ASTRONOMY IN THE MEDIEVAL LIBER FLORIDUS

Abstract

The Liber floridus is a medieval encyclopaedia, authored by a certain Lambert, Canon of Saint-Omer. The work was finished in 1121 and deals with a multitude of different topics, from religion and history to geography and astronomy. The Gent manuscript, which is the autograph, contains 287 folios of parchment. Detailed descriptions were given by Delisle (1906) and Derolez (1998). The topics of Lambert‟s astronomy are divers. The movement of the sun and moon, the calendar, and the constellations are described. Several planetary diagrams are given, followed by astrological drawings as well as various geographical, meteorological, and astronomical remarks. These astronomical texts and figures so far have not been the object of detailed studies. In this paper an overview on the astronomical topics of the manuscript is given, several pages are described in more detail, and possible sources are discussed.