Astronomical use of pinhole images in William of Saint-Cloud's Almanach Planetarum (1292) (Q1205972)

The author asserts that there are two aspects of the so-called problem of pinhole images during the Middle Ages. The first concerns optical theory directly and requires an answer to the question of the formation of these images. The second one refers to the astronomical use of pinhole images. This seems to have been well known at least since the 12th century. In the second half of the 16th century it came into increasing use among professional astronomers as Erasmus Reinhold, Gemma Frisius, Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler. The object of this paper is to provide an edition, with translation and commentary, of a passage on pinhole images of William of Saint-Cloud's Prologue to his Almanach planetarum, composed in 1292.