Star Lore Art The Alfonsine Tables 14th Century

The Alfonsine Tables are rightfully called the "Birth Certificate of European Astronomy." The tables were a Castilian translation of the Toledan Tables, which were created around 1080 by a group of Arabic astronomers at Toledo, Spain. The translation, carried out by the Toledo School of Translators in the mid-thirteenth century, were ordered by King Alfonso X, justly called Alfonso el Sabio (Alfons the Wise). Patrimonio Ediciones introduces an illustrated 14th century version of the Alfonsine Tables, currently owned by The Kupferstichkabinett (Museum of Prints and Drawings) in Berlin. This edition of the tables contains 50 full-page miniatures illuminated in gold and silver. Patrimonio Ediciones' website displays twenty of them, which are among the most elaborate versions of the early drawings in Al-Sufi's Book of Fixed Stars. Source of all images: patrimonioediciones.com

Aquarius

Ara

Boötes

Centaurus & Lupus

Argo Navis

Canis Major

Canis Minor

Cepheus

Cetus

Crater

Draco

Corvus

Hydra

Lepus

Hercules

Orion

Piscis Austrinus

Sagittarius

Pergamenthandschrift M II 141, a 15th century copy of the illustrations of the Alfonsine Tables contains the complete set of Ptolemy's 48 constellations.

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