#sacrobosco

April 24 is the annual "Bring Our Children to Work Day" at Penn, and for #CoffeeWithACodex Curator Dot Porter will be joined by her son Andrew. He's keen on astronomy, so they'll bring out three of our early astronomy texts: LJS 26, a 13th century Italian copy of Sacrobosco's Tractatum de sphaera; LJS 216, a 13th century French copy of the same text; and LJS 384, a 12th century German copy of De philosophia mundi by William of Conches.

Coffee With A Codex is an informal lunch or coffee time to meet virtually with Kislak curators and talk about one of the manuscripts from Penn's collections. Each week we'll feature a different manuscript and the expertise of one of our curators. Everyone is welcome to attend.

Register here:

Johannes de Sacrobosco – Scientist of the Day

Johannes de Sacrobosco, an English cleric, astronomer, and teacher, lived in the first half of the 13th century; he was born before 1200 C.E., and died between 1236 and 1256 C.E.  

Here in Columbia, Missouri, we are directly in the path of totality for the solar eclipse that will pass over most of the United States on August 21. In order to celebrate, we've gone into our collections to find documentation of past eclipses and books on astronomy that can help us put this historic event into perspective. We'll be sharing selections here, or check out exhibits.lib.missouri.edu to see what else we found!⠀ ⠀ 

This book, Sphaera, is by Johannes de Sacrobosco, one of the leading astronomers, educators, and science communicators of the Middle Ages. Using compelling visuals and simple language, Sphaera was a beginning astronomy textbook that taught generations of people to think about the basic math and science that underlay their experience of the natural world. This particular diagram illustrates a solar eclipse.⠀ ⠀ 

LJS 490 - [Astronomical compendium]

Written in Germany around 1450 CE, this manuscript is a collection of astronomical and astrological texts. It includes tables of solar declination, fixed stars, elevation of the pole star in various cities, new and full moons, sightings and transits or eclipses of Venus and Mercury, and the position of the sun in the ecliptic; treatises on instruments, such as the astrolabe, the sundial, the quadrant and the chilinder or traveler's dial; treatises on other scientific subjects, such as practical geometry, determination of the date of Easter, and analysis of urine; digressions on the work of Johannes Sacrobosco. Cities in the Baden-Württemberg region of Germany are mentioned frequently, along with major cities in Europe, especially Italy.

Christoph Clavius – Scientist of the Day

Christoph Clavius, a Jesuit astronomer, was born Mar. 15, 1538.