Work B.16
Pseudo-Ptolemy
Liber de nativitatibus hominum
Text ‘(Munich, BSB, Clm 25009) De nativitatibus hominum. Inferiora corporis reguntur a superioribus ut patet per astrologos et sapientes… 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). The text is attributed to Ptolemy in Munich, BSB, Clm 25009 and is anonymous in the other MSS.
Bibl. ---
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).