Kitāb Arshimīdas fī ‘amal al-binkamāt كتاب أرشميدس في عمل البنكامات Archimedes أرشميدس [‎3r] (2/24)

Content

Treatise on the hydraulic and pneumatic machinery of water-clocks with eighteen diagrams, attributed to Archimedes (Ἀρχιμήδης; أرشميدس; fl. 3rd century BC). The title page gives the title wrongly as كتاب أرشميدس في عمل الساعات ( Kitāb Arshimīdas fī ‘amal al-sā‘āt ). This early known copy of the text was unknown to the text’s translator, Donald R. Hill (1976). The treatise is a compilation material from Greek, Byzantine, Persian and Arabic sources, and some sections may in fact be derived from Archimedes. This copy is defective at the end, and ends abruptly and without a colophon Section at the end of a manuscript text. . Numerous owners’ notes are found on f. 2r. There is a partially legible seal on endpaper i recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. .

Begins (f. 2v, lines 1-4):

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم وبه أستعلين

قال أرشميدس بعد حمد الله والأنبياء عليه إني لما رأيت

أقاويل الناس في عمل البنكامات غيرنامه (!)

ولا مستقصاة ألعب(!)

هذا الكتاب وعملته على غاية الاستقصاء

Ends (f. 14r, lines 4-5):

... إلى قريب من أسفلها لكيلا يفسد رفع الماء

بشيء من الآلات وهذه صورة الزامر ...

Illustrations (diagrams):

• Middle section of water-clock, showing from top down the drum, float, float's container and the sump container (f. 4r);
• Semi-circular plate indicating the twelve signs of the zodiac (f. 5a);
• Middle section of water clock as on folio 4r, with semi-circular plate indicating the twelve signs of the zodiac attached (f. 4v);
• Top section of water clock, showing a man's head whose eyes change colour on the hour and a bird's head that drops balls onto a cymbal A percussion instrument consisting of thin round plates. , and the mechanisms that drive these devices (f. 6v);
• Top section of a water-clock, showing the man's head as on folio 6v, flanked by columns marked to indicated the 24 hours of the day (f. 7v);
• Automaton representing a bound captive (above) and his executioner holding a sword (below) (f. 8v);
• Automaton of an executioner on horseback (f. 10r);
• Statues of men that rise and fall on rods to indicate the hours of the day inscribed on columns, and the mechanism that drives them (f. 10v);
• Mechanical snakes that emerge from holes at the foot of a mountain on the hour and the mechanism that drives them (f. 12r);
• A tree containing birds which emit cries on the hour when the snakes on folio 12r emerge from their holes and the mechanism that drives them (f. 13r);
• Flautist automaton (f. 14r).

Extent and format

ff. 2v-14r

Written in

Arabic in Arabic script

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