ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

Between Tradition and Innovation: Tables as Instruments in Regiomontanus' Kalendarium

• In Event: Tabular Practices and the Cross-cultural Exchange of Knowledge in Ancient in Medieval Astronomy 2

English Abstract

This paper examines the Kalendarium as a textual and computational instrument designed to mediate between astronomical data and practical timekeeping. Focusing on its calendrical purpose, I analyze the Kalendarium’s tables, instructions, and layout as integral components of a coherent device for temporal calculation and astronomical prediction. The study investigates how users were guided in manipulating tabular data, and how the book-object operates as a self-contained, portable device. By situating the Kalendarium’s tabular structures in relation to the accompanying paper instruments—one volvelle and three horologia—this paper highlights its role within the broader late fifteenth-century tradition of what Husson (2021) and Kremer (2022) have termed “toolbox manuscripts.”

Author

• Johanna Garzon, Brown University