Levi ben Gerson’s Models for the Latitudes of Saturn and Jupiter
摘要
Premodern astronomers often analyzed the longitudinal motion of the planets through the ecliptic, the path traced by the Sun around the Earth, in isolation from the motion of the planets in latitude to the north and south of the ecliptic. Although the models, i.e., configurations of orbs, for latitudes could be integrated into those for longitudes, astronomers presented them separately. Historians of astronomy in Islamic societies and in Jewish cultures, whether they study theoretical models or tables, have researched planetary longitudes much more than planetary latitudes. In this chapter, I will build on recent research on theories for planetary latitudes.