Work B.15
Pseudo-Ptolemy
Liber de nativitatibus hominum
Text
‘(Munich, BSB, Clm 25009) [preface] De nativitatibus hominum. Inferiora corporis reguntur a superioribus ut patet per astrologos et sapientes — secundum quod reperitur in libro Ptholomei peritissimi astrologi. [text] Incipit liber Ptholomei peritissimi astrologi de nativitatibus hominum. De Ariete. Natus sub Ariete, a medio Martii ad medium Aprilis, erit magne industrie, nec dives nec multum pauper erit — fideliter vivent tam viro quam muliere.’
Content
A text describing the native (male and female in distinct chapters) of the twelve signs of the zodiac.
Origin
Unknown, but this text probably derives from Arabic sources (like most texts of this genre) and is possibly related to the Kitāb Mawālid al-rijāl ʿalā raʾy Harmis wa-Baṭlamiyūs and Kitāb Mawālid al-nisāʾ ʿalā raʾy Harmis wa-Baṭlamiyūs (see F. Sezgin, Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums, VII: Astrologie-Meteorologie und Verwandtes bis ca. 430 H, Leiden, 1979, 46 nos. 5-6; also M. Ullmann, Die Natur- und Geheimwissenschaften im Islam, Leiden, 1972, 284). The title Liber Ptholomei peritissimi astrologi de nativitatibus hominum occurs only in MS Munich, BSB, Clm 25009, but the attribution to Ptolemy is clear from the last sentence of the preface: ‘secundum quod reperitur in libro Ptholomei peritissimi astrologi’.
Bibl.
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Ed.
D. Bini, P. Di Pietro Lombardi, L. Ventura, Liber physiognomiae. Lat. 697 = α.W.8.20 della Biblioteca Estense Universitaria di Modena, Modena, 2000, 42-52 (edition, Italian translation and facsimile of Modena, BEU, 697).
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