Biographies of Modern Historians of Ancient Occidental Astral Sciences by Gary D. Thompson
Copyright © 2005-2008 by Gary D. Thompson
The biographical list is separated into past and current scholars, and each part is in alphabetic order per last name.
Part 1: Past
Asger Aaboe. (1922-2007). Danish mathematician and historian. Born in Copenhagen. He was educated at the University of Copenhagen in mathematics, astronomy, physics, and chemistry. His Master's thesis supervisor at the University of Copenhagen was Olaf Schmidt who had been Otto Neugebauer's assistant in Copenhagen and then his PhD student at Brown University. (Olaf Schmidt was continuing the tradition of Otto Neugebauer's approach to the history of mathematics.) In 1952 Asger Aaboe came to the USA to stay (he had taught there from 1947 to 1948 as a Visiting Lecturer in Mathematics) and joined the Mathematics Department at Tufts University as an Instructor. At Olaf Schmidt's suggestion he studied under Otto Neugebauer at Brown University from 1955 to 1956 as a President's Fellow. He obtained a PhD from Brown University (1957). His PhD was supervised by Otto Neugebauer at Brown University and his dissertation title was: On Babylonian Planetary Theories. From 1952 to 1962 he taught at Tufts University, and in 1962 joined Yale University as an Associate Professor of the History of Mathematics and the History of Science. For over 25 years he was Associate Professor/Professor of Mathematics and the History of Science at Yale University. In 1967 he was promoted to full professorship in the departments of Mathematics and the History of Science. Asger Aaboe was a specialist in the mathematics and astronomy of ancient Mesopotamia and a major contributor to the study of such. He specialised in the arithmetical astronomy of the Late-Babylonian period. He deciphered cuneiform texts (dating from circa 700 to 150 BCE) relating to Babylonian lunar and planetary theories. He published some two dozen technical papers in the USA and Europe. He also published four important booklets on Babylonian lunar theory. One of his major contributions was his recognition of the elegant mathematical rule that determines the distribution of the synodic phenomena on the ecliptic according to System A of Babylonian astronomy. He was a noted teacher and a considerable part of his career was spent training graduate students. Asger Aaboe was a member of the International Academy of the History of Science, (a Foreign Member of) the Danish Royal Academy of Sciences and Letters, the Institute for Research in Classical Philosophy and Science, the History of Science Society, and the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1987 a Festschrift in his honour was published in Copenhagen (From Ancient Omens to Statistical Mechanics). He retired in 1992. During his latter years he was Emeritus Professor of Mathematics, History of Science, and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Yale University. From 1968 to 1971 he chaired the Department of the history of Science and Medicine at Yale University. From 1970 to 1980 he was President of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences. He authored two textbooks for students: Episodes from the Early History of Mathematics (1964); and Episodes from the Early History of Astronomy (2001). Relevant key publications: Episodes from the Early History of Astronomy (2001).
Carl Bezold. (1859-1922). German assyriologist. He was born at Donauwörth in Bavaria in 1859 and died in Heidelberg (Germany) in 1922. He lived in London (England) from 1888 to 1895 whilst engaged in preparing a catalogue of the British Museum tablet collections. The end result was the Catalogue of the Cuneiform Tablets of the Kouyunjik Collection of the British Museum (5 Volumes, 1889-1899). This catalogue contains descriptions of approximately 14,500 tablets and fragments. His knowledge of assyriology was considered encyclopedic. He was proficient in numerous ancient and modern languages including Chinese, Assyrian, Arabic, Syriac, English, French, and Italian. From 1886 to 1915 he was the editor of Zeitschrift für Assyriologie. In 1894 he was appointed Professor of Semitic Philology and Director of Oriental Seminars at the University of Heidelberg. He held this prestigious academic position until his death. Bezold's 1911 pamphlet Astronomie, Himmelsschau und Astrallehre bei den Babylonier strongly defended Franz Kugler's chronology of Babylonian scientific astronomy and also his critique of Panbabylonism. Relevant key publications: Zenit- und Aequartorialgestirne am babylonischen Fixsternhimmel (1913, in collaboration with August Kopff and Franz Boll).
Franz Boll. (1867-1924). German philologist. Franz Boll was a renowned German classical philologist who specialized in ancient astronomy and astrology. He had the ability to combine astronomy, religion, and literature with great originality. His early death in 1924 at the age of 57 put an end to his further masterly contributions to elucidating little-known traditions. His last academic position was Professor of Classical Philology at the University of Heidelberg. Relevant key publications: Sphaera (1903).
Auguste Bouché-Leclercq. (1842-1923). French historian. He was Professor of Literature and History at the University of Montpellier and Paris. Relevant key publications: L'Astrologie grecque (1899).
Frederick Cramer. (1906-1954). Historian. Born in Germany but moved to USA in 1938 to join the Mount Holyoke College as an associate professor of history. His PhD was from the University of Zurich. He was killed in 1954 whilst competing in the Tour de France automobile race. An archive of his papers is held in the Archives and Special Collections, Mount Holyoke College. Relevant key publications: Astrology in Roman Law and Politics (1956).
Franz Cumont. (1868-1947). Belgian archaeologist, historian, and philologist. He obtained his PhD from the University of Ghent in 1887. Between 1887 and 1906 he was actively involved in a number of archaeological excavations in Pontus (the region of northeast Asia Minor bordering on the Black Sea) and Armenia. From 1906 he was a Professor at the University of Ghent, Belgium. His research into the neglected Roman cult of Mithraism established his reputation as an historian of religions. The theory that Roman Mithraism had its origins in Persian Zoroastrianism (i.e., the Persian sun-god Mithra) was first proposed by Franz Cumont in his two-volume study Textes et monuments figurés relatifs aux mystères de Mithra (1896 and 1899). At least during 1910 Cumont corresponded with Franz Kugler who was then attending the International Congress of Orientalists in Copenhagen. (Cumont also corresponded with Carl Bezold in Germany.) He resigned his position at the University of Ghent when, in spite of faculty recommendation and student support, Édouard Descamps (Baron Descamps), Belgium's Minister of Arts and Sciences from 1907 to 1910, refused to approve his appointment to the chair of Roman History and another candidate was named in 1912. He then divided his time between Rome and Paris and also conducted an archaeological excavation of Dura-Europas on the Euphrates River in eastern Syria. Relevant key publications: Catalogus Codicum Astrologorum Graecorum (12 Parts, 1898-1909, Part 1 by Franz Cumont and Franz Boll).
Robert Eisler (1882-1949). Jewish Austrian (cultural) historian. (He is also identified as a Jungian psychologist.) He was born in Vienna, Austria and died in Oxford, England. He had a vast knowledge of diverse subjects but critics regard him as an overly imaginative historian (i.e., proposed eccentric theories). He spent most of World War II imprisoned in the Buchenwald and Dachau concentration camps. His literary estate is housed in the Warburg Institute Archives. His lengthy typeset manuscript of a monograph on the constellations of the Babylonian and Egyptian spheres, and their modifications by the Greeks of the Achæan period, is held in the Archives of the Griffith Institute at the Ashmolean Museum. His books and essays are not wholly reliable and need to be used with care. The American scholar Erwin Goodenough (Jewish Symbols in the Greco-roman World, abridged edition by Jacob Neusner, Page 128) described Eisler's various works, especially Weltenmantel und Himmelszelt (1910), as "highly valuable as phantasmagorias of uncritically used material." Relevant key publications: Weltenmantel und Himmelszelt (2 Volumes, 1910).
Joseph Epping SJ. (1835-1894). German mathematician and astronomer. He was born at Neuenkirchen near Rhine in Westphalia and died at the Jesuit College at Exaeten Castle, Holland. He is acknowledged as the founder of the study of cuneiform mathematical astronomical texts. Epping entered the Jesuit Order in 1859 and in 1863 he was appointed Professor of Mathematic and Astronomy at Maria Laach. In 1872 he went with the Jesuit mission to Ecuador and was appointed Professor of Mathematics at the newly formed Escuela Politécnica Nacional (National Polytechnic School) (established/converted in 1869 from the former Central University of Quito). When the Jesuits were forced to leave Ecuador in 1876 he went to Blijenbeeck Castle, Holland (because of the Jesuitengezetz in Germany). He met again with Johann Strassmaier, a past colleague from Maria Laach, when Strassmaier came to Blijenbeeck Castle in 1881 to work on his cuneiform syllabary (Alphabetisches Verzeichniss). Epping was requested by Strassmaier to assist in establishing the nature of the astronomical content of numerous late astronomical cuneiform tablets. Epping agreed to take up the study of such - which involved numerous laborious calculations. In September 1881 they described the nature of the problems they faced in a joint article in the Jesuit journal Stimmen aus Maria Laach. Also in 1881 Epping was moved to Exaeten as part of the intention of the German Province of the Jesuit Order to gather together at Exaeten most of its Jesuits involved in writing. The collaboration between Epping and Strassmaier continued to remain in place even after Strassmaier returned to London in 1884. The first detailed results of their efforts were published in 1889 in book form (as supplement number 44 to the journal Stimmen aus Maria Laach). Relevant key publications: Astronomisches aus Babylon (1889, in collaboration with Johann Strassmaier).
Wilhelm Gundel. (1880-1945). German philologist. Wilhelm Gundel was a renowned German classical philologist who specialized in the history of ancient astronomy and astrology (and alchemy). He was a specialist in Greco-Roman and Egyptian astral-lore and wrote prolifically on these topics. He was born in Strassburg and at the time of his early death he was a Professor at the University of Gissen (or Giessen). (He had received his PhD in 1903 from the University of Gissen.) He also taught at the High School in Gissen. His academic career was spent studying ancient astronomy and astrology. During his career he published over 100 papers and (encyclopedia) articles. Many of his articles appeared in Pauly-Wissowa, Real-Encyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft. He prepared the 3rd edition (1931) of Sternglaube und Sterndeutung by Franz Boll and Carl Bezold (an uneven but excellent short introduction to ancient Western astrology). Gundel was criticised for over-emphasising the Egyptian influence on the development of astrological beliefs. Towards the end of World War II he was detained and mistreated by the Gestapo. A small memorial volume was printed. It contains 3 of Wilhelm Gundel's articles from Pauly-Wissowa, Real-Encyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, an evaluation of his scientific work by Albert Rehm, a biography by his son Hans Gundel, and a list of his publications. Relevant key publications: Sterne und Sternbilder im Glauben des Altertums und der Neuzeit (1922); Dekane und Dekansternbilder (1936); and Neue Astrologische Texte des Hermes Trismegistos (1936).
Hans Gundel. (1912-1999). German papyrologist. Son of the German Philologist Wilhelm Gundel. He was Professur für Alte Geschichte, Justus-Liebig-Universität, Giessen [Gissen]. Relevant key publications: Zodiakos (1992).
Morris Jastrow Junior. (1861-1921). Naturalised American citizen. Considered himself to be an assyriologist. Born in Warsaw, Poland and came to Philadelphia, USA, in the autumn of 1866 when his father Rabbi Marcus Jastrow agreed to be the Rabbi for the then Orthodox Rodeph Shalom Congregation (Rodef Shalom) there. (In 1866 the long established Rodeph Shalom Congregation in Philadelphia had just completed construction of a large synagogue. Marcus Jastrow was an eminent Rabbi (and had been in charge of a congregation in Warsaw, and then Worms) and Talmudic lexicographer.) Morris Jastrow Junior initially studied for the ministry, and for a short time assisted his father, but preferred scholastic work. He studied Oriental languages at the universities of Breslau, Leipzig, Strassburg, and Paris, and received his PhD from the University of Leipzig in 1884. (His doctoral dissertation concerned the unpublished grammatical works of a Jewish Arabic Grammarian.) In 1885 he started teaching at the University of Pennsylvania. Originally the university appointed him to a professorship in Arabic and Rabbinics. In 1887 he became Lecturer in Semitics. In 1891 the university changed his title to Professor of Semitics (or Professor of Semitic Languages and Literature?). Morris Jastrow Junior was the founder of University of Pennsylvania's Semitic languages program. He was also a pioneering figure in the critical study of religion. His appointment at the University of Pennsylvania was unpaid. His income came from his service as rabbi at a synagogue in Philadelphia. Many of his publications were on Babylonian and Assyrian religion. In 1888 he became Assistant Librarian of the University. From 1898 to 1919 (or until his death in 1921?) he was Librarian of the University (or Director of the university's library?). In 1914 his alma mater honoured him by conferring on him the Degree of Doctor of Laws. In 1915 he became president of the American Oriental Society. Relevant key publications: Die Religion Babyloniens und Assyriens (2 Volumes in 3 Parts, 1905-1912).
Peter Jensen. (1861-1936). German assyriologist. Professor für semitische Sprachen; Professor für orientalische Geschichte (at the University of Marburg). He did valuable early work with the translation of cuneiform texts. He became a firm supporter of Panbabylonist views and had an independent approach to the topic through the Gilgamesh epic.
Franz Kugler SJ. (1862-1929). German chemist, mathematician, astronomer, assyriologist, chronologist, and historian. He was born in Königsbach, Germany and died in a Catholic nursing home in Lucerne, Switzerland. In 1885 he received a PhD in chemistry. (During 1884-1885 he was an assistant in the chemical laboratory at the Technischen Hochschule München whilst undertaking his doctoral studies.) In 1886 he entered the Jesuit Order and in 1893 he was ordained a priest. In 1894 the Jesuit Order appointed him Professor of Astronomy and Mathematics at the newly built Ignatius-College, Valkenburg (in Holland). In 1897, at the age of 35, he was appointed Professor of Higher Mathematics there. For most of his career he resided in Holland at the Jesuit theologate at Valkenburg. After the death of Joseph Epping in 1894 Kugler expressed his interest in taking over and continuing Epping's work. Kugler's monumental work on the Babylonian theory of the moon appeared in 1900 (Die Babylonische Mondrechnung) and that of the planets in 1907 (Sternkunde und Sterndienst in Babel, Volume 1). Volume 2 and supplements of SSB basically contain essays on a variety of topics relating to Babylonian astronomy. He was brilliant at decoding Babylonian mathematical astronomical texts. The great bulk of Kugler's work on the rediscovery of Babylonian mathematical astronomy was almost exclusively based on the copies of astronomical texts in the British Museum that were made by the pioneer assyriologist and prolific copyist Johann Strassmaier SJ. On several occasions, basically between 1900 and 1910 after Strassmaier's work at the British Museum came to a premature end, he visited the British Museum to access the actual tablets he was engaged in decoding. World War 1 and the hardships it imposed on the Valkenburg klooster seems to have effectively ended his studies on Babylonian astronomy and thereafter he focused his attention on chronological matters. (His middle name Xaver is sometimes misspelled Xavier.) Relevant key publications: Sternkunde und Sterndienst in Babel (2 Volumes and 2 Supplements in 6 Parts, 1907-1924).
Otto Neugebauer. (1899-1990). Austrian mathematician and historian of early mathematics and early astronomy. He was born in Innsbruck, Austria and died in the USA. His PhD was obtained in 1926 from the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen. His doctoral dissertation title was Die Grundlagen de agyptischen Bruchrechnung. His academic career was dominated by the study of the early history of mathematics. Whilst studying mathematics at the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen he made the decision to specialise in the early history of mathematics. He was generally rated as the most brilliant mathematical student at the University of Göttingen in the 1920s. Neugebauer's PhD at the University of Göttingen was completed in 1926. It dealt with the history of Egyptian unit fractions. In 1927 he was appointed to the staff of the University of Göttingen and a student at his first lecture course on the history of ancient mathematics was Bartel van der Waerden. (Bartel van der Waerden had arrived at the University of Göttingen in 1924, when he was 22 years old.) Neugebauer had studied Egyptian and then to facilitate his study of Babylonian mathematics he learned Akkadian. An early major study was his three-volume Mathematische Keilschrift-Texte (1935-1937). Neugebauer had begun, in 1931, to edit the newly created mathematical review journal (of which he was founding editor) Zentralblatt für Matematik. In 1934 he took the editorial office of the journal with him to his new appointment at the University of Copenhagen. This appointment was arranged through his friend Harald Bohr. Neugebauer then began, in 1937 whilst at the University of Copenhagen, to publish a series of papers on Babylonian mathematical astronomy. In his first paper of this series he set out his plan to achieve the publication of all classes of Babylonian astronomical texts. This plan was initially inhibited by the advent of World War II and has not yet been fully realised. In 1939, due to his clashes with the Nazi regime, he accepted an academic posting at Brown University, Rhode Island (in the USA), as Professor of Mathematics. This posting was arranged through the efforts of the American mathematician Oswald Veblen. Neugebauer brought with him the journal Zentralblatt für Matematik and the first issue appeared in January, 1940, as (the transformed American-based) Mathematical Reviews which he continued to edit until a full-time executive editor was appointed in 1945. In 1940 Neugebauer also toured the USA examining collections of cuneiform tablets. In 1947 he became the head of the newly created Department of the History of Mathematics at Brown University. This department, established on January 7, 1947, is now the world leader in the study of the exact sciences to the Renaissance period. He retired from Brown University in 1969 but still remained incredibly active. Neugebauer's prolific scholarship has revolutionised our understanding of the history of the exact sciences in antiquity. Relevant key publications: Astronomical Cuneiform Texts (3 Volumes, 1955); Egyptian Astronomical Texts (3 Volumes (in 4)), 1960-1969, in collaboration with Richard Parker); A History of Ancient Mathematical Astronomy (3 Parts, 1975).
Anton Pannekoek (1873-1960). Dutch astronomer and Marxist theorist. [His first given name is sometimes given as Antonie.] He was a director of the Astronomical Institute at the University of Amsterdam. He was interested in the history of astronomy and in a paper published in 1916 and another paper published in 1917 made two pioneering contributions to the recovery of Babylonian astronomy.
Richard Parker. (1905-1993). American Egyptologist. His PhD was gained in 1938 from the University of Chicago. The title of his doctoral dissertation was Medinet Habu Demotic Ostracon 4038. He then joined the ranks of the Oriental Institute Research Assistants in the same year. In 1946, following the end of World War 2, he returned to Luxor, Egypt to resume his pre-war work as a staff member of the Epigraphic Survey of the Oriental Institute. In the same year, on July 1, he was also appointed Assistant Professor of Egyptology and Assistant Field Director of the Epigraphic Survey of the Oriental Institute. In 1947 he was appointed the Field Director of the Epigraphic Survey of the Oriental Institute. In 1948 Parker was offered the newly-created Charles Edwin Wilbour Professorship in Egyptology at Brown University, Rhode Island. Parker left Luxor, to come to Brown University to become the first Wilbour Professor of Egyptology at Brown University. He initially took up the appointment on a part-time basis on July 1, 1948, and continued as Field Director of the Epigraphic Survey until December 31 the same year. He then continued to work as a Consultant Field Director for the Epigraphic Survey until June 30, 1949. His contributions to Egyptology include the areas of language (both Egyptian and Demotic) and astronomy and chronology. He was an expert on Egyptian calendrical systems. Relevant key publications: Egyptian Astronomical Texts (3 Volumes (in 4), 1960-1969, in collaboration with Otto Neugebauer).
David Pingree. (1933-2005). American classicist and sanskritist and historian of early astronomy. He was born with very limited vision, being blind in one eye and having only 20% vision in the other. (The distance of his vision was only 40 centimetres.) In 1950 he graduated from Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. He began to teach himself Sanskrit whilst at Phillips Academy. In 1958 he made his first visit to India to study Sanskrit and returned to the USA in 1960. His PhD (in classics and Sanskrit) was obtained from Harvard University (1960). (His doctoral dissertation was jointly supervised by Daniel Ingalls (an outstanding Sankritist) and Otto Neugebauer.) His dissertation title was: Materials for the Study of the Transmission of Greek Astrology to India. Shortly after completing his doctoral dissertation he worked at Harvard University and also assumed a professorship at the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago. (In 1992 he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Chicago.) He learned Arabic whilst at Harvard University, and also began to compile lists of manuscripts in Sanskrit relating to the exact sciences. David Pingree first began working with Neugebauer while a graduate student and then a junior fellow in Sanskrit and classics at Harvard. David Pingree, encouraged by Otto Neugebauer, spent eight years at the Oriental Institute in Chicago and became familiar with Mesopotamian astral omens. Otto Neugebauer then encouraged Pingree to join him at Brown University. By 1971 Neugebauer's persuasions were successful. In 1971 Pingree joined the History of Mathematics Department at Brown University and succeeded Neugebauer who had retired in 1969 aged seventy. He became chairman of the department in 1986. He was very productive and authored 43 books and monographs and 240 articles. Pingree's work focused on the history of the exact sciences (including astrology and divination in the ancient world) from the ancient Near East through to the Renaissance. He specifically concentrated on the study of relevant texts in the original languages, and on the transmission of scientific ideas between cultures. (In his fundamentally important 1963 paper in the scientific journal Isis he again supported his thesis that Greek (and Greco-Babylonian) mathematical astronomy (and astrology) entered India between the 2nd and 4th centuries CE through a series of direct translations from Greek to Sanskrit.) He also devoted time to cataloguing Sanskrit manuscripts in numerous libraries throughout the world. His monumental Census of the Exact Sciences in Sanskrit (5 Volumes, 1970-1994) was a catalog of unpublished Sanskrit MSS in various libraries. Another example is his Catalogue of Jyotisa Manuscripts in the Wellcome Library (2004) which contains his comprehensive descriptions of over 1000 manuscripts on astronomy, mathematics, divination, and astrology. His personal library collection of approximately 20,000 items is ranked as one of the best in the world for the study of mathematical science in the ancient world. It is now housed in the Brown University Library (David E. Pingree Collection). He received numerous scholarly awards including a Guggenheim Fellowship, a MacArthur Fellowship, and an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from the University of Chicago. He was also Chair, American Committee for Asian Manuscripts. With his death the very unique Department of the History of Mathematics (established in 1947) at Brown University came to a close. (For nearly 20 years he was the sole permanent faculty member of his department.) 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. Reiner was born in Budapest and received an undergraduate degree in linguistics there in 1948. She then studied Elamite, Sumerian, and Akkadian at the École Pratique des Hautes Études (a university in Paris that is part of the University of Paris) and received a Diploma (= Master's Degree?). (At the time of her death she was one of the few persons proficient in Elamite.) Reiner received her PhD from the University of Chicago in 1955. She began working on the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary project when she first came to the University of Chicago in 1952 as a research assistant. During this early period she also worked closely with the distinguished assyriologist Adolf Oppenheim. She became an associate editor in 1956 and an editor in 1962. From 1973 to her retirement in 1996 she was editor-in-charge of the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary project. After her retirement in 1996 she continued to work on the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary project. Her role with the project included writing, editing, and reviewing entries. At the time of her death she was the John A. Wilson Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus in the Oriental Institute and editor of the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary. (The publication is more an encyclopedia.) Reiner is the only scholar to have contributed to every one of its 26 volumes. The first volume was published in 1956 and the last was published in 2006. Reiner collaborated with David Pingree on four facsimiles of Babylonian Planetary Omens (1975-2005). They comprise studies of the celestial omens and astronomy of a number of tablets forming part of the Babylonian omen series Enuma Anu Enlil. Two volumes deal with Venus omens, one dealt with omens about stars, and the last with Jupiter omens. Reiner took on the challenging task of dealing with the omen series Enuma Anu Enlil to fulfill the wish of Adolf Oppenheim to have all of this major omen series properly published. Relevant key publications: Babylonian Planetary Omens: Part Two (1981, in collaboration with David Pingree); and Astral Magic in Babylonia (1995).
Abraham Sachs. (1915-1983). American assyriologist. He received his PhD in Assyriology in 1939 from John Hopkins University and at the time of his death was Professor Emeritus of the History of Mathematics at Brown University. Sachs was regarded as a brilliant assyriologist. He spent his life giving careful attention to all late Babylonian astronomical texts, particularly the nonACT class. Abraham Sachs met Otto Neugebauer by chance in 1941 when the latter visited the Oriental Institute in Chicago to give a lecture. Sachs was then working on the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary project. Neugebauer quickly concluded that Sachs was the person to assist him in his plan, announced in the 1930s, to publish all available classes of astronomical cuneiform texts (i.e., a "corpus"). Sachs accepted the invitation that Neugebauer extended to him to come to Brown University to collaborate with him on the publication of Babylonian astronomical texts. In 1941 Neugebauer arranged for Sachs to initially come to Brown University as a Rockefeller Foundation fellow. When the Department of Mathematics at Brown University showed reluctance to promote an assyriologist to a professional rank Henry Wilson, the University President, created, in 1947, the Department of the History of Mathematics. Sachs joined such, becoming associate professor in 1949 and professor in 1953. This new department was created for Otto Neugebauer and Abraham Sachs primarily as a research unit - but it was also given the responsibility to train highly qualified graduate students. In 1948 Sachs, still with the title of research assistant, was offered, and declined, the Chair in Assyriology at John Hopkins University in succession to the eminent Near Eastern scholar William Albright. Both Sachs and Neugebauer had become both close colleagues and close friends. In 1949, through the recommendation of the assyriologist Anton Deimel SJ, in Rome, Otto Neugebauer was given full access to all of Johann Strassmaier's relevant notebooks. (Following Strassmaier's death in 1920 these notebooks had been sent to Rome and were in the care of Anton Deimel at the Pontificio Istituto Biblico. (It is not clear whether Deimel obtained all or most of Strassmaier's notebooks.) In the early 1900s Deimel had studied assyriology in London under Strassmaier and on Strassmaier's death had arranged for his notebooks to be sent to Rome.) In 1949 Sachs worked through Strassmaier's notebooks at the Pontificio Instituto Biblico and identified 100 new ACT class fragments. (I presently cannot establish whether the large number of Strassmaier's drawings that Anton Deimel loaned to Schaumberger at Gars am Inn in 1923 ever came to the notice of Otto Neugebauer and Abraham Sachs. Some of these drawings were lost in 1955 and the rest were never returned to Rome until 1981.) In 1952 Sachs received a Rockefeller Foundation travel grant to study astronomical cuneiform tablets in the British Museum. This work was carried out during 1953 and 1954. His work there assisted Otto Neugebauer to complete his protracted project Astronomical Cuneiform Texts (3 Volumes, 1955). The masterly copies of cuneiform astronomical and astrological texts that the pioneer British assyriologist Theophilus Pinches had made during his employment there between 1895 and 1900, and which had been kept locked in a cupboard for some 50 years, were made available to Sachs. Approximately 60 new ACT class fragments were included in Pinches' drawings. Sachs published Pinches' drawings, comprising approximately 1350 sheets (approximately 1600 texts), (including, in cooperation with Johann Schaumberger, some texts copied by Johann Strassmaier), in Late Babylonian Astronomical and Related Texts (1955). These included both mathematical, observational, and omen, texts. However, no translations were published. Until 1955 very few late Babylonian astronomical tablets had been published. Extensive translations of texts in Late Babylonian Astronomical and Related Texts have only become available since circa the mid-1980s. The last major project begun by Sachs was the editing and translation of the "astronomical diaries" and related texts. However, due to declining health, he only managed to focus on the material for Volume 1 of the "astronomical diaries" prior to his death. The material for this volume was completed by Hermann Hunger and published in 1988. Sachs' death at a relatively young age was due to cancer. His wish that the Austrian assyriologist Hermann Hunger continue the completion of the "astronomical diaries" project has been realised. Relevant key publications: Late Babylonian Astronomical and Related Texts (1955).
Friedrich Saxl. (1890-1948). Austrian art historian. Born in Vienna, Austria. He studied art history and archaeology at the Institüt für Österreichische Geschichtsforschung, in Vienna. His PhD was completed in 1912 when he was 22 years old. The topic of his doctoral dissertation was Rembrandt. He first met Aby Warburg, a private scholar and art historian, in 1911. In 1913 he joined the Warburg library in Hamburg (Warburg's library was held in a house in Hamburg) as the librarian. He served as a first lieutenant in the Austro-Hungarian army during World War 1 and returned to the Warburg library in 1919. From 1918 to 1923 Aby Warburg suffered from severe mental illness and was hospitalised. During the time Warburg was committed to a metal asylum Saxl developed the library into the Warburg Institute (basically accomplished in 1921) and aligned it with the University of Hamburg (established in 1921). Warburg had initially discussed with Saxl in 1914 the idea turning his vast personal library into a research institute. However, the advent of World War 1 delayed the idea. When Warburg died in 1929 Saxl became the director of the Warburg Institute. The existence of the Jewish-named library was made difficult when the Nazis came to political power in 1933. In 1933 Saxl succeeded transferring the Warburg Institute to England. This involved the shipping of some 60,000 books alone. Aby Warburg had begun collecting such in 1886 and the collection had come to include many rare books on astrology. In 1934 Saxl moved to England permanently with the successful relocation of the Warburg Institute from Hamburg to London (and became a British citizen in 1940). Initially he had hoped to moved the Warburg Institute to Holland but the negotiations were unsuccessful. The University of Leiden had suitable quarters to house the Warburg Institute but had no funds to support it. He had then entered into a contract (1933) to move the Warburg Institute library "on loan" to the Courtauld Institute at the University of London. In 1944 the Warburg Institute officially became part of the University of London. Saxl, due to the influence of Warburg, viewed the history of art as the history of the transmission of pagan mythology. He frequently traced the history of many medieval iconographic themes to ultimate origins in Babylonian traditions. Saxl's Verzeichnis astrologischer und mythologischer illustrierter Handschriften des lateinischen Mittelalters had a protracted publishing history. Volume 1 sub-titled Handschriften in römischen Bibliotheken was published in 1915. Volume 2 sub-titled Die Handschriften der National-bibliothek in Wien was published in 1927. The remaining volumes were renamed Catalogue of astrological and mythological illuminated manuscripts of the Latin Middle Ages. (Volume 3 simply had an aditional title page in English.) Volume 3, in collaboration with Hans Meier, and edited by Harry Bober, sub-titled Handschriften in englischen Bibliotheken was published in 2 Volumes in 1953. Volume 4 by Patrick McGurk sub-titled Astrological manuscripts in Italian libraries (other than Rome) was published in 1966. Relevant key publications: Verzeichnis astrologischer und mythologischer illustrierter Handschriften des lateinischen Mittelalters (3 Volumes in 4, 1915-1953; Volume 3 posthumously published in collaboration with Hans Meier, and Volume 4 published in 1966 by Patrick McGurk).
Archibald Sayce. (1846-1933). British assyriologist. One of the pioneers of Assyriology in Britain. Born at Shirehampton (near Bristol), England. When only 10 years old he began reading the Greek classics, in the Greek language. In 1869 he was elected a fellow and lecturer at Oxford University (where he remained for the rest of his career). In 1870 he was ordained as an Anglican minister. In 1891 he was elected Professor of Assyriology and remained in that position until 1919. He took lengthy sabbaticals. From 1908 to 1910 he studied in the Sudan, and from 1911 to 1912 he studied (and travelled extensively) in the Far East. Later in life he took annual trips up the Nile river in Egypt. His primary interests were languages and philology (including the cuneiform languages such as Assyrian and Hittite, and old Hebrew), and the history of the Hebrews. In the 1900s he also became interested in Egyptology. Whilst at Oxford University he was involved in archaeological excavations in Egypt (with the British architect Somers Clarke (1841-1926)) at Meroe and El Kab. His lectures usually formed the basis for his publications. He is considered a "generalist" more than a "specialist", and also by 1900 had an established reputation as a gross popularizer. However, his work on the Assyrian language had considerable importance. Also, he was instrumental in the decipherment of the Hittite language. His lengthy article "Astronomy and Astrology of the Babylonians." published in 1874 in Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archaeology was one of the earliest to recognise and translate astronomical cuneiform texts. Relevant key publications: "Astronomy and Astrology of the Babylonians." In: Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, Volume 3, Part 1, 1874, Pages 145-339.
Johann Schaumberger. (1885-1955). German assyriologist. Member of the Redemptorist Order. His theological studies in Rome resulted in him obtaining his PhD in Theology there in 1913. He taught Biblical Exegesis at the Redemptorist Order College at Gars am Inn. He remained there until his death. He had wide interests and was universally acknowledged as a gifted scholar in the areas of theology, astronomy, and cuneiform languages. He was also somewhat erratic. Schaumberger announced at the 18th International Congress of Orientalists in Leiden in 1931 that he intended to continue Franz Kugler's unfinished studies on Babylonian astronomy. During the 1930s Schaumberger visited the USA and identified unpublished astronomical texts from Uruk at the Oriental Institute in Chicago. He brought these to the attention of Otto Neugebauer. In 1935 he completed a third supplement to volumes 1 and 2 of Sternkunde und Sterndienst in Babel. However, after 1935 Schaumberger proceeded very slowly with his studies of Babylonian astronomy. This supplement included further studies on the identification of constellations and star names. The planned fourth supplement, which was also to include a comprehensive index, remained uncompleted at the time of his death. Between 1935 and 1955 he produced only 10 journal papers on aspects of Babylonian astronomy. In 1923 Anton Deimel at the Pontificio Istituto Biblico in Rome loaned to Schaumberger in Gars am Inn a large number of Strassmaier's astronomical drawings. (These were possibly "observational texts" (i.e., astronomical diaries, lunar and planetary texts, eclipse texts, and reports to the kings) closely related to Kugler's work. It is reasonable to assume that any ACT class texts (i.e., mathematical astronomical texts such as the tables of ephemerides) were brought to the attention of Otto Neugebauer.) The small number of these drawings that were returned to Rome on Schaumberger's death in 1955 became lost during the process. Following Deimel's death in 1954 the assyriologist Werner Mayer SJ was put in charge of Strassmaier's material at the Pontificio Istituto Biblico in Rome. In 1981 Mayer successfully arranged the return of the remaining collection of drawings that had been loaned to Schaumberger. All papers comprising Schaumberger's written estate remain stored at Gars am Inn. Relevant key publications: Sternkunde und Sterndienst in Babel. 3. Ergänzungsheft zum ersten und zweiten Buch (1935).
Giovanni Schiaparelli. (1835-1910). Leading Italian astronomer and historian of astronomy. He was born in Savigliano, Piedmont. He graduated in hydraulic engineering in 1854 from the University of Turin. He taught mathematics and studied astronomy at the Royal Observatory in Berlin under Johann Encke. He also spent a year learning observational techniques at the Pulkova Observatory in Russia under Otto Struve. When he returned to Italy in 1860 he joined the Brera Observatory in Milan as second astronomer. He became the director of the Brera Observatory two years later and held this post until he retired in 1900. After his retirement he spent considerable time researching the history of astronomy. A key interest was the history of Babylonian astronomy and at least from 1907 till his death in 1910 he corresponded with Franz Kugler in Holland on the topic. Seminar papers by Salvo de Meis and Hermann Hunger examining Schiaparelli's investigations into Babylonian astronomy are contained in Giovanni Schiaparelli: Storico della astronomia e uomo di cultura edited by Antonio Panaino and Guido Pellegrini (1999). (“Il Planetarium Babylonicum di G.V. Schiaparelli: Problematiche astronomiche” by Salvo de Meis (Pages 63-80); and “Schiaparelli’s Notebook of Babylonian Star Names” by Hermann Hunger (Pages 81-90).) Relevant key publications: Scritti Sulla Storia della Astronomia Antica (3 Volumes, 1925-1926).
Johann Strassmaier SJ. (1846-1920). German assyriologist. Johann Strassmaier was born in Hagenburg (Böhmerwald), Bavaria in 1846. He died in 1920 at the Jesuit residence, Mount Street in London West. Strassmaier was one of the leading pioneer assyriologists of Europe. At the time of his death he was a distinguished scholar of international reputation and recognised as one of the leading assyriologists in Europe. He entered the Jesuit Order in 1865 and his early Jesuit studies were at the Maria Laach monastery. In 1872, shortly after the beginning of Bismarck's Kulturkampf against the Catholic Church in Germany, Strassmaier came to England. He largely remained in England for the rest of his life. In 1878, after completing his Jesuit training, he move to the Jesuit residence in Mount Street, London and began his long career of basically copying cuneiform inscriptions in the British Museum. (He was accessing British Museum publications on Assyriology as early as 1869.) The initial intention of his copying work was preparation for his projected comprehensive history of the Semitic languages (which never materialised). He made his chief contribution to the new field of Assyriology by publishing his massive Alphabetisches Verzeichniss (6 parts, 1882-1886). His first period of copying British Museum tablets was from 1878 to 1881. During 1881 to 1884 he was at Blijenbeeck Castle (a Jesuit college in Holland) working on his Alphabetisches Verzeichniss. (This particular work is full of errors but at the time of publication was considered to be the most trustworthy vocabulary of Assyrian words. It is based on the vocabularies published in the second volume of Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia (1866). It contains 9,072 entries (and includes both Assyrian and Akkadian words).) Some Babylonian astronomical and astrological texts (and texts containing astronomical references) were included in the second volume of Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia. This may have initiated Strassmaier's interest in such. His second period of copying tablets was from 1884 to 1897. (During his final years of training at the Jesuit theologate at Ditton Hall, Ditton (near Widnes) his long vacations of two months each year for three years were spent copying cuneiform tablets in the British Museum.) Up till circa 1900 Strassmaier had copied and published the greatest number of cuneiform texts. Strassmaier's work in Assyriology came to a premature end in December 1897 when a serious kidney disorder forced him to return to Germany for a major operation. Even after convalescing for approximately one year he never fully recovered from the operation. It would appear he suffered from a post-operative infection and the surgical incision never healed. His Babylonische Texte (1889-1897) consists mostly of his autographs of tablets comprising the archive of the Neo-Babylonian Ebabbar Temple at Sippar. These were largely commercial (economic) texts. The tablets had been excavated, for the British Museum, by Hormuzd Rassam during the last quarter of the 19th-century. During his extensive years of copying cuneiform tablets in the British Museum he also identified and copied numerous mathematical astronomical texts. (It was in 1881 that he first came across several astronomical tablets that were dated and so could be scientifically valuable.) Many of these were made available by him first to the mathematician and astronomer Joseph Epping SJ at Exaeten and then, after Epping's death, to the mathematician and astronomer Franz Kugler SJ at Valkenburg. During Strassmaier's lifetime his copies of astronomical texts were never made generally available to any other persons. From Strassmaier's death in 1920 through to 1949 they were only made available to Johann Schaumberger. Later they were made available to Otto Neugebauer and Abraham Sachs and later still to the Jesuit assyriologist Alfred Pohl during his time at the British Museum. (Though Strassmaier copied many types of texts that had been recovered from various Mesopotamian sites he mainly only published some 3500 of his autographs of tablets recovered from the Ebabbar Temple archive. Some of these had an astronomical content.) Though Strassmaier had an excellent knowledge of cuneiform languages he seldom actually translated any texts. His massive Alphabetisches Verzeichniss did not contain any translations of words. The entries were alphabetically arranged, transliterated to assist pronunciation, synonyms included, and illustrative Assyrian texts quoted chronologically. Relevant key publications: Astronomisches aus Babylon (1889, in collaboration with Joseph Epping).
Bartel van der Waerden. (1903-1996). Dutch mathematician and historian of early mathematics and early astronomy. He obtained a PhD in 1926 from the Universiteit van Amsterdam. The title of his doctoral dissertation was De algebraiese grondslagen der meetkunde van het aantal. His book Moderne Algebra (2 Volumes, 1930) revolutionised 20th-century algebra. As a student at the Universiteit van Amsterdam he attended a course that Hendrik de Vries gave on the history of mathematics. Later, at the University of Göttingen, he attended the courses that Otto Neugebauer gave on Greek mathematics and Egyptian mathematics. He also later visited Otto Neugebauer in Copenhagen where Neugebauer discussed Babylonian astronomy with him. In 1928 he obtained his first academic appointment. This was at the University of Groningen and it was one of five universities he held a professorship at during the course of his career. From 1951 to 1962 he held an appointment to a chair of mathematics in Zurich. He remained there until his death. Throughout his career he published numerous papers on aspects of the early history of Egyptian, Babylonian, Greek, and Persian astronomy. Some were controversial and attracted severe criticism but many remain important. Relevant key publications: Anfänge der Astronomie (1966, in collaboration with Peter Huber).
Ernst Weidner. (1891-1976). German assyriologist. He began publishing books and articles on Babylonian astronomy whilst still in his teens. He was a student of Felix Peiser. As a young Assyriologist Ernst Weidner was strongly influenced by the Assyriologist and Panbabylonist Felix Peiser (who was editor of the journal Orientalistische Literaturzeitung). The very young Weidner was a convinced Panbabylonist and an active supporter of the Panbabylonist ideas of Hugo Winckler and Alfred Jeremias. In 1923 he began his own periodical Archiv für Keilschriftforschung. With the issue of Volume 3 in 1926 the name of the periodical was changed to Archive für Orientforschung. (The periodical was published direct by Ernst Weidner as the editor.) Weidner remained its editor until his death. Both Ernst Weidner and Franz Kugler, the trenchant scholarly critic of Panbabylonism and the leading expert on Babylonian astronomy, were mutually combative and when Kugler died Weidner made only a brief mention of such in his periodical. Unlike Peiser's approach as editor of Orientalistische Literaturzeitung Weidner did not make Archive für Orientforschung a platform for Panbabylonist views. The journal published scholarly papers encompassing a wide outlook. Weidner's early announced plan to publish a comprehensive 3-volume study of Babylonian astronomy was abandoned after publication of Volume 1 in 1915. In his periodical Archive für Orientforschung Weidner published, in the 1940s and 1950s, a series of valuable papers on the first 50 tablets comprising the omen series Enuma Anu Enlil. Relevant key publications: Handbuch der Babylonischen Astronomie (1915, reprinted 1976 but now thoroughly dated and unreliable).
Part 2: Current
André le Boeuffle. French classicist and historian. He is a specialist in Greco-Roman astral-lore.
Lis Brack-Bernsen. Assyriologist. Her PhD dissertation was entitled Astronomy of the Mayas. Relevant key publications: Zue Entstehung der babylonischen Mondtheorie (1997).
John Britton. American investment manager in Wilson, Wyoming. He has a PhD in the history of astronomy from Yale University.
David Brown. British assyriologist. Relevant key publications: Mesopotamian Planetary Astronomy-Astrology (2000).
Wayne Horowitz. Assyriologist. Relevant key publications: Mesopotamian Cosmic Geography (1998).
Peter Huber. Swiss statistician. As a graduate student he helped Bartel van der Waerden write Anfänge der Astronomie. Relevant key publications: Babylonian Eclipse Observations from 750 BC to 1 BC (2004, in collaboration with Salvo de Meis).
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 publications: Mul.Apin (1989, in collaboration with David Pingree).
Alexander Jones. Canadian classicist. Professor of Classics and History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Toronto. He has a PhD from Brown University (1985). His studies focus on the exact sciences in Greco-Roman antiquity. Relevant key publications: Astronomical Papyri from Oxyrhynchus (2 Volumes, 1999).
Simo Parpola. Finnish assyriologist. Professor of Assyriology at the University of Helsinki. Relevant key publications: Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars (1993).
Francesca Rochberg. (1952- ). American assyriologist. Professor of History at the University of California Riverside. She has a PhD in near eastern languages from the Oriental Institute, University of Chicago (1980). The title of her doctoral dissertation was Aspects of Babylonian Celestial Divination: The Lunar Eclipse Tablets of Enuma Anu Enlil. She has a profound understanding of aspects of Mesopotamian celestial divination and astronomy. Relevant key publications: Aspects of Babylonian Celestial Divination: The Lunar Eclipse Tablets of Enuma Anu Enlil (1988).
Ulla Koch-Westenholz. Danish assyriologist. She has a PhD. She is a senior lecturer at the Carsten Niebuhr Institute, University of Copenhagen. Relevant key publications: Mesopotamian Astrology (1995).
Lester Ness. American historian (of early astrology). He has a PhD from the University of Miami (1990). During the early 1990s he began working on an English translation of Auguste Bouché-Leclercq's L'Astrologie grecque (1899). He completed this task in 2006. The publication of the translation can be expected shortly by Pennsylvania State University Press (Penn State Press). In 1997 he took up a teaching appointment in China and has held teaching positions at several Chinese universities, including Tsinghua University (in Beijing) (regarded as one of the best universities in China), Northeast Normal University (in Changchun city, Jilin Province) (one of the top ten universities in China), and Changchun University of Technology (Changchun city, Jilin Province). For 12 months during 2006/2007 he worked at Southwest Forestry College. Presently he lives in Kunming, Yunnan Province, a somewhat remote area in southwest China. As of October, 2007 he is teaching at Kunming Teacher's College. Relevant key publications: Written in the Stars (1999).
John Steele. British historian of science (specialising in Babylonian astronomy). He has a PhD in the history of astronomy. He is currently at the University of Texas. Previously he was Kenneth May Fellow for 2002-2003, Institute for History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, University of Toronto.
Henri Stierlin. (1928- ). Historian of ancient (world-wide) art and architecture. Born in Alexandria, Egypt. Henri Stierlin is a specialist in Islamic culture. He studied classical philology and then art and art history. He has authored numerous illustrated books on art and architecture. His books explore both the astronomical and astrological aspects of architecture and art. In his 1986 French-language book L'astrologie et le pouvoir he explores the astrological aspects of kingship. Most of his books on ancient architecture are published in English by Macmillan, Rissoli, and Facts on File. He currently resides in Geneva, Switzerland. Relevant key publications: L'astrologie et le pouvoir de Platon à Newton (1986, German-language republication in 1988 Astrologie und Herrschaft von Platon bis Newton).
Noel Swerdlow. American medievalist and historian of Renaissance astronomy. He is Professor of History and of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Chicago. He has a PhD from Yale University (1968). Relevant key publications: The Babylonian Theory of the Planets (1998).
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