Current Research Projects in the Department

The Department is engaged in many long-term research projects, as well as many smaller projects. We present here some of those which are most closely identified with our approach to the history of science, which concentrates on making available in critical editions some of the thousands of unknown texts on mathematics and astronomy, on explaining them in terms both of modern science and of the culture that produced them, and on exploring the ways in which culture and science interact.

Akkadian

• The publication with translation and commentary of the Babylonian cuneiform tablets containing omens relating to Jupiter (Pingree; in collaboration with Dr. Erica Reiner of the University of Chicago)

Greek

• An edition in the Corpus des astronomes byzantins of the astronomical works of Gregory Chioniades in three volumes (Pingree; and Leichter)
• Editions, in the Teubner series, of Greek astrological texts, of Rhetorius of Egypt and of Theophilus of Edessa (Pingree)

Latin

• An encyclopedia-length article for the Catalogus Translationum et Commentariorum on the Medieval and Renaissance Latin tradition of works attributed to Ptolemy (Pingree)
• Editions for the Hermes Latinus series in the Corpus Christianorum, Continuatio Mediaevalis of several works attributed to Hermes Trismegistus (Pingree)
• Completion of the volume of descriptions of illustrated astrological, astronomical, and mythological manuscripts in Switzerland begun by the late E. Boer, to be published by the Warburg Institute (Pingree)

Arabic

• Editions, for the series Islamic Philosophy, Theology, and Science, of the Kitab al-mawalid attributed to Zaradusht and of three astrological works by Masha'allah with their translations into Greek and Latin (Pingree)
• An edition, for the same series, of the Zij al-Sanjari of al-Khazini (Pingree and Ikeyama)
• An edition of the Kitab al-tajmi' attributed to Jabir ibn Hayyan (Pingree; in collaboration with Dr. Noman al-Haq)

Sanskrit

• Series A, Volume 6 of the comprehensive Census of the Exact Sciences in Sanskrit, published by the American Philosophical Society (Pingree)
• A catalogue of almost 1,000 dharmasastra manuscripts at Oxford (Pingree)
• A catalogue of 1,000 jyotisa manuscripts at the Wellcome Institute in London (Pingree)
• Planning, organizing, and seeking support for the work of the American Committee for South Asian Manuscripts (a group of thirty-four members from Universities and Libraries across the United States and Canada): namely, to create on-line and printed catalogues of all manuscripts in North America (40,000 to 50,000) in South and West Asian languages (Pingree, Plofker, and Ikeyama)
• Participation in an Exact Sciences working group largely focused on exploring the interactions between Muslim and Hindu astronomers in North India between 1600 and 1800, again by examining hundreds of manuscripts of hitherto ignored texts in Persian, Arabic, and Sanskrit (Pingree, Plofker, and Ikeyama)

  Forthcoming publications in this working group:

  • A catalogue of Sanskrit manuscripts at Columbia University (Pingree)
  • An edition with translation and commentary of Ekanatha's Karanakutuhalatika (Plofker)
  • An edition of Kevalarama's Drkpaksasarani (Pingree and Ikeyama)
  • An edition of Nandarama's Yantrasara (Ikeyama)
  • An edition of the Arabic original and Sanskrit translation of al-Birjandi's commentary on a part of al-Tusi's Tadhkira (Pingree; with Dr. Takanori Kusuba of Osaka University)
  • A catalogue of the Sanskrit astronomical manuscripts at the Palace Library in Jaipur (Pingree, Plofker, Ikeyama, et alii)

This page was last updated 15 August 2002.