CIMA 63 Titel Inhalt

18
The second chapter (fols 293vb-294r) is particularly obscure. It consists of a text
opening Pytagores, Ptholome und ander meister die schribent… (fol. 293vb) and a
table containing the letter-number equivalents and the planet-number equivalents (like
in the Sphere of Pythagoras), and series of numbers, whose meaning is not clear.
Onomancy is also used in a chapter dealing with the planets (see section 4.3, below).
4. Tract on the 7 planets
(fols 253r-274va and 319v-323v)
This section is made of four distinct parts:
4.1. An almanach (fols 253ra-265v), or a set of tables giving the position of the five
planets (Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus and Mercury) in the signs of the zodiac at
intervals of five or ten days for a period of recurrence starting in 1340 A.D. This period
of recurrence, different for each planet (1340-1399 for Saturn, 1340-1423 for Jupiter,
1340-1419 for Mars, etc.), corresponds to the one commonly found in medieval
astronomical tables. 11 The Sun and the Moon are not taken into consideration here
because the computation of their position is provided in the computus section, as
reminded here in the introduction (fol. 253ra: Die andern zwen Sonne und Mone die
findet man gewonlich yn guten ka lenden…).
The presence of this almanach in the ‗Tübingen Book‘ is problematic for two reasons.
First, the position of the five planets is not needed for the elementary astrology exposed
in the work. Secondly, the almanach is ill-adapted to the middle of the fifteenth
century, since it was set up for a limited period of time starting in 1340. It could be
used in the fifteenth century, but, in this case, it would require complex calculations
involving adjustments which are provided nowhere (see the introduction to the
almanach, fol. 253ra-253vb).
4.2. The ‗children of the planets‘ (fols 266va-272r). This section has made the
‗Tübingen Book‘ famous among art historians, because it preserves one of the earliest
representations of the ‗children of the planets‘, i.e. illustrations showing each of the
planets, together with the type of men and women he/she rules. 12 The characteristics,
Pythagoras‘, in Popular and Practical Science of Medieval England, ed. L. M. Matheson, East
Lansing (Mich.), 1994, pp. 123-139.
11 On astronomical tables and almanachs, see e.g. Emmanuel POULLE, Les sources
astronomiques (textes, tables, instruments), Turnhout, 1981. Id., Les tables alphonsines avec les
canons de Jean de Saxe, Paris, 1984. José CHABÁS and Bernard GOLDSTEIN, Astronomy in the
Iberian Peninsula: Abraham Zacut and the Transition from Manuscript to Print, Philadelphia,
2000.
12 See especially Jean SEZNEC, The Survival of the Pagan Gods… (as n. 2 above). Raymond
KLIBANSKI, Erwin PANOFSKI and Fritz SAXL, Saturn and the Melancholy. Studies in the History
of Natural Philosophy, Religion and Art, London, 1964. Gwendolyn TROTTEIN, Les enfants de