VOL. LXVII.j PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. J 35 



47 ( >o); then where the letters are small and ill made, j and •« may easily be 

 mistaken for each other. The sun's altitude at the end of this eclipse, according 

 to both Curtius and Schultens, was 20° (,^); but by calculation I make it a little 

 more than 36° ( .!). But these figures are so nearly alike that they would easily 

 be mistaken by an ignorant transcriber, and from a manuscript that was ill 

 written. 



How Schickard or Curtius for him, came to make the digits eclipsed 7-i. I 

 know not: for in the manuscript, as translated by Schultens for Mr. Gnschow 

 above, we see they were only 5-|- and that super calculo accuratiore, or as the 

 Arabic should have been translated, juxta calculum accuratiorem. The meaning 

 of which, I suppose is, that Ebn Younes had found by calculation that the digits 

 eclipsed would be 5-i-, and that at the time his calculation agreed with his obser- 

 vation; as indeed it did, for I make them about 5-§-, however widely this differs 

 from 7-1- as in Curtius. 



When the altitude of the sun, at the beginning of this eclipse, is said to have 

 been 56° or nearly, secundum oculum, it is evident that this was an observation. 

 When it is added, erantque de piano circuli ejus 4digiti et 10 minuta, in words 

 at length, it seems to have been some interpolation or marginal reading, crept 

 into the text, as another seems to have done under the former eclipse; for if the 

 digits eclipsed here were 5-i-, agreeable both to observation and accurate calcula- 

 tion, they must certainly have been more than 4° lO'. 



At the conclusion of the former eclipse it was added in the translation, Deus 

 scit an observatio sit bene instituta; and here the passage, as translated, con- 

 cludes with Deus scit an calculus hie bene sit positus. But in the Arabic, as I 

 have received it, there is no mention made either of observation or calculation. 

 The words are the same in both passages, and are only adjuvante Deo The 

 other translations seem only to have been what Mr. Grischow collected from 

 professor Schultens, who, he says, was totally ignorant of astronomical language, 

 as he himself was ignorant of Arabic. 



The 3d is a lunar eclipse; and the account given of it by Curtius, from 

 Schickard, is this: Anno Christi Qjg. Anno Hegiree 368 (qui incipit d. 8 Aug. 

 mihi die Q Aug. anno Chistiano 978) die Jovis, 14 Sywal, luna fuit orta cum 

 defectu, qui ad 5-^ digitos accrevit, cum extaret supra horizontem gradibus etiam 

 26 (subaudio finem tunc accidisse). Schickardus. Qui adjungit, tempus res- 

 pondere diei 14 Maii, anno Christi 979- The account of this eclipse, as trans- 

 lated by professor Schultens for Mr. Grischow, is more particular and intelligible, 

 viz. Eclipsis lunae extitit in mense Sieval (sive Xaval) anno 068 Hegirse. Orta 

 est luna eclipsata, in nocte cujus aurora fuit feria quinta. Et haec feria quinta 

 fuit dies 25 mensis Ijar, anni I'igo Alexandri, et ille 20 mensis Baschner (sive 

 Pachon) anni 695 Dioclesiani. Spatium quod eclipsatum fuit de diametro ejus. 



