CIMA 63 Titel Inhalt

20
5. Tract on the 36 constellations
(fols 312r-319r and 323r-326r)
This section contains illustrations of the constellations in the following order: Draco
inter Arctos, Draco, Hercules, Corona, Serpentarius, Bootes, Auriga, Cepheus,
Cassiopeia, Pegasus, Andromeda, Perseus, Triangulum, Pleiades, Lyra, Cygnus, Vultur
Volans, Vultur Cadens, [Cetus, Eridanus, Figura Sonans Canonem, Delphinus, Orion,
Canis, Lepus, Argo, Austronotus,] Daemon Meridianus, Piscis Magnus, Ara,
Centaurus, Vexillum, Hydra, Antecanis, Equus Minor, and Terebellum (the nine
constellations in square brackets take place on fols 323v-326r). The illustrations are
accompanied by a short explanatory text and by the corresponding geomantic figure(s).
Descriptions of the 48 constellations can be traced back to Antiquity, in the first place
to the Phaenomena of Aratos of Soloi (third century B.C.), which gave birth to rich
Greek, Latin and Arabic traditions. The sequence, as well as the forms and the names
of the constellations in the ‗Tübingen Book‘ ultimately derive from the Liber
introductorius of Michael Scot (died ca. 1235), the famous astrologer of Frederick II
Hohenstaufen, who mixed the Latin and Arabic traditions in an entirely original way. 14
The main change is the omission of the 12 zodiacal signs, which is of course to be
explained by the fact that they have been dealt with sufficiently earlier in the ‗Tübingen
Book‘.
14 The constellation cycles in medieval and Renaissance manuscripts (including the ‗Tübingen
Book‘), have been studied by Rembrandt DUITS, ‗Celestial Transmissions. An Iconographical
Classification of Constellation Cycles in Manuscripts (8 th -15 th Centuries)‘ (forthcoming in
Scriptorium). ), see esp. ‗Series D3‘ and manuscript 139. Michael Scot‘s constellations are also
described in Ulrike BAUER, Der ‘Liber introductorius’ des Michael Scotus in der Abschrift Clm
10268 der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek: ein illustrierter astronomisch-astrologischer Codex aus
Padua, 14. Jahrhundert, München, 1983.