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Stars without a Table: Planetary Horocrators from the Cairo Geniza

Stars without a Table: Planetary Horocrators from the Cairo Geniza <p>Abstract:</p><p>This essay describes a list of planetary horocrators—that is, the planets ruling each hour of the week—found in an eleventh-century manuscript from the Cairo Genizah. Four different fragments of this manuscript have thus far been identified, and they enable the reconstruction of the list&apos;s original layout. Such a list can easily be tabulated, but the medieval Jewish scribe who produced it preferred to spell it out in its entirety, and in a very disorganized manner. In part, this was because the Jews of medieval Cairo were more used to working with lists than with tables. But given his interest in various methods of divination (his manuscript also included a handbook of <i>goralot</i>, or lot-casting), our scribe may have deemed that the cumbersome and opaque layout of his list might enhance its perceived validity.</p> http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Jewish Quarterly Review University of Pennsylvania Press

Stars without a Table: Planetary Horocrators from the Cairo Geniza

Jewish Quarterly Review , Volume 111 (3) – Sep 29, 2021

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Publisher
University of Pennsylvania Press
Copyright
Copyright © Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, University of Pennsylvania
ISSN
1553-0604

Abstract

<p>Abstract:</p><p>This essay describes a list of planetary horocrators—that is, the planets ruling each hour of the week—found in an eleventh-century manuscript from the Cairo Genizah. Four different fragments of this manuscript have thus far been identified, and they enable the reconstruction of the list&apos;s original layout. Such a list can easily be tabulated, but the medieval Jewish scribe who produced it preferred to spell it out in its entirety, and in a very disorganized manner. In part, this was because the Jews of medieval Cairo were more used to working with lists than with tables. But given his interest in various methods of divination (his manuscript also included a handbook of <i>goralot</i>, or lot-casting), our scribe may have deemed that the cumbersome and opaque layout of his list might enhance its perceived validity.</p>

Journal

Jewish Quarterly ReviewUniversity of Pennsylvania Press

Published: Sep 29, 2021

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