Details

Subjects:

Astronomy -- Early works to 1800.
Astronomy.
Astrology -- Early works to 1800.
Astrology.
Jewish illumination of books and manuscripts.
Zodiac in art.

Form/Genre:

codices (bound manuscripts)
diagrams.
illuminations.
treatises.
Tables (Data)
Manuscripts, Hebrew -- 14th century.
Manuscripts, Medieval.

Language:

Hebrew.

Summary:

Collection of astronomical texts, including a copy of a treatise on the calendar originally compiled for Pedro IV, King of Aragon, with an almanac of oppositions and conjunctions of the sun and moon and predictions of lunar and solar eclipses; four short works by the 12th-century scientist Abraham Ibn Ezra on an introduction to astrology, choosing the most auspicious moment for a given activity, the zodiac, and astrology concerning humankind collectively; and a Hebrew translation of Ptolemy's Almagest, with numerous tables, diagrams, and illustrations.

Contents:

1. p.1-23: [Treatise on calendar and leap years / Jacob ben David ben Yom Tov]
2. p.25-60: [Reshit ḥokhmah (Beginning of wisdom) / Abraham ben Meïr Ibn Ezra]
3. p.61-68: [Sefer ha-mivḥarim (Book of elections) / Abraham ben Meïr Ibn Ezra]
4. p.69-86: [Mishpeṭe ha-mazalot (Book of the judgments of the zodiacal signs) / Abraham ben Meïr Ibn Ezra]
5. p.86-93: [Sefer ha-ʻolam (Book of the world) / Abraham ben Meïr Ibn Ezra]
6. p.93-228: [Hebrew translation of Almagest / Ptolemy]

Notes:

Ms. codex.
Title supplied by cataloger.
Foliation: Parchment, iv (modern paper) + 114 + iv (modern paper; [1-228]; modern pagination in pencil, upper outer corners.
Layout: Text written in 2 columns of 37 lines; some leaves ruled in faint ink.
Script: Written in Sephardic cursive script by multiple hands, one perhaps of a scribe named Moshe (p. 2); headings written in square script.
Decoration: 2 full-page color illustrations in gouache and ink of constellation maps (p. 112-113); 43 smaller illustrations of constellations in gouache and ink with gold bezants for stars (p. 117-144); panel headpiece in interlaced red and green penwork and full border of gold bezants flourished in colored ink (p. 1); numerous full-page diagrams and tables in red and brown ink; Gothic penwork infilling frames on some tables (p. 196-211); headings in red or green ink.
Binding: Modern blind-stamped morocco, with 2 sets of clasps and catches.
Origin: Written in Catalonia, ca. 1361.
Dimensions of original manuscript: 275 x 204 (190 x 132) mm. bound to 288 x 224 mm.

Local notes:

Lawrence J. Schoenberg & Barbara Brizdle Manuscript Initiative.

Penn Provenance:

Formerly owned by David Solomon Sassoon (Ms. 823), probably purchased in the mid-1920s.
Offered for sale as part of Sassoon's collection at auction at Sotheby's (Zurich), 5 November 1975, lot 15.
Offered for sale as part of Sassoon's collection at auction at Sotheby's (New York), 4 December 1984, lot 88.
Formerly owned by the Carl Alexander Floersheim Trust for Art and Judaica (Bermuda).
Sold at auction at Sotheby's, 10 Dec. 1996, lot 48, to Lawrence J. Schoenberg.
Gift of Lawrence J. Schoenberg and Barbara Brizdle, 2013.

Cited in:

Described in Convivencia: Jews, Muslims, and Christians in medieval Spain (New York: G. Braziller in association with the Jewish Museum, 1992), no. 26, published in conjunction with an exhibition of the same name held at the Jewish Museum (New York).
Described in Transformation of knowledge: early manuscripts from the collection of Lawrence J. Schoenberg (London: Paul Holberton, 2006), p. 66-67 (LJS 57).

Publications about:

Fischer, Karl A. F., Paul Kunitzsch, and Y. Tzvi Langermann. "The Hebrew astronomical codex MS. Sassoon 823." In The Jewish Quarterly Review, New Series, vol. 78, no. 3/4 (Jan.-Apr. 1988), p. 253-292. A copy is in the curatorial file for this manuscript.
Valls i Pujol, Esperança. "L'Astrologia jueva a l'edat mitjana: Exemple del pensament astrològic jueu en un manusrit del s. XIV." In Cap estrella per a Israel. Girona: Universitat de Girona, 2008, pp. 93-169.
Dekker, Elly. "ADDENDUM: The Pair of Maps in MS Schoenberg LJS 057" in Illustrating the Phaenomena: Celestial Cartography in Antiquity and the Middle Ages (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), pp. 459–62.
Dekker, Elly. "The pair of celestial hemispheres in MS Schoenberg LJS 057. A case of transmission from the Islamic world to Europe?" Paper delivered at Cartography between Europe and the Islamic world 1100-1600, Queen Mary University of London, September 8-9, 2014. A copy is in the curatorial file for this manuscript.
Dekker, Elly. "The Transmission of Celestial Cartography from the Arabic-Islamic World to Europe: The Celestial Maps in Ms Schoenberg LJS 057." In Alfred Hiatt, ed., Cartography between Christian Europe and the Arabic-Islamic world, 1100-1500: Divergent Traditions (Leiden: Brill, 2021), pp. 91–112.

Cited as:

Astronomical Anthology (Oversize LJS 57). Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania.

Contributor:

Sassoon, David Solomon, 1880-1942, former owner.
Lawrence J. Schoenberg Collection (University of Pennsylvania)

Contains:

Jacob ben David ben Yom Tov.
Ibn Ezra, Abraham ben Meïr, 1089-1164. Reshit ḥokhmah.
Ibn Ezra, Abraham ben Meïr, 1089-1164. Sefer ha-ʻolam u-maḥberot ha-meshartim kulam.
Ptolemy, active 2nd century. Almagest. Hebrew.

OCLC:

779369049

Web link:

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