ALPHONSUS X. king of Leon and Castile (see Encycl.) This prince understood astronomy, philosophy, and history, as if he had been only a man of letters; and composed books upon the motions of the heavens, and on the history of Spain, which are highly commended. "What can be more surprising (says Mariana), than that a prince, educated in a camp, and handling arms from his childhood, should have such a knowledge of the stars, of philosophy, and the transactions of the world, as men of leisure can scarcely acquire in their retirements? There are extant some books of Alphonfus on the motions of the stars, and the history of Spain, written with great skill and incredible care." In his astronomical pursuits he discovered that the tables of Ptolemy were full of errors; and thence he conceived the first of any the resolution of correcting them. For this purpose, about the year 1240, and during the life of his father, he assembled at Toledo the most skilful astronomers of his time, Christians, Moors, and Jews, when a plan was formed for constructing new tables. This task was accomplished about 1252, the first year of his reign; the tables being drawn up chiefly by the skill and pains of Rabbi Isaac Hazan, a learned Jew, and the work called the Alphonfine Tables, in honour of the prince, who was at vast expences concerning them. He fixed the epoch of the tables to the 30th of May 1252, being the day of his accession to the throne. They were printed for the first time in 1483, at Venice, by Radolt, who excelled in printing at that time. This edition is extremely rare: there are others of 1492, 1521, 1545, &c.
In the Encyclopædia it is said, that the charge of impiety brought against this prince was unjust. This was said too confidently, because we know not of any
direct proof of his innocence. All that has been said for him by Dr Hutton, one of his ablest apologists, amounts to nothing more than a high degree of probability that the charge was carried by much too far. The charge itself was, that Alphonfus affirmed, "that if he had been of God's privy council when he made the world, he would have advised him better." Mariana, however, says only in general, that Alphonfus was so bold as to blame the works of Providence, and the construction of our bodies; and he says that this story concerning him rested only upon a vulgar tradition. The Jesuit's words are curious: "Emanuel, the uncle of Sanchez (the son of Alphonfus), in his own name, and in the name of other nobles, deprived Alphonfus of his kingdom by a public sentence; which that prince merited, for daring severely and boldly to censure the works of Divine Providence, and the construction of the human body, as tradition says he did. Heaven most justly punished the folly of his tongue." Though the silence of such an historian as Mariana, in regard to Ptolemy's system, ought to be of some weight, yet we cannot think it improbable, that if Alphonfus did pass so bold a censure on any part of the universe, it was on the celestial sphere, and meant to glance upon the contrivers and supporters of that system. For, besides that he studied nothing more, it is certain that at that time astronomers explained the motions of the heavens by intricate and confused hypotheses, which did no honour to God, nor anywise answered the idea of an able workman. So that, from considering the multitude of spheres composing the system of Ptolemy, and those numerous eccentric cycles and epicycles with which it is embarrassed, if we suppose Alphonfus to have said, "that if God had asked his advice when he made the world, he would have given him better counsel," the boldness and impiety of the censure will be greatly diminished.
Such is the apology made by Dr Hutton for this royal astronomer of Spain; and we hope, for the honour of science, that it is well founded. Still it leaves Alphonfus guilty of great irreverence of language, which is to us wholly unaccountable, if it be really true that he read the Bible fourteen times. We have seen impiety indeed break out lately from very eminent astronomers of a neighbouring nation; but these men read not the Bible, nor any thing else, but the dreams of the eternal sleepers.