Abstract

We present an analysis of three related tables, uniquely extant in Vatican, MS Heb. 384, for finding daily lunar positions in periods of 11,325 days (about 31 years), before and after January 1, 1400. This lunar period seems to have been unknown prior to the fourteenth century, when it appears in both Hebrew and Arabic astronomical texts from Spain and the Maghrib. Judging from the structure of these anonymous tables and the worked example, it is clear that the compiler intended to simplify calculations by the user. But the tables as preserved in this manuscript have many gaps that make it very difficult to derive the lunar position on any given date.

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