An Astronomical Table by Shabbetai Donnolo and the Jewish Calendar in Tenth-Century Italy

The astronomical table published for the first time in this article appears in a single manuscript (the oldest) manuscript of Shabbetai Donnolo's Sefer Hakmoni, Oxford MS Heb.e.26, from the Cairo Geniza. It contains solar, lunar, and planetary ephemerides for the period of one lunar month identified as (Jewish) Elul and (Muslim) Safar, 4706, which corresponds approximately to September 946 CE. This table not only provides important evidence of Donnolo's astronomical knowledge, but also assumes a Jewish calendar substantially different from the rabbinic calendar that was in use at the time in Babylonia and the East. It provides unique evidence that the Jews of tenth-century Italy followed an independent local Jewish calendar. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]