Illustration of an Armillary Sphere

Solomon ben Abraham Avigdor

Artist Unknown

1576

Image

Illustration of a sphere circled by rings at various angles, including illustrations of zodiac symbols. — This illustration of an armillary sphere 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

Courtesy the Russian State Library, Moscow, Ms. Guenzburg 122.

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

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Creator Bio

Born in Provence, Solomon ben Abraham Avigdor was a translator and physician. By the time he reached his teen years, he was already translating scientific works from Latin into Hebrew, including a translation of Arnauld de Villeneuve's work, De Judiciis Astronomiæ (On the Judgement of the Stars) at the age of 15. His translations were popular with later Hebrew scholars, who relied on them for Latin knowledge.