Main Menu | List of entries | finished

ARSECHIELE(S). Abu Ishaq Ibrahim ibn-Yahya al-Naqqash, better known as ibn al-Zarqala or al-Zarqali, and whose Latin name was Arzachel, flourished at Cordova, c. 1029-1089. He was the best observer of the heavens in his time. His observations are dated 1061 and 1080. He invented an improved astrolabe called Safiha flatus or saphaea Arzachelis, the flat sphere or Arzachel's sphere, and his description of it was translated into Latin, Hebrew, and many vernaculars. He was the first to calculate explicitly the motion of the solar apogee, the point most distant from the earth, with reference to the stars. He also edited the so-called Toledan Tables, planetary tables based on observations made at Toledo and published by him and other Muslim and Jewish astronomers. These tables were translated into Latin by Gerard of Cremona during the twelfth century and enjoyed much popularity, but they were rendered obsolete by the Alfonsine Tables, made for Alfonso the Wise of Castile and Leon in 1272. One of the moon's craters is named Arzarchel.

The astronomer and magician of Orleans brings out his Tables Tolletanes, adapted to Orleans, FranklT 1273-1274. In Astr II.45.2 they are called Arsechiele's tables. [Gerard of Cremona]

Arsechieles is the ME genitive case of Arsechiele, the modification of Latin Arzachel, formed from Arabic al-Zarqali al-Naqqash, meaning "the engraver."


R.W.T. Gunther, Early Science at Oxford, 200-201, 384; F.P. Magoun, Jr., A Chaucer Gazetteer, 157; G.J. Toomer, "A Survey of the Toledan Tables." Osiris 15 (1968): 5-174.
From CHAUCER NAME DICTIONARY
Copyright © 1988, 1996 Jacqueline de Weever
Published by Garland Publishing, Inc., New York and London.

Main Menu | List of entries | finished