Description
Beginning with De compoto lunae by Helperic de Gradual, this manuscript compilation with around 120 folios also contains an excerpt from Pliny the Elder. In it there are five diagrams, two of which were very popular: the longitudes and latitudes. These diagrams took different forms of presenting the information about the position of the planets in the sky (in regard to the ecliptic). The longitudes (or apsides: the farthest points of the orbit regarding the object around witch it moves) diagram tries to lay out the orbits of the planets as they were described by Pliny the Elder; in the particular case of this manuscript, the scribe (or illustrator) was more concerned with designing a symmetrical figure and creating a codified reading of the image than with using the data in the text about distances and variations of the orbits during the year.
Attribution
Pliny the Elder
Manuscript number
MSS/9605, f. 12r
Title
Tratados varios del computo eclesiastico
Library/Collection
Biblioteca Nacional de Espana
Bibliography
Luces del norte : manuscritos iluminados franceses y flamencos de la Biblioteca Nacional de España : catálogo razonado. Samuel Gras (autor y comisario) ; Javier Docampo (director de la publicación y comisario), [Madrid], 2021 pp. 44 -48, cat. n. 2.
