Calendarium (Calendar) and Ephemerides (Ephemerides), accompanied by a liturgical calendar

Calendarium (Calendar) and Ephemerides (Ephemerides), accompanied by a liturgical calendar

This stout volume is a transcription of two of the astronomer Regiomontanus’s later works, based upon their incunable editions. This manuscript contains Regiomontanus’s highly accurate Calendarium, which provides information on lunar and solar eclipses, daylight hours, and the signs of the zodiac and planetary positions for the years 1475 to 1530 and the Ephemerides, which provides positions for the sun, moon, and planets for each day of each year from 1480 to 1506. Regiomontanus set up his own press in Nuremburg in 1475 in order to ensure sufficient quality in the complex lunar diagrams and tables. Each annual section is indicated by a leather or parchment finding tab. The inclusion of the feast of Saint Kilian and its related Octave in the volume’s liturgical calendar is specific to the Benedictine Abbey of Lambach, in Upper Austria on the Traun River south of Linz.

Author: Regiomontanus (Johannes Müller von Königsberg )

ca. 1480

Manuscript on paper and parchment; 377 fols.

University of Pennsylvania, Lawrence J. Schoenberg Collection, LJS 300

Upper Austria