Pages of Stars: Case Studies in the History of the Astral Sciences from the Lawrence J. Schoenberg Collection

Michael Zellman-Rohrer,  Freie Universität Berlin

This talk offers a progress report on a larger project to place manuscripts on the astral sciences (astronomy and astrology) from Europe and the wider Mediterranean world in social context. It aims to bring these products of premodern science and their producers and users, in the fullness of their languages and faiths, into dialogue with social history and the history of science. In research supported by SIMS in 2025, I examined the rich holdings of the Schoenberg collection in the astral sciences. Here I will present a close look at four case studies, of manuscripts in Arabic, Greek, Hebrew, and Latin, that show manuscripts as tools of the trade for practitioners as well as curious readers. Their tissue of marks of production and use can shed light on the social meaning of these practices.

Friday, September 19, 2025, 12:00 - 1:30 pm EDT