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T: Modern Constellation Studies
44: Modern Investigators of Constellations and Star Names
Cover page of Volume 1 of Le vocabulaire latin de l'Astronomie by Andre le Boeuffle (1973, 3 Volumes).
(1) Mesopotamian
Hermann Hunger (1942- )
Austrian assyriologist. Professor of Assyriology at the University of Vienna until his retirement in 2007. A leading authority on Babylonian astronomy and Babylonian celestial omens.
Relevant key publication: Mul.Apin (1989, in collaboration with David Pingree).
Johannes Koch
German scholar (independent scholar?) specializing in Babylonian astronomy. Resides in Rothenburg ob der Taubner.
Relevant key publication: Neue Untersuchungen zur Topographie des babylonischen Fixsternhimmels (1989).
David Pingree (1933-2005)
American classicist and sanskritist and historian of early astronomy.
Relevant key publications: MUL.APIN (1989, in collaboration with Hermann Hunger); Astral Sciences in Mesopotamia (1999, in collaboration with Hermann Hunger).
Erica Reiner (1924-2005)
Hungarian-born American assyriologist. From 1973 to her retirement in 1996 she was editor-in-charge of the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary project.
Relevant key publication: Babylonian Planetary Omens: Part Two (1981, in collaboration with David Pingree).
(2) Hellenistic / Roman (Latin)
Gerd Grasshoff [Graßhoff]
Professor for Science Theory and Science History at the Universität Bern, as well as Director of the Institut für Philosophie der Universität Bern.
Relevant key publication: The History of Ptolemy's Star Catalogue (1990).
Andre le Boeuffle
French classicist and renowned specialist on Latin (i,e., Roman) astronomy. Currently (2007) professeur émérite à l'université d'Amiens.
Relevant key publications: Le vocabulaire latin de l'Astronomie (1973, 3 Volumes). (the volumes comprise the authors 1970 doctorate thesis on Classical Roman constellations and star names); Astronomie Astrologie Lexique Latin (1987); Le ciel des Romains (1989).
(3) Arabic
Paul Kunitzsch
German Arabist scholar and philologist. Currently (2007) Professor Emeritus of Arabic Studies at the University of Munich, Germany.
Relevant key publications: Arabische Sternnamen in Europa (1959) (the best and most reliable study of Western use (i.e., adaptations) of Arabic star names); Untersuchungen zur Sternnomenklatur der Araber (1961) (a study of indigenous Arabic constellations and star names); Über eine anwa-Tradition mit bisher unbekannten Sternnamen (1983) (an update to his Untersuchungen zur Sternnomenklatur der Araber); and Peter Apian und Azophi: Arabische Sternbilder in Ingolstadt im frühen 16. Jahrhundert (1986) (basically deals with Arabic constellations in Renaissance astronomy).
Roland Laffitte
French specialist in Semitic languages and Arabic, and specialist on Arab influences on Europe. Currently (2007) "linguiste émérite."
Relevant key publication: Héritages Arabes: Des noms arabes pour les étoiles (2001; 2nd edition 2005) (a study of the Arabic origins of numerous Western star names).
(4) Western
See above, especially Andre le Boeuffle for the establishment of Western constellations, and Paul Kunitzsch and Roland Laffitte for the Western use of Arabic-Islamic star names.
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