PAL

Ptolemaeus Arabus et Latinus

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Oxford, Bodleian Library, Digby 228

s. XIV (eclipses 1328-1386 f. 52r-53r).

Or.:

England.

Prov.:

Thomas Allen.

Parchment, 79 f., three or more contemporary hands.

Astronomy, astrology, computus and astral magic: ‘Spera est circumferencia…’ (1ra-1vb); Alchandreana ‘Incipit quidam tractatus de 7 planetis et 12 signis et de multis aliis rebus sub compendio traditus. In principio creavit Deus celum et terram…’, end gone (1vb); table of contents, 15th c. (2v); ‘De significatione puerorum in qua die nascuntur. Sol est mundi oculus…’ (3ra-3rb); Alexander of Villedieu, Massa compoti (3va-7rb); Ptolemaica (8ra-12va); Messahallah, De cogitatione (12vb-13ra); Messahallah, Liber de intentionibus secretorum astronomie, c. 4-12 (13ra-14ra); Geoffrey of Meaux, judgement on the comet of 1315 (14ra-14va); ‘Tractatus de 28 mansionibus Lune. Prima mansio Lune ab antiquis…’ (14va-15va); Prophatius Judeus, Almanach, excerpt from the canons ‘Astrologie floridos fructus quivis efficaciter metere concupiscat…’ (15vb-16ra); Albumasar, Flores (16ra-19vb); Robert Grosseteste, Compotus (20ra-27va); ‘Liber morum de regimine dominorum qui alio nomine dicitur Secreta secretorum editus ab Aristotile ad peticionem Alexandri imperatoris…’ (27vb-39r); ‘Liber de fructibus planetarum. Cupientibus habere fructum planetarum… Explicit liber de secretis secretorum Aristotilis’ (39r-40vb); Alfraganus, De scientia astrorum, tr. John of Seville (41ra-50ra); astronomical tables (50r-52r); drawings of eclipses 1328-1386 (52r-53r); John of Ligneres, Equatorium planetarum, uses only (53va-54va); Hermes/Belenus, Liber imaginum Lunae (54va-55ra); Hermes/Belenus, De viginti quattuor horis (55ra-55rb); Hermes/Belenus, De imaginibus diei et noctis (55rb-55va); Thomas Bradwardine, Tractatus proportionum (56ra-61va); Sacrobosco, De sphera (61va-65vb); Robertus Anglicus, comm. on Sacrobosco’s De sphera (66ra-73va); Alchandreana: Breviarium Alhandrei summi astrologi and chapters from the Liber Alchandrei and other texts (73va-74ra); ‘Gloriosissimus et subtilissimus Deus creator omnium rerum ordinavit in VII speris VII planetas…’ (74ra-74va); Messahallah, Epistola de rebus eclipsium (75rb-76ra); Pseudo-Albertus Magnus, Speculum astronomie (76rb-79vb). Blank: 2r, 7v.

Bibl. G. D. Macray, Catalogi codicum manuscriptorum Bibliothecae Bodleianae, IX: Codices a viro clarissimo Kenelm Digby, Oxford, 1883, 239-241; L. Thorndike, The Sphere of Sacrobosco and Its Commentators, Chicago, 1949, 59-60; P. Zambelli, S. Caroti, M. Pereira, S. Zamponi, Alberto magno: Speculum astronomiae, Pisa, 1977, 165-168; F. Klaassen, ‘English Manuscripts of Magic, 1300-1500: A Preliminary Survey’, in Conjuring Spirits: Texts and Traditions of Medieval Ritual Magic, ed. C. Fanger, Stroud, 1998, 3-31: 11-13; R. Lemay, Le Kitāb aṯ-Ṯamara (Liber fructus, Centiloquium) d’Abū Jaʿfar Aḥmad ibn Yūsuf [Ps.-Ptolémée], 1999 [unpublished], I, 317-319; D. Juste, Les Alchandreana primitifs. Étude sur les plus anciens traités astrologiques latins d’origine arabe (xe siècle), Leiden-Boston, 2007, 348-350; A. Paravicini Bagliani, Le Speculum Astronomiae, une énigme? Enquête sur les manuscrits, Turnhout, 2001, 36-37; F. Klaassen, The Transformations of Magic. Illicit Learned Magic in the Later Middle Ages and Renaissance, University Park, 2013, 60-64; A. Lohr, C. P. E. Nothaft, Robert Grosseteste’s Compotus, Oxford, 2019, 35.

8ra–⁠12va

‘Incipit liber artis Ptholomei philosophi [title in upper margin, hand of the scribe]. <S>ciencia stellarum ex illis et ex te est. Astrologus non debet dicere rem specialiter sed universaliter… A<lia> t<ranslacio>: Mundanorum mutacio ad hoc et ad illud corporum supercelestium… A<lia> t<ranslacio>: Doctrina stellarum ex te illis est. Nec est doctrina in ea ut propheret (?) formam… <D>ixit Ptholomeus: Iam scripsi tibi, Iesure, scilicet in Quadripartito, libros de hac quod operantur stelle in hoc seculo… Quando dixit Ptholomeus ex te et illis, significat quod qui res futuras scire desiderat — et quanto melius quivimus exposuimus. Ait Thol<ome>us: Item (?) stelle cum caudis sunt 9 — in regibus et divitibus apparebit. Dixerunt Thol<ome>us et Hermes quod locus Lune in hora — expertus fuit multociens. Cum volueris per almenac scire eclipsim Lune — quia Luna sub terra tunc erit sed si fuerit intra [imperfectum: this word added]…’

= Abuiafar Hamet filii Joseph, 〈Commentum in Centiloquium〉 (‘Mundanorum’ version) (C.3.1.3)

, with v. 1-15 in the ‘threefold’ version, i.e. also given in Plato of Tivoli’s and in Adelard of Bath’s translations (C.3.1.1 and B.1.1). V. 15 has been partially erased (f. 9rb). From v. 16 onwards (f. 9va), only the ‘Mundanorum’ version is given, in ‘Mundanorum 2’. The text ends (f. 12va) with Pseudo-Ptolemy’s De cometis (B.4) and Dixerunt Ptholomeus et Hermes quod locus Lune… (B.5) (see below), after which the scribe continued with ‘Cum volueris per almenac…’ over six lines, before breaking off mid-sentence, probably realising that this paragraph was not part of the text. A few marginal notes (longer f. 9ra and 11rb) by the scribe and perhaps by another hand.

12va

‘Ait Thol<ome>us: Item (?) stelle cum caudis sunt 9 — in regibus et divitibus apparebit.’

= Pseudo-Ptolemy, De cometis (B.4)

, as part of the Centiloquium (see above). No glosses.

12va

‘Dixerunt Thol<ome>us et Hermes quod locus Lune in hora — expertus fuit multociens.’

= Pseudo-Ptolemy, Dixerunt Ptolemeus et Hermes quod locus Lune... (B.5)

, as part of the Centiloquium (see above). No glosses.