Andreas Lammer (Nijmegen, The Netherlands), Colin Murtha (Trier, Germany)
The science of meteorology was of pivotal importance for late ancient and medieval societies. Consequently, numerous text – both already edited or still unedited in manuscripts – describe and investigate weather phenomena with the aim of integrating them into the scientific framework of natural philosophy. In this project, we are working on the translation of several Arabic meteorological texts, which we will publish together with an analysis of their content and a glossary of technical terminology.
Avicenna’s Meteorology from his Book of the Cure
Andreas Lammer (Nijmegen, The Netherlands), Colin Murtha (Trier)
All of Avicenna’s eight main works have a section on meteorology. His longest work, the Book of the Cure contains his most detailed and comprehensive account of meteorological and mineralogical phenomena and occurrences. Avicenna’s many observations and his theoretical account are a masterpiece of natural philosophy. Following a critical assessment of the state of the art of late ancient meteorology, Avicenna devised an new structure of the discipline and reorganised the presentation of the relevant phenomena in two books culminating in a chapter on floods, which became “the most often copied philosophical text by Avicenna in Latin translation” (Bertolacci).
Contact: murtha@uni-trier.de
A Treatise on Meteorology Attributed to Avicenna
A critical edition, translation, and some arguments against authenticity
Colin Murtha (Trier)
Among the texts of the Pseudo-Avicenna corpus, we find a short treatise on meteorology the authenticity of which remains to be determined, extant in three manuscripts under the title „Upper Affections“ (Al-āṯār al-ʿulwiyya). In this article, I provide the first critical edition of this treatise along with an English translation and commentary on its contents. In my commentary, I compare the contents with Avicenna’s meteorological writings in his philosophical summae and put forward three arguments against authenticity. Taken cumulatively, in considering the major differences on fundamental issues in natural philosophy between the treatise in question and Avicenna’s authentic meteorological writings in the summae, I conclude that a position against authenticity is highly favorable over claiming that it is an authentic work.
Contact: murtha@uni-trier.de
A Treatise on Meteorology Attributed to Avicenna
A critical edition, translation, and some arguments against authenticity
Colin Murtha (Trier)
Among the texts of the Pseudo-Avicenna corpus, we find a short treatise on meteorology the authenticity of which remains to be determined, extant in three manuscripts under the title „Upper Affections“ (Al-āṯār al-ʿulwiyya). In this article, I provide the first critical edition of this treatise along with an English translation and commentary on its contents. In my commentary, I compare the contents with Avicenna’s meteorological writings in his philosophical summae and put forward three arguments against authenticity. Taken cumulatively, in considering the major differences on fundamental issues in natural philosophy between the treatise in question and Avicenna’s authentic meteorological writings in the summae, I conclude that a position against authenticity is highly favorable over claiming that it is an authentic work.
Contact: murtha@uni-trier.de