Glosses as a Source for the History of Science

The Case of Gerard of Cremona's Translation of Ptolemy's Almagest

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Extent: 492 pages

Publisher: Wiley-VCH

Subjects: Medieval Studies

Series: Ptolemaeus Arabus et Latinus - Studies

Language: English, Latin

Hardback (Forthcoming)

(January 2027)

ISBN: 9782503619330

Price: $113.00

This book explores the reception of Gerard of Cremona’s Latin translation of Ptolemy’s Almagest by means of a detailed study of how it was glossed over space and time.


Gerard of Cremona’s Latin translation of Ptolemy’s Almagest provided medieval scholars with an entirely new basis for astronomy. This book explores its reception by closely examining all its 67 extant manuscript copies and drawing a detailed picture of how they were glossed over space and time. The results challenge many traditional notions and propose many new ones, both regarding the studied text and medieval science in general. Thus, for example, the role of France in the astronomy of the later 12th and earlier 13th centuries appears to have been far less significant than could have been assumed, and to have been largely outshone by that of England; 12th-century Winchester emerges as a hitherto unnoticed centre for the science of the stars; the roles of Cremona and Bologna as scientific centres around 1200 gain contours; and with Gerard of Cremona, ʿAbd al-Masīḥ of Winchester, Walter of Châtillon, Adam of Exeter, Leonardo Fibonacci, Campanus of Novara and Taddeo da Parma, several outstanding and long-studied medieval scholars appear in bright new light.The outcome of the study has benefited greatly from a fresh approach towards dating and localising manuscripts, an approach which, if adopted as standard, would place the history of medieval science on much firmer ground. Raising awareness of the need for such an approach is the second major concern of the book.