A commentary on the Centiloquium by Andreas Grzymala of Poznań, professor at the University of Cracow from c. 1447 (when he earned his master’s degree) until his death in 1466. Andreas Grzymala taught astronomy for a few years only, until he became professor of poetry and rhetoric c. 1450. He produced his Canones tabularum resolutarum in or soon after 1448 and it is likely that his commentary on the Centiloquium dates from about that time. He signed his work in the initials of the first words of the preface (‘Gloriosus reor zonas intueri mundiales a limitibus altis’), as was common among Cracow authors of the fifteenth century. The exact nature of this commentary, however, is unclear. Rosińska speaks of university lectures, which is entirely plausible. In the only known manuscript, this commentary consists of a preface (p. 71), a substantial introduction (pp. 72-74) and the commentary proper, which mainly gives the opinion of other scholars (Robert Grosseteste, Albertus Magnus, Ptolemy in the Quadripartitum, Alkindi, Leopold of Austria, Albumasar, Bede, Hippocrates, Almansor, Razes etc.), copied in the margins of the text of the Centiloquium (from p. 75 onwards). This commentary, however, breaks off after v. 20 (p. 85) and it is unclear whether it was left unfinished or whether the scribe of the manuscript stopped copying it at that point. The source text for the Centiloquium is Plato of Tivoli’s translation (C.3.1.1), but the ‘Mundanorum’ version (C.3.1.3) has also been copied in the margin, where it is intertwined with the commentary. See also the manuscript entry.

Text ‘(Cracow, BJ, 1857) [preface] Gloriosus reor zonas intueri mundiales a limitibus altis divino afflatu in vere officinam mundi inferioris radiantes… (72) [comm.] In nomine Ihesu. Circa prohemium Centum verborum dum dicit: Mundanorum mutacio etc. Albertus Magnus in Libro de fato talem mutacionem dicit formam ordinis esse… (75) [text] Mundanorum ad hoc vel ad illud mutacio corporum celestium mutatione — et ego Deum precor ut te dirigat.’

Bibl. G. Rosińska, Scientific Writings and Astronomical Tables in Cracow. A Census of Manuscript Sources (xiv^th-xvi^th Centuries), Wrocław-Warszawa, 1984, nos 341 and 771; M. Markowski, Astronomica et astrologica Cracoviensia ante annum 1550, Firenze, 1990, 27; M. Markowski, ‘Repertorium bio-bibliographicum astronomorum Cracoviensium medii aevi: Adam Tussinus de Tarnovia – Andreas Grzymała de Posnania’, Studia Mediewistyczne 27.1 (1990), 111-163: 148; Clavis scriptorum et operum Medii Aevi Poloniae, eds J. Kaliszuk, A. Pieniądz, P. Węcowski, K. Skwierczyński, Kraków, 2019, 38-39 (no. 25/2). On Andreas Grzymala (Andrzej Grzymała), see also A. Birkenmajer, ‘Andrzej Grzymala de Poznań, astronome et médecin du XVe siècle’, in A. Birkenmajer, Etudes d’histoire des sciences en Pologne, Wrocław, 1972, 515-526 [originally published in Polish in 1958]; Markowski, Astronomica, 25-27; Markowski, ‘Repertorium’, 144-148; P. W. Knoll, “A Pearl of Powerful Learning”. The University of Cracow in the Fifteenth Century, Leiden-Boston, 2016, 386; Clavis scriptorum, 38-39.

Modern ed. ---