Book of Fixed Stars · Or 5323

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This incomplete copy contains 48 constellations, comparing globe and sky views.

The timeline range dates the surviving copy, not the composition of the work.

Use this record as an entry into a particular manuscript witness rather than an abstract work title. The 1260–1280 interval is the catalogue dating of Or 5323 itself. Its defective opening and missing leaves prevent assuming that the complete text survives continuously here. The catalogue’s description of 48 constellations concerns the work’s scope; it is not an image count. Covers, blank leaves and binding details can also appear in the digital sequence. When citing a location, distinguish image numbering from foliation and from a modern printed edition’s page numbers.

Before comparing the stellar tables and drawings, choose the unit of investigation: a constellation, folio, table row or individual label. Keeping that unit stable reduces the temptation to collect only expected similarities. Preserve the original form when placing an Arabic name, coordinate or magnitude entry into a modern column. Mark an unreadable sign as uncertain instead of filling it by guesswork. If another witness gives a different value, investigate copying, correction, numbering and epoch differences before declaring one wrong. Such decisions form the method of a quantitative historical investigation, not merely its presentation.

Open access to manuscript images does not automatically place every modern translation or catalogue description under the same rights. Keep separate attribution for images, descriptive text and your own drawings. A next step is to add a bounded passage to the notebook with its image identifier and reading status. This page is an editorial guide based on the catalogue, not a completion of missing leaves or specialist verification of every numerical entry. A clearly comparable question and an explicit uncertainty list are valuable research outputs even without a finished critical edition.

Other names / spellings: Kitab suwar al-kawakib al-thabitah · كتاب صور الكواكب الثابتة