[Turkey-Manuscript]. - Lot 76

[Turkey-Manuscript]. ASTRONOMY. GNOMONIE. LEVANT. NAVONI (Jean-Baptiste). Rouz-namè. Perpetual calendar of the Turks, with remarks and examples on how to count the lunations, and with tables to find the correspondence of dates between the Turkish era, and the vulgar era. S.l.n.d. [ca. 1810]. In-4. 141 pp. handwritten, numbered and ruled (in pencil) on arabic paper, one large handwritten and watercolored folding table, on heavy laid in folio (52 x 86.5 cm) bound in fine. Nineteenth-century half chestnut basane with small corners, possibly Turkish, boards underlined by a cold fillet, smooth spine decorated with triple gilt fillets and small gilt fleurons with bees, gilt title (spine and corners rubbed, headbands worn, light brown stains, splashes of a liquid, on a few ff. and the painting without gravity, discreet wear to the folds of the painting). Legible writing in brown ink, approx. 25-28 lines per page, sometimes with numerals or Arabic characters. Navoni's name under the title. The table of calculations and correspondences is written in gray and red ink, ruled with numbers, years and definitions, titled with astronomical and mathematical explanations in cartouches. It is signed "Fait par J.B. Navoni" at bottom right. Personal autograph manuscript by the Italian or French Levantine Jean-Baptiste Navoni (given "Giovanni Battista" from his first name with the title of his study in some sources), who lived in Turkey between the end of the 18th and the first half of the 19th centuries. This is the manuscript of the study and invention of his method - certainly around 1810 - a computation designed to serve as a milesian clock dedicated to the Turkish calendar - codex takvim - and to date concordances with the Christian era. Appeared in 1814 in a scholarly publication under the title of the manuscript, Rouz-namé, ou Calendrier perpétuel des Turcs... dans le Fundgruben des Orients, bearbeitet durch eine Gesellschaft von Liebhabern (Mines or Treasures of the Orient, compiled by a society of amateurs), under the auspices of Count Wenceslas Rzewusky, Tome 4, Vienna (pp. 38-67, 127-153 and 253-277). Subsequently reviewed in the Journal des Savants de l'Institut de France in December 1816 (pp. 241-247) by Silvestre de Sacy. Both a work of astronomy and gnometry and a calculating tool, Navoni's manuscript also puts the mathematical problematic into context with the calendar culture and imperatives of the Muslims of the Levant. "The takvims were presented to the sultans each year at a court ceremony celebrating Nauruz, at the spring equinox. Rich in astronomical, historical and religious information, takvims had never before been studied in depth. Comparison of the astronomical data with modern computerized databases from NASA and other sources will help explain the criteria used to measure Ottoman time. Muslim and Christian religious holidays, which feature prominently in takvim, also merit detailed study, as they reveal a tradition sometimes at odds with established religious doctrine. It is possible to demonstrate that these data, as well as the astrological data in the takvim, have their origins in the work of astronomers and chronologists..." The Manuscript is divided into 11 parts: Preliminary discourse, pp.1-16; Of the Rouz-namè, pp.17-24; Disposition of the Rouz-namè, pp.25-40; Of the famous Epochs cited by the Turks in their almanacs, pp.41-44; Remarks on the 8-year cycle, p.44 Table for the comparison of the average lunations of the 8-year cycle, pp.45- 52; On the solar cycle, the Sunday letters of the concurrens and regulars, pp.53-68; On the lunar cycle, pp.69-91; On the sunrise table, called Mikat, p.92; End of the Rouz-namè. Des fêtes des Musulmans, pp.93-140; Conclusion, p.141. Rouz-numà is made up of 2 Persian words: Rouz, day and Numà, demonstrator or indicator. Commonly referred to as Rouz-namè (Namè, description), "Thus either of these denominations is equivalent to the definition given by our astronomers to the word calendar, i.e. distribution of time, measured by the Sun and Moon... The Rouz-namè whose explanation I have given is that which was reformed by the famous Durendeli Mehemed Efendi, and which the Turks have been using for over a century...". (pp.16-17). Little is known about Navoni: like his manuscript, he was at the crossroads of continents and civilizations, both a Turkish Orientalist and a European Levantine. He was born in Constantinople in 1791. His surname, place of residence and subject of study suggest that he is related to a Navoni family listed by the French embassy in the 18th century (FranceArchives, 1727), or to one of the following