Continuity and epistemic movements of astronomical knowledge in transcultural perspective: Latinized works of Arabic origin in the technical astronomy of the Renaissance

This project deals with the presence, meaning and influence of Latinized Arabic works in the mathematical astronomy of the European Renaissance.
From the late fifteenth century, numerous works of Arabic origin were printed in Europe, together with new and innovative works. This Renaissance corpus of Latinized Arabic work was no longer witness to a direct reception of Arabic science, as was the case in the Middle Ages. Rather, by the fifteenth century, a large number of texts stemming from this extra-European tradition had become part of the standard works of Latin astronomy and were circulated mostly as new printed issues of medieval translations. During the Renaissance, Latinized Arabic books were regarded as classics belonging to an established tradition, which included Sacrobosco, Campanus and Peuerbach. Yet, the role of these Latinized works in the Renaissance developments of mathematical astronomy, planetary theory and spherical astronomy (geometrical models, the establishment of planetary order and distances, fixed stars, heavenly parameters) still requires a thorough investigation. Similarly, the importance of Arabic works for the production and employment of mathematical instruments and for trigonometry during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries should also be reassessed. Additionally, this project will take into account the echoes of Arabic philosophy in the debates about the status of mathematics and the epistemology underlying astronomical knowledge (especially the relation between mathematical and physical astronomy) in the age of Georg Peuerbach, Johannes Regiomontanus, Girolamo Fracastoro, Nicholas Copernicus and the Wittenberg-tradition of mathematical astronomy up to Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler.
This examination, restricted to editions of Arabic works printed in Latin during the Renaissance, will offer a solid basis for a general reassessment of exchanges between Arabic and European cultures. In particular, this historical reflection about the inclusion of Arabic scholars in the Renaissance canon of significant mathematicians (as well as the inclusion of Arabic works in the corpus of standard astronomical works) will be aimed at ascertaining the conceptual developments and transformations produced by the assimilation of the Arabic tradition by Latin scholars, as well as the manner in which these processes of reception and reworking led to new forms of knowledge organization and canonization.