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Little Astronomy

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Little Astronomy (Greek: Μικρὸς Ἀστρονομούμενος Mikrós Astronomoúmenos) is a collection of minor works in Ancient Greek mathematics and astronomy dating from the 4th to 2nd century BCE that were probably used as an astronomical curriculum starting around the 2nd century CE. In the astronomy of the medieval Islamic world, with a few additions, the collection became known as the Middle Books (Arabic: كتاب المتوسطات Kitāb al-mutawassiṭāt), mathematical preparation for Claudius Ptolemy's Almagest, intended for students who had already studied Euclid's Elements.[1]

Works in the collection

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The works contained in the collection are:[2][3]

In Arabic translation as the Middle Books, additional works, also originally written in Ancient Greek, were often included:[1]

Although these works are all generally found together in numerous medieval Byzantine and Arabic manuscripts, it is unclear whether this specific set of works was originally intentionally compiled together as a collection.[1] All of the works are elementary treatises that would have been useful in a classroom setting, which increased their chance of survival through continuous use by students, and may have resulted in several of them being gathered together multiple different times independently.[1] The earliest known author to mention the existence of a discrete "Little Astronomy" collection by name is Pappus of Alexandria, in the 4th century CE, who devotes book VI of his Collection to a commentary on selected works by Theodosius, Menelaus, Aristarchus, Euclid, and Autolycus.[3][1] The oldest manuscript in which all of the extant Greek works are preserved together is Codex Vaticanus Graecus 204, which dates from the 9th or 10th century CE.[1]

Notes

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  1. ^ a b c d e f Evans 1998.
  2. ^ Roughan 2023.
  3. ^ a b Little 2025, p. 4.

References

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  • Evans, James (1998). The History & Practice of Ancient Astronomy. Oxford University Press. "The Little Astronomy", pp. 89–91. ISBN 0-19-509539-1.
  • Little, John B. (2025). Book VI of the Mathematical Collection of Pappus of Alexandria: Comprising solutions of difficulties in the "Little Astronomy". Holy Cross Bookshelf.
  • Roughan, Christine (2023). The Little Astronomy and Middle Books between the 2nd and 13th Centuries CE: Transmissions of Astronomical Curricula (PhD thesis). New York University.

Further reading

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