Josefina Rodríguez-Arribas
I currently lead PERIPHERIES (MSCA COFUND), an interdisciplinary project on the identity and scientific cultural heritage of minorities, specifically the Jewish communities of Europe and the Mediterranean between the 13th and 17th centuries. The objective is to explore and understand their cultural in/visibility in Christian societies by analyzing specific fields of knowledge—located on the periphery of the dominant cultural currents— and their related practices. My focus is on the stellar sciences and their material and visual cultures as reflected in the manuscripts, images, and objects that circulated among Jews and non-Jews in the geographical areas and periods above-mentioned. The project is supported by a network of experts and researchers from universities all around the world and includes conferences, workshops, round tables, courses, and different outreach activities.
Josefina Rodríguez-Arribas holds a BA in Classics and a Ph.D. in Hebrew Language and Literature. She is a Professor at the Polish Academy of Sciences (Warsaw) and has been a researcher at the Institut für Jüdische Studien (Westfälischen Wilhelms-Universität Münster), Käte Hamburger Kolleg IKGF (Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg), Warburg Institute (School of Advanced Studies, University of London), Frankel Institute for Advanced Judaic Studies (University of Michigan), Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies (Oxford University), Sidney M. Edelstein Center for History and Philosophy of Science (Hebrew University of Jerusalem), and the Departments of History of Science and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University. The core of her research is medieval scientific manuscripts, pre-modern science and technology (including instruments), and pre-modern divinatory techniques and theories. She is co-editor of Unveiling the Hidden–Anticipating the Future: Divinatory Practices among Jews Between Qumran and the Modern Period (Brill 2021) and Astrolabes in Medieval Cultures (Brill, 2017 and 2019) and author of El cielo de Sefarad: Los judíos y los astros (El Almendro, 2011). She has written articles and chapters on medieval Jewish science, scientific instruments, and prognostication.
Josefina Rodríguez-Arribas holds a BA in Classics and a Ph.D. in Hebrew Language and Literature. She is a Professor at the Polish Academy of Sciences (Warsaw) and has been a researcher at the Institut für Jüdische Studien (Westfälischen Wilhelms-Universität Münster), Käte Hamburger Kolleg IKGF (Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg), Warburg Institute (School of Advanced Studies, University of London), Frankel Institute for Advanced Judaic Studies (University of Michigan), Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies (Oxford University), Sidney M. Edelstein Center for History and Philosophy of Science (Hebrew University of Jerusalem), and the Departments of History of Science and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University. The core of her research is medieval scientific manuscripts, pre-modern science and technology (including instruments), and pre-modern divinatory techniques and theories. She is co-editor of Unveiling the Hidden–Anticipating the Future: Divinatory Practices among Jews Between Qumran and the Modern Period (Brill 2021) and Astrolabes in Medieval Cultures (Brill, 2017 and 2019) and author of El cielo de Sefarad: Los judíos y los astros (El Almendro, 2011). She has written articles and chapters on medieval Jewish science, scientific instruments, and prognostication.
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Articles by Josefina Rodríguez-Arribas
construction of astrolabes in Arabic (Seville 1376, non-extant) which
has survived in a later Hebrew version produced by Jacob al-Corsuno
himself (Barcelona 1378). Having published in 2018 a scientific
edition of the Hebrew version based on the only manuscript known
by then (München BSB heb. 261), I have recently identified a new
manuscript containing part of the Hebrew version (Paris BnF hébr.
1030) which differs significantly from the BSB witness. This article
uses this discovery (a) to conduct an in-depth study of the two
manuscripts of Jacob al-Corsuno’s text, focusing in particular on their
codicological, textual, and paratextual features and what they can tell
us about the scribes, users, and their corresponding contexts; (b) to
publish a critical edition of Jacob al-Corsuno’s text based on both
manuscripts (together with the edition of two short manuscript texts
related to al-Corsuno’s treatise); and (c) to update/correct the edition
and translation previously published.
We will explore what 'cultural' means in the astronomy practiced by astronomers in Europe during these periods. We will reflect on and discuss critical research questions about cultures and astronomy. For instance:
a) What aspects of astronomical knowledge and practice can be considered cultural.
b) Whether there is an overlapping between the fields of the History of Astronomy and Cultural Astronomy.
c) Why the History of Astronomy is more well-represented than Cultural Astronomy in current research and publications.
d) How astronomy relates to society and aspects of culture, such as the arts, religion, literature, and the built environment.
e) How the study of astronomy and culture helps us understand the History of Astronomy and the history and nature of science.
We are interested in exploring all forms of Cultural Astronomy in Europe: astrological, religious, kabbalistic, political, philosophical, heretic, etc.
By the end of this course, students will be familiar with an exciting new and genuinely interdisciplinary field. They will be able to identify and describe different manifestations of Cultural Astronomy in Europe between the 13th and 17th centuries and detect the various forms in which astronomical practice, knowledge, and beliefs relate to the attitudes and values of a period and area.
Book chapter by Josefina Rodríguez-Arribas
construction of astrolabes in Arabic (Seville 1376, non-extant) which
has survived in a later Hebrew version produced by Jacob al-Corsuno
himself (Barcelona 1378). Having published in 2018 a scientific
edition of the Hebrew version based on the only manuscript known
by then (München BSB heb. 261), I have recently identified a new
manuscript containing part of the Hebrew version (Paris BnF hébr.
1030) which differs significantly from the BSB witness. This article
uses this discovery (a) to conduct an in-depth study of the two
manuscripts of Jacob al-Corsuno’s text, focusing in particular on their
codicological, textual, and paratextual features and what they can tell
us about the scribes, users, and their corresponding contexts; (b) to
publish a critical edition of Jacob al-Corsuno’s text based on both
manuscripts (together with the edition of two short manuscript texts
related to al-Corsuno’s treatise); and (c) to update/correct the edition
and translation previously published.
We will explore what 'cultural' means in the astronomy practiced by astronomers in Europe during these periods. We will reflect on and discuss critical research questions about cultures and astronomy. For instance:
a) What aspects of astronomical knowledge and practice can be considered cultural.
b) Whether there is an overlapping between the fields of the History of Astronomy and Cultural Astronomy.
c) Why the History of Astronomy is more well-represented than Cultural Astronomy in current research and publications.
d) How astronomy relates to society and aspects of culture, such as the arts, religion, literature, and the built environment.
e) How the study of astronomy and culture helps us understand the History of Astronomy and the history and nature of science.
We are interested in exploring all forms of Cultural Astronomy in Europe: astrological, religious, kabbalistic, political, philosophical, heretic, etc.
By the end of this course, students will be familiar with an exciting new and genuinely interdisciplinary field. They will be able to identify and describe different manifestations of Cultural Astronomy in Europe between the 13th and 17th centuries and detect the various forms in which astronomical practice, knowledge, and beliefs relate to the attitudes and values of a period and area.
This book on astrology among Jews in medieval Spain in the 12th and 14th centuries first provides the reader an introduction to basic medieval astronomical tenets and terminology. This introduction is completed by an outline of the history of astronomy and astrology in al-Andalus focussing on the reception of arabic science in medieval Muslim and –to a lesser degree– in Christian Spain. The body of the book consists of studies on the astrological teachings of three out- standing Jewish scholars of Spanish origin – Abraham Bar Hiyya (died after 1136), Abraham Ibn Ezra (1089/92-1164/67) and Yosef ben Eliezer Bonfils (1335-1388).
We will explore what 'cultural' means in the astronomy practiced by astronomers in Europe during these periods. We will reflect on and discuss critical research questions about cultures and astronomy. For instance:
a) What aspects of astronomical knowledge and practice can be considered cultural.
b) Whether there is an overlapping between the fields of the History of Astronomy and Cultural Astronomy.
c) Why the History of Astronomy is more well-represented than Cultural Astronomy in current research and publications.
d) How astronomy relates to society and aspects of culture, such as the arts, religion, literature, and the built environment.
e) How the study of astronomy and culture helps us understand the History of Astronomy and the history and nature of science.
We are interested in exploring all forms of Cultural Astronomy in Europe: astrological, religious, kabbalistic, political, philosophical, heretic, etc.