimura).

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.
Pagination: 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.
Layout: Written in 21 long lines.
Script: Written in neat, Andalusian maghribi script in brown ink; pointed, partially vocalized.
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.
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.
Origin: Likely copied in Andalusia, possibly in Seville, in the 14th century.

Local notes:

Lawrence J. Schoenberg & Barbara Brizdle Manuscript Initiative.

Penn 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.

Cited in:

Described in Transformation of knowledge: early manuscripts from the collection of Lawrence J. Schoenberg (London: Paul Holberton, 2006), p. 15-16 (LJS 439).

Publications about:

Mimura, Taro. The Arabic original of (ps.) Māshā'allāh's Liber de orbe: its date and authorship. British journal for the history of science 48.2 (June 2015), 321-352.

Cited as:

UPenn LJS 439.

Contributor:

Māshāʾallāh, 730?-815?, attributed name.
Schoenberg, Lawrence J., former owner.
Lawrence J. Schoenberg Collection (University of Pennsylvania)
ما شاء الله, 730?-815?, attributed name.

OCLC:

793011034

Web link:

The Lawrence J. Schoenberg and Barbara Brizdle Manuscript Initiative Fund Home Page