Non licet stare caelestibus. Studies on Astronomy and Its History Offered to Salvo De Meis.

Preface and Acknowledgments; To Salvo / A Salvo; Selected Bibliography (1958-2013); Simo Parpola, The Rtymology of the Sumerian Word for Star;  Hermann Hunger, Extension of the “Uruk Scheme”; Gebhard J. Selz, The Tablet with ,Heavenly Writing’, or how to Become a Star; Peter J. Huber, Eclipses at Sunset; Fabrizio Bonoli, Archaeoastronomy, Ethnoastronomy or Cultural Astronomy?; Antonio Panaino, A “Neglected” Source for the History of the “Reformed” Zoroastrian Calendar; Paolo Delaini, The Image of Cosmos Reflected in the Body. The Theory of Microcosm-Macrocosm and Its Spread in Sasanian Iran; Stefano Buscherini, The Translation of Almagest in Pahlavi: Zero in Persian Numerical System; Eleonora Bacchi, The “Magian Variant” of the tārīh al-fārs: Proposal for an Overview on Arab Authors between the 8th and the 11th Centuries; Giuseppe Bezza, XX Scorij: un oroscopo per il tramonto mattutino delle Pleiadi; Michelle Chapront-Touzé, L’éclipse de Soleil du 1 er avril 1764 et les tables de la Lune; Jean Meeus; Approaches of Asteroids to Jupiter; Paolo Ognibene, Il cielo degli Osseti. Lessico astronomico, meteorologico e relazioni di spazio e tempo nell’IĖS di Vasilij Ivanovič Abaev.

The present volume collects a series of studies presented to Salvatore (Salvo) De Meis – one of the leading specialists in the field of history of astronomy and astronomical computation – as an homage in his honour by an international group of distinguished scholars. The single articles deal with various intriguing subjects covering a very long period, practically from the earliest documents of ancient astronomy and astrology to modern scineces. Many of these contributions have been dedicated, in particular to the history of special aspects of Masopotamian (Simo Parpola, Hermann Hunger, Gebhard J. Selz, Peter J. Huber), Iranian (Antonio Panaino, Paolo Delaini, Stefano Buscherini), Classical and Arabic (Giuseppe Bezza, Eleonora Bacchi) astral and calendrical traditions or to ethno- and archaeo-astronomy (Fabrizio Bonoli), as well as to the description of the heaven according to the Ossetic linguistic heritage (Paolo Ognibene); other essays offer new light on a number of problems of modern and contemporary positional astronomy, such as the Sun’s eclipses and the Lunar Tables (Michelle Chapront-Touzé) or the approaches of asteroids to Jupiter (Jean Meeus). The volume includes not only a presentation of the scholarly activity performed by Salvo De Meis, but also a selected bibliography of his published studies.