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From the Editors

Alan C. Bowen and Francesca Rochberg

Mot des éditeurs

Alan C. Bowen and Francesca Rochberg

Tables of Declination from Ptolemy to Regiomontanus

Bernard R. Goldstein and José Chabás, †
The inclination of the path of the Sun in the sky with respect to the celestial equator, that is, the obliquity of the ecliptic, has been a major concern for astronomers since Antiquity. Many of them adopted values for it that departed from those of their predecessors and hardly any were the result of observation. Solar declination depends strictly on the obliquity, and many tables for determining solar positions were compiled during the Middle Ages. In this paper, we examine several of them, particularly those by Abraham ibn Ezra, Giovanni Bianchini, and Regiomontanus, the last two associated with tables for the conversion of ecliptic to equatorial coordinates.

The Term "lumāšu" in Late Babylonian Texts

Jeanette C. Fincke and Marvin F. Schreiber
Cuneiform texts of the first millennium bc (astrological, ritual, astronomical, and mathematical-astronomical texts) use the term "lumāšu" to denote celestial bodies. This article examines its attestations in neo-Assyrian and Late Babylonian texts with regard to text genre, writing, and meaning. "Lumāšu" is interpreted in group I texts as the god associated with a star or constellation; in group II texts, it may denote a constellation; and, in group III texts, following the introduction of the zodiacal belt, it may denote a zodiacal constellation, a zodiacal sign, or even a zodiacal position. These semantic distinctions are reflected in genre-specific orthographic practices.

Overlapping Cosmologies in Asia edited by Bill M. Mak and Eric Huntington

Dagmar Schäfer

Aristotle’s Theology: The Primary Texts Translated with Introduction and Notes by C. D. C. Reeve

Mor Segev

Time for the Ancients: Measurement, Theory, Experience by Peter N. Singer

Peter Van Nuffelen

The Greco-Egyptian Magical Formularies: Libraries, Books, and Individual Recipes edited by Christopher A. Faraone and Sofia Torallas Tovar

Evan A. Andersson

Procli Diadochi in Platonis Timaeum Commentaria / Proclus: Commentary on Plato’s Timaeus. Books 1–5 edited by Gerd Van Riel

David T. Runia

The Mechanical Tradition of Hero of Alexandria: Strategies of Reading from Antiquity to the Early Modern Period by Courtney Ann Roby

Maria Gerolemou