A Global History of diagrams in Astral Sciences
Practical aspects
Observatoire de Paris, Salle du Conseil,
14 – 16 April, 2026
It will be possible to attend the conference in remotely using this link
We encourage in person participation, for this, registration is mandatory through the following form to be completed at latest on April 8, 2026 12.00 a.m.
Rationale
In recent decades, scholarship on the history of science has increasingly focused on the role of images, with diagrams being a significant subset. Their historical importance is evident in both their epistemic dimension, where diagrams function as scientific tools for historical actors, and their documentary dimension, where they are regarded as written artifacts within specific manuscripts or prints. Over time, both the epistemic and documentary aspects of these visual practices have been studied through various methodologies. Drawing on these approaches from diverse fields, including the history of mathematics and art history, EIDA utilizes recent advancements in computer vision to examine the epistemic and documentary roles of astronomical diagrams on a cross-cultural scale encompassing Afro-Asiatic and European contexts. The project develops a specialized critique of astronomical diagrams, materialized in a web platform that facilitates their digital edition and supports collective research on the circulation and transformation of these diagrams within and across cultures over the longue durée.
EIDA last conference this year brings together the contributors to the collective volume to be published at the end of the project in 2027. The draft papers will be discussed so that each author can use the feedback to refine his study and connect it with other contributions. During the third conference, in 2025, we considered different diagram ‘families’: cosmology, astrology, planetary movements, instruments, geometry. This allowed us to share analytical reflections across the corpus of diagrams from various traditions and chronologies. The ‘family’ as a historiographical tool will also orient the organization of the collective volume.
The volume can serve as a pathway to a Global History of Diagrams in Astral Sciences and also showcase the latest advances in using digital humanity for studying and editing historical diagrams.
Tuesday 14, 2026
9.00-9.20: Welcome
COSMOLOGY
9.20-10.10: Divna MANOLOVA (Department of Literary Studies – Greek Section, Ghent University), Canonicity and Diagrammatisation in the Medieval Greek Manuscript Tradition of Kleomedes’ The Heavens
10.10-11.00 Gaye DANIŞAN (Istanbul University, Department of the History of Science), Visual Knowledge in Ottoman Calendars and Beyond
Coffee Break
11.20-12.10 Stephen JOHNSTON (Oxford), Diagrams in the manuscript tradition of Sacrobosco’s De sphaera
12.10-13.00 Anuj MISRA (ASTRA-MPIWG), Astronomical drawings in the Sanskrit tradition
Lunch
ASTROLOGY I
14.20-15.10 Florence SOMER (LTE PSL-Observatoire de Paris), Diagrams in Divination: Production, Transmission, and Variation in ʿIlm al-Raml.
15.10-16.00 Luís RIBEIRO (University of Lisbon), Tables and Support Diagrams in Early Modern Astrological
Coffee Break
16.20-17.10 Jeffrey KOTYK (MPIWG, Berlin), Ephemerides and Horoscopes in Premodern China and Japan
17.10-18.00 Alexandre TUR (Bibliothèque nationale de France), Between diagram and table: astrological squares in medieval Europe
Wednesday 15, 2026
9.00-9.20: Welcome
ASTROLOGY II
9.20-10.10 Hao Hao ZHU (Department of the History of Science and Scientific Archaeology, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei), Astrological Charts from Tang 唐 to Qing 清 China.
10.10-11.00 Anne-Laurence CAUDANO (University of Winnipeg),
Astro-Meteorological Diagrams in Late Byzantine Manuscripts
Coffee Break
GEOMETRY
11.20-12.10 Ioanna SKOURA (independent scholar, Athens), Investigating Theon of Alexandria’s conventions for labeling his astronomical diagrams
12.10-13.00 Guillaume LOIZELET (Université de Toulouse), Contextualising Kūshyār’s and al-Bı̄rūnı̄’s diagrams for Planetary Diameter Computation
Lunch
14.20-15.10 Stefan ZIEME (Observatoire de Paris/LTE/CNRS), The Diagrams of the First Appendix of al-Ṭūsī’s Taḥrīr al-Majisṭī
15.10-16.00 Richard KREMER (Dartmouth College) & Matthieu HUSSON (Observatoire), Reinhold’s Autograph Diagrams
Coffee Break
PLANETARY MOTIONS
16.20-17.10 Christine ROUGHAN (Princeton University),
The Updates of the Author and the Notes of the Student: Trajectories of ʿIlm al-Hayʾa Diagrams?
17.10-18.00 Christián CARMAN (CONICET – National University of Quilmes) & Diego PELEGRIN (National University of Luján), A Desperate Diagram: Kepler’s Attempt to Determine the Eccentricity of Mars by Ruler-and-Compass Construction.
Thursday 16, 2026
9.00-9.20 Welcome
9.20-10.10 Scott TRIGG, Reconfiguring Planetary Theory, Resolving Problems – Diagrams in Islamicate Astronomy (ʿilm al-hayʾa)
10.10-11.00 Hamid BOHLOUL (MPIWG, Berlin), Diagrams and textual ambiguities: Planets in or on the epicycles?
Coffee Break
INSTRUMENTS
11.20-12.10 Josefina RODRIGUEZ ARRIBAS (Institut für Jüdische Philosophie und Religion, Universität Hamburg), tba
12.10-13.00 JI Chen (University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei), Interpreting Traditional Chinese Astronomy through Western Geometrical Diagrams: A Case Study of Mei Wending
Lunch
14.20-15.10 Samuel GESSNER (University of Lisbon), Construction, Blueprint, Tool
15.10-15.30 Conclusion of the historical study part
Coffee Break
16.20-17.30 News about the EIDA platform and Debugging EIDA users – taking stock of future needs for diagram study and edition
17.30 Farewell ceremony (Observatory roof?)