Description: This book describes and analyses, for the first time, the astronomical tables of Giovanni Bianchini of Ferrara (d. after 1469), explains their context, inserts them into an astronomical tradition that began in Toledo, and addresses their diffusion.
Brief description:
José Chabás, Ph.D. (1989) in Physics, University of Barcelona, Spain, teaches at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, and currently works at FAO, Rome, Italy. He studies the transmission of astronomical ideas, methods, and tables in the late Middle Ages.
Bernard R. Goldstein, Ph.D. (1961), History of Mathematics, Brown University, is University Professor Emeritus at the University of Pittsburgh (USA). He has written extensively on the history of astronomy, based mainly on texts in Hebrew, Arabic, and Latin.
Review Quotes: "Les Tables sous examen sont probablement l'ensemble le plus volumineux produit en Europe dans le genre avant les temps modernes. Dans la mesure où le travail de l'astronome de Ferrare s'inscrit dans la continuité des Tables alphonsines, cet accroissement fait mieux comprendre et mieux apprécié le travail accomplit par les astronomes du roi Alphonse X de Castille dans la deuxième partie du XIIIe siècle."
"L'analyse technique est à tout point de vue excellent et ne prête pas à redire."
Max Lejbowicz, Aestimatio 6 (2009) 155-161
"The book [...] is an important step, shining a more focused light on Bianchini's inventive Tabulae astronomiae, providing a succinct technical guide to its contents, and describing clearly its innovations."
"The history of astronomy can only benefit from an increased attention to numerical tables, and this book is an excellent contribution. It is highly recommended for readers with the appropriate background."
Glen Van Brummelen, Journal for the History of Astronomy, Vol. 41, Part 4, No. 145 (November 2010), 514-516