Skip to content
Libra Esoterica

Introduction to Astronomy, Containing the Eight Divided Books of Abu Ma'shar Abalachus.

by Abū Ma'Shar & Flourished 1143 Hermann Of Carinthia

  • First published:
  • 16th century
  • Language: Latin
Read free

Description

Description from Library of Congress (opens in a new tab)

Ja'far ibn Muḥammad al-Balkhī (787--886), known as Abū Ma'shar, lived in Baghdad in the 9th century. Originally an Islamic scholar of the hadith (the prophetic traditions of Muhammad) and a contemporary of the famous philosopher al-Kindī, Abū Ma'shar developed an interest in astrology at the relatively late age of 47. He became the most important and prolific writer on astrology in the Middle Ages. His discourses incorporated and expanded upon the studies of earlier scholars of Islamic, Persian, Greek, and Mesopotamian origin. His works were translated into Latin in the 12th century and, through their wide circulation in manuscript form, had a great influence on Western scholars. Kitab al-Mudkhal al-Kabīr (Great introduction) is his most important work and the one most frequently cited by scholars in the West. It contains an astrological theory on the nature of the moon's influence on the tides and was the key work on the subject during the Middle Ages. This edition is the 1140 translation into Latin by Hermann of Carinthia, first printed by Erhard Ratdolt in Augsburg, Germany, in 1489. The woodcut title vignette of a black-faced astronomer reading the stars with an astrolabe and dividers is one of the best-known Renaissance representations of an astronomer.

Provenance

Why this book is in the catalog

Included because retained bibliographic metadata links this work to Astrology and Prophecy, oracles, and revelation.

  • Astrology

    Controlled discovery queries from library-of-congress matched “astrology”. Retained metadata contains “astrological” in the description, “Astrology” in the description, and “Astrology” in the subject metadata.

    • “astrology”· via Library of Congress
    • “astrological”· in description
    • “Astrology”· in description
    • “Astrology”· in subject
  • Prophecy, oracles, and revelation

    Retained metadata contains “prophetic” in the description.

    • “prophetic”· in description

Membership records how this book met the catalog’s discovery criteria — relevance to a tradition, not a judgment of the book’s claims.

Read & download

Free, public copies reported by our sources. Links open the source directly.

Not yet in passage search

Pro research answers quote indexed passages. Ask the library to index this book’s public text.

marks a direct file download. Rights vary by country; each source states its own terms.

Buy or borrow

No ISBN on record, so the Amazon link searches by title and author. WorldCat shows libraries near you that hold a copy.

Editions

One edition cataloged here.

Library of Congress digitized edition

1506-01-01—Latin—Public digital item

Subjects

7 subject headings

Identifiers & provenance

How this record was assembled, and the authority identifiers it carries.

Identifiers

LCCN
Library of Congress
  • 2021666125

Cataloged from

Catalog id
library-of-congress:2021666125
Edition coverage
Library of congress source record
Retrieved