Sefer Hathalot ha-Nimtza'ot and Other Scientific Treatises, [15th century]

Fols. 1r-14r: Sefer Hathalot ha-Nimzaot by Abu-Nasr Muhammad al-Farabi. His  Kitab al-mabadi' translated by Moses ibn Tibbon (another copy in Montefiore ms. 292, Lot 249).

Fols. 16v-18v: Notes on the constellations and the calendar, in a different script.

Fols. 19v-23r: Selections from Dikdukei ha-Ta’amim by Aaron ben Moses Ben Asher.

Fols. 23v-24r: Extracts on geometry. One chapter on squares and diagonals and another on circles and triangles.

Fols. 26r-56v: Al-Fergani (Elements of Astronomy) by Ahmed ibn Muhammad al-Fergani (Farghani) translated from the Arabic by Jacob ben Abba Mari Anatoli. Missing from the end of chapter 27; the complete work includes 32 chapters.

Sotheby’s is grateful to Menahem Schmelzer z”l and Benjamin Richler for cataloguing this manuscript.

Provenance

Samuel David Luzzatto — Solomon Halberstam (shelf no. 133)

Physical Description

56 leaves on paper, 8 ½ x 5 ½ inches; 216 x 140 mm, Byzantine script, in brown and red ink, illustrations on fols. 18v, 23v, and 24r, modern foliation in pencil; upper inner corners and margins repaired throughout with losses to text on fols. 16v, 17-18, and 24, not on top margin of 26v shaved, some staining and browning, Glazed cloth boards; extremities rubbed, spine defective.

Literature

Hirschfeld (ms. no. 294); the text of Dikdukei ha-Ta’amim corresponds to chapters 1-5, 9, 10, 21, 26, 25 Aaron Dotan’s edition (Jerusalem, 1967); the printed edition was published from this manuscript by L. Dukes, Konteros ha-Masorah, (Tübingen, 1845)