A folio from the Codex Climaci Rescriptus. Credit: Peter Malik
Composed over 2000 years earlier, the Hipparchus Star Catalogue is the oldest known attempt to determine the exact position of repaired stars.
Pieces of the Star Catalogue composed by the Greek astronomer Hipparchus throughout the 2nd century BC have actually recently been discovered by researchers from the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), Sorbonne University, and Tyndale House (related to the University of Cambridge). These texts were discovered using multispectral imaging methods after being cleaned from a manuscript during the medieval duration in order to recycle the pages. The study of these extracts, which was published in the Journal for the History of Astronomy, sheds brand-new light on ancient astronomy.
Even for the most Cartesian of minds, old grimoires often consist of sought-after mysteries, such as the pieces of a lost huge treatise called the Hipparchus Star Catalogue. The Greek astronomer Hipparchus wrote it in between 170 and 120 BC, making it the first recorded effort to determine the precise area of repaired stars by associating them with mathematical coordinates.
This text was formerly only known through the works of Claudius Ptolemy, another ancient astronomer who compiled his own brochure about 400 years after Hipparchus. The descriptions of four constellations from Hipparchus Star Catalogue have just recently been analyzed by scientists from the Léon Robin Center for Research on Ancient Thought (CNRS/Sorbonne University) and their British coworker from Tyndale House in Cambridge.
This discovery originates from the Codex Climaci Rescriptus a book made up of parchments that were removed and after that rewritten, also called a palimpsest. In the past, this Codex contained a huge poem in ancient Greek with, among components of commentary on the poem, fragments of Hipparchus Catalogue. This palimpsest text, removed in medieval times, has been exposed through multispectral imaging by teams from the Early Manuscripts Electronic Library, the Lazarus Project, and the Rochester Institute of Technology.
The fragments of the Star Catalogue are the oldest known to date and bring major advances in its restoration. Firstly, they refute an extensive concept that Claudius Ptolemys Star Catalogue is simply a “copy” of Hipparchus as the observations of the 4 constellations are different. Hipparchus data are validated to the nearest degree, which would make his brochure much more accurate than Ptolemys, even though it was composed several centuries previously.
For the research study team this major discovery sheds new light on the history of astronomy in antiquity and on the beginnings of the history of science. Above all, it shows the power of advanced strategies, such as multispectral imaging, whose application on illegible palimpsests could save many lost texts on viewpoint, medicine, or horticulture from oblivion.
Referral: “New proof for Hipparchus Star Catalogue exposed by multispectral imaging” by Victor Gysembergh, Peter J. Williams and Emanuel Zingg, 18 October 2022, Journal for the History of Astronomy.DOI: 10.1177/ 00218286221128289.
Fragments of the Star Catalogue written by the Greek astronomer Hipparchus throughout the 2nd century BC have recently been discovered by scientists from the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), Sorbonne University, and Tyndale House (associated with the University of Cambridge). In the past, this Codex included an astronomical poem in ancient Greek with, amongst aspects of commentary on the poem, pieces of Hipparchus Catalogue. They refute a prevalent idea that Claudius Ptolemys Star Catalogue is simply a “copy” of Hipparchus as the observations of the 4 constellations are different.
