ABOULH HASSAN ALI / SEDILLOT, Jean-Jacques. Treatise on the astronomical instruments of the Arabs. Composed in the thirteenth century by Aboul Hhassan Ali, from Morocco, titled “Collection of Beginnings and Ends”. Translated from Arabic on manuscript 1147 of the Royal Library, by J. J. Sédillot and published by Louis Sédillot [his son].

First edition of the most comprehensive work that has reached us on ancient Arab astronomical instruments, composed in the thirteenth century by Aboul Hhassan Ali, from Morocco.

It is the first publication, in all languages,of the most comprehensive work on Islamic astronomical instruments that survived the medieval period.

Translated into French by the self-proclaimed astronomer and orientalist Jean Jacques Sédillot (1777-1832), the work was published posthumously by his son, Louis-Pierre-Eugène Amélie Sédillot.

Sédillot was the forerunner of what would become the modern study of the history of sciences: a field in which medieval Arabic texts constitute the core.

“According to Hadj-Khalfah, it is the most comprehensive work the Arabs have on astronomical instruments. It contains all the gnomonics believed to be lost, and precious tables, one of which was drawn up for the astronomical era of the beginning of the Hijra (Thursday, July 15, 622 AD, at noon).”

“This contains nothing specially about Morocco, but it shows the advanced state of Astronomical Science in that country in the 13th century, when the work was written“. (A Bibliography of Morocco, no. 575)

The original author of this particular Arabic text, Abu Ali al-Hassan al-Marrakushi, was a highly respected Moroccan scholar from the late 13th^th century who advanced astronomy and mathematics, particularly trigonometry. He wrote on each of these subjects in the work translated here, under its original title “Jami’ al-mabadi’ wa’l-ghayat fi ‘ilm al-miqat” (“Collection of Principles and Objectives of the Science of Time Measurement”). It is the most famous section of this work – the one concerningthe use and creation of astronomical instruments – that is preserved in Sédillot’s translation.

The 37 lithographed plates included at the end of the text, which are part of centuries of manuscript tradition, constitute a particularly important inclusion.

A working copy is currently offered on the market described as: “light exterior wear, spine redone. In very good condition.” The term “very good condition” does not suit a copy whose spine is redone.

Our copy is sumptuous, in pristine condition, in superb period binding.