Astronomical Illustration

16th Century

Manuscript page with concentric circles, zodiacal signs and Hebrew labels in outer circles, and some Hebrew text above and below. — This diagram of the cosmos is from a treatise on astronomy, *Sefer mareh ha-ofanim* (The Appearance of the Heavenly Beings), by Solomon ben Abraham Avigdor. The treatise was mostly a translation of Johannes de Sacrobosco’s thirteenth-century Latin text *De sphaera mundi* (On the Sphere of the World), considered the standard textbook on astronomy until the mid-seventeenth century. This manuscript was written in Mantua, Italy.

Credits

The British Library, London, England. Or. 10661. From the collection of The British Library, The Polonsky Foundation Catalogue of Digitised Hebrew Manuscripts.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 5.

Dialoghi d’amore (Dialogues of Love)

[ . . . ] Philo: I have already told you that the cognition of the generating nature is meant to direct them towards their natural perfection, without any other…

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Printed page with upside-down triangle featuring two Hebrew words on left, and floral pattern with the letter S in a pattern on right.

Orḥot ‘olam (Paths of the World)

On the existence and nature of a great and awesome, holy world, which is situated beyond the equator, and whether it is possible that there is a settlement south of this equator, called…

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Responsum: On Philosophy

On the twenty-fourth day of the counting [of the Omer] may there be tranquility and pleasantness in your chamber of Torah. The handmaids of the emperor’s house would sing his praises: “no eye-shadow…

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On the thirty-third day of the counting [of the Omer, i.e., Lag b’Omer]. May there be tranquility and pleasantness in your chamber of Torah. May God continuously save the beautiful pearl, for whom the…

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Print with decorative border of man in robes wearing hat and holding a book with right hand and Latin heading.

Oath

I swear by the Eternal God and by His ten most holy commandments, which were given on Mount Sinai through Moses as lawgiver after the people had been freed from their bondage in Egypt, that I have…

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Jewish Doctor (Medico Giudeo)

This depiction of a Jewish doctor is from a travelogue by French geographer Nicolas Nicolay, who is believed to have also created the illustrations in the book. Considered at the time a key source of…

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Hebrew

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Mantua, Italy

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Illustration of a sphere circled by rings at various angles, including illustrations of zodiac symbols.

Astronomical Illustration

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