PAL

Ptolemaeus Arabus et Latinus

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Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat. lat. 4087

s. XVin (at least partly copied in 1420, cf. colophon f. 38v; the mentions of 1340 on 34v and of 1359 on f. 35v refer to older material, as does the note added by the scribe in the margin of f. 17v: ‘Explicit theorica planetarum incepta et completa Parisius per fratrem Nicholaum de Lippna de provincia Pannonie, id est Ungarie. Valete anno domini MoCCCXL’).

Or.:

northern Italy, perhaps Parma (cf. f. 35v). Three colophons give the name of the scribe as a Balthazar, of the Dominican Order, cf. f. 13rb: ‘Explicit algorismus metricus Deo gracias. Amen. Et hoc per me Baltasaram domini Dominici’, f. 13v: ‘Explicit Algorismus cum tabula per me Baltasaram’ and f. 38v: ‘Explicit liber quem edidit Micael Scotus… quod scriptum et asenplatum (!) per me Baltasaran quondam domini Dominici in MCCCCXX [with one ‘C’ erased] de mense Aprilis’.

Papier, 114 f. (original order: f. 1-37, 88-99, 38-87 and 100-114), one main hand.

Astronomy, mathematics, computus and astrology: Sacrobosco, De sphera (1r-7v); Sacrobosco, Algorismus (8r-11v); Alexander of Villedieu, Carmen de algorismo (12ra-13rb), with table and note (13v); Theorica planetarum Gerardi (14r-17v); Practica geometrie ‘Geometrie due sunt partes…’ (18r-19r); Blasius of Parma, Demonstrationes in theorica planetarum (19v-24v); Messahallah, Epistola de rebus eclipsium (26r-27v); Zael, Liber temporum (27v-31r); Ptolemaica (31r-31v); Benedictum sit nomen domini…, c. 7-10 (31v-32r); Ricardus Anglicus (?), Algorismus minutiarum, incomplete (32v-33r); ‘Comate seu caudate stele quas videmus non sunt vere stelle sed sunt vapores igniti in aere…’ (33v-34r); star table verified 1340 (34v-35r); star table ‘Stele fise primum honoris verificate 1359 secundum archidiacanum Parmensem’ (35v); ‘Habento gradu ascendentis si vis minutum habere…’ (36r-36v); 38r-38v, see f. 88r-99v; Pseudo-John of Seville, Epitome totius astrologie (38v-62r); Ibn al-Ṣaffār, De opere astrolabii, tr. John of Seville (62r-71r); table: essential dignities for each of the 12 signs (71v); calendar (72r); Hermes/Enoch, Tractatus de quindecim stellis (72v-74r); Hermes, Liber de quindecim stellis (72v-74r, as glosses to the previous text); ‘Incipit doctrina facere astrolabium que docet. Dixit Iohannes: Con (!) volueris facere astrolabium, accipe auricalcum…’ (74v-81r); ‘Cuius nostre doctrine tripartita est materia, scilicet corpus motus et significatio. His tribus suficienter pertractatis explecta erit nostra intentio. Corpus igitur quod est nostra materia dividitur in 9 partes, quarum quelibet vocatur spera sive celum…’ (81v-85v); Michael Scot, De noticia ordinum stellarum fixarum celi seu ymaginum 48 (88r-99v and 38r-38v); John of Saxony, Canones (102r-113r); short astronomical and astrological chapters ‘Utrum planeta sit ascendens vel descendens…’ (113r-113v). Blank: 25, 37, 86-87, 100-101, 114 (except notes f. 114v, some of which in Hebrew).

Bibl. Inventarium librorum Latinorum manuscriptorum Bibliothecae Vaticanae (handwritten catalogue), V, 105-106; F. S. Pedersen, The Toledan Tables. A Review of the Manuscripts and the Textual Versions with an Edition, København, 2002, I, 182; D. Juste, Les Alchandreana primitifs. Étude sur les plus anciens traités astrologiques latins d’origine arabe (xe siècle), Leiden-Boston, 2007, 383; S. Ackermann, Sternstunden am Kaiserhof. Michael Scotus und sein Buch von den Bildern und Zeichen des Himmels, Frankfurt/Main, 2009, 530-533; D. Blume, M. Haffner, W. Metzger, Sternbilder des Mittelalters und der Renaissance. Der gemalte Himmel zwischen Wissenschaft und Phantasie, II: 1200-1500, Berlin, 2016, 2 vols, II.1: Text und Katalog der Handschriften, 221-225.

31r–⁠31v

‘Incipit sciencia proiectionis radiorum. Con (!) proiectioni radiorum stellarum scire volueris, scias gradus ascendentis — equate, scilicet proectio radiacionum erit.’