This ‘epitome of the commentaries of an author of uncertain name’ is in fact a summary of Cardano’s In Ptolemaei librorum de iudiciis astrorum commentaria (C.2.24). This summary covers the four books and deals with Cardano’s commentary only, not with Ptolemy’s original text. The horoscopes reproduced in the text (f. 64r, 67r, 74r, 86v and 87v) are also taken from Cardano. The author used Cardano’s edition of 1554 or 1555, for the second of these horoscopes (f. 67r = ed. 1554, sig. 235; ed. 1555, sig. 528) is omitted in the revised edition of 1578. This might suggest that the Epitome was written between 1554 and 1578. In any case, the only known manuscript, copied in the seventeenth century probably in Italy, is unlikely to be the original. It is unclear whether the ‘author of uncertain name’ denotes Cardano or the author of the Epitome.

Text ‘(Florence, BNC, Panciatichiano 309) Epitome comentariorum auctoris incerti nominis in Ptolemei de astror<um> iudic<iis> lib<ri> 4. (32r-42r) [book i] Duo sunt principia praecipua astronomicae scientiae. Primum est cognitio stellarum tam erraticarum quam fixarum — eo magis erunt validiora. (42r-59v) [book ii] Epitome comentariorum auctoris incerti nominis in Ptolemei de astrorum iudiciis liber secundus. Cap. I. Dividitur etiam tota astronomia in principia et apotelesmata tota — ex his omnibus perfecte habeamus quae ad tempus … (?). (60r-77r) [book iii] Epitome comentariorum auctoris incerti nominis in Ptolemei de astrorum iudiciis liber tertius. Cap. I. Hactenus de generalibus iudiciis — Iupiter autem haec moderatiora reddit. (77r-90v) [book iv] Epitome comentariorum auctoris incerti nominis in Ptolemei de astrorum iudiciis liber quartus. Cap. I. De nati fortunis. … (?) omnia quae ad divitiarum acquisitionem pertinentem — Haec autem dicta sufficiant circa explanationem quatuor librorum Ptolemei.’

Bibl. ---

Modern ed. ---