Teaching and Learning Astral Sciences in Late Byzantine Multiple-Text Manuscripts

This contribution examines patterns of knowledge organisation in a selection of late Byzantine multiple-text manuscripts (MTMs) that contain introductory cosmological and astronomical works. It addresses the central question of what constitutes a textbook for the teaching of the astral sciences in late Byzantium, and how such a textbook should be defined. My working hypothesis is that teaching books varied as much as the curricula across different schools and scholarly circles in Byzantium. Hence, by studying these MTMs, we can delineate the multiple canons of authority in the astral sciences that coexisted and were taught in Palaiologan educational contexts. This discussion offers a new perspective on interpreting the relationship between the modular nature of the selected MTMs and the distinctive ways in which astral knowledge was organized on folios and within codices. I also explore whether the codicological analysis of the selected scientific MTMs can illuminate the principles guiding the preparation of textbooks for teaching and learning the astral sciences in late Byzantium.