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Ptolemaeus Arabus et Latinus

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Work C.1.19

George of Trebizond
Expositio Magne compositionis Ptolomei

Written in 1451 by George of Trebizond, as he was working on the translation (A.1.4), this is a full-length commentary on the Almagest. Monfasani, 672, writes: ‘The commentary is the biggest work George ever produced. Apart from the writings of Regiomontanus, it is the largest work by a humanist on mathematics in the Quattrocento.’ Both the translation and the commentary were successively addressed to Pope Nicholas V, to Iacopo Antonio Marcello, to Mehmed II, to Matthias Corvinus and to Pope Sixtus IV (see A.1.4). Unlike the translation, the commentary was never printed. MS Torino, BNU, G II 36 (996) preserves the draft of the text in George’s hand. MS Stuttgart, WLB, Math. fol. 24 is the copy addressed to Matthias Corvinus with George’s autograph corrections. MS Vatican, BAV, Vat. lat. 2058 is the copy addressed to Sixtus IV by Andreas of Trebizond, George’s son. George’s commentary was the target of Regiomontanus’s critique (see C.1.23).

Text ‘(Basel, UB, F.V.22) (4r-21r) [introduction] Georgii Trapezuntii ad libros Magne Ptolomei compositionis introductio. Capitulum primum de divisione omnis circuli et precipue zodiaci. Quoniam libros Ptolomei de motibus celestium, quibus nescio an quicquam altius ac rationis et scientie via certius inveniri aut fingi possit ex Greca lingua in Latinam vertimus — in exponendo Ptolomeo non gravabimur decies enim repetita placebunt. (21r-53v) [book i] Expositio Magne compositionis Ptolomei a Georgio Trapezunda facta incipit. Codicis huius quem exposituri gratia salvatoris sumus volumina librique XIII sunt, in quibus Ptolomeus intendit erraticarum stellarum et fixarum motus invenire — decrescunt equaliter ut mox videbitur. (53v-90v) [book ii] Incipit liber II. De universali orbis terrarium situ qui a nobis habitatur. In hoc libro principaliter ascensiones climatum et angulos — orientalior sit vel subtrahere si occidentalior. Explicit liber secundus. (90v-110v) [book iii] Incipit tertius. De magnitudine animi temporis. Capitulum primum. Cum in superioribus per transitionem: Ac rethores dicerent exorsus est breviter — motum huic tempori convenientem addentes aut subtrahentes. (110v-127v) [book iv] Incipit liber quartus. Quibus observationibus accidentia Lune consideranda sunt. Capitulum primum. Nam cum distantia qua Lunae globus quoniam terra — 30 Novembris die vel circa ingrediebatur. (127v-167r) [book v] Incipit liber quintus. De constructione instrumentui quod astrolabium vocatur. Capitulum primum. In utraque quadratura: Quadraturas latine dicimus quas Graeci dichoromos appellant — in differentia alterius vie ad alteram. (167r-204v) [book vi] Quomodo mediarum coniunctionum atque oppositionum componende tabule sunt. Capitulum secundum. Notum distantie graduum 20.37: Sol enim medie fuerat in Piscium — quoniam e contra centrum eius borealius est. Explicit liber sextus. (204v-207v) [book vii] Incipit septimus. Quod stele non erratice semper eundem inter se situm servant. Capitulum primum. In hoc libro de stellis non erraticis agit — australior propinquior polo australi. (207v-215r) [book viii] De spera solida facienda. Capitulum tertium. Capiemus in ipsa duo puncta quem exquisite per dyametrum — vel tot diebus de coniunctione Solis defeciat. Sequitur liber nonus. (215r-243v) [book ix] Incipit liber nonus. De ordine globorum Solis, Lune, ceterarumque stellarum erraticarum. Capitulum I. <Q>uasi ad polos obliqui solaris et fixae ad polos zodiaci moventur — minime ad centrum epicycli. (243v-263r) [book x] Liber decimus incipit. Demonstratio maxime longitudinis stelle Veneris. Per equals et ad eandem partem: Maximas inquit distantias stele videlicet a Sole — reliquorum 109.42 et angulus similiter IBT. Explicit liber decimus Magne compositionis Ptolomei. (263r-281r) [book xi] Incipit undecimus. Demonstratio excentricitatis et maxime longitudinis stele Iovis. Capitulum primum. Centrum equantis querit primo sicut et in Marte — enim fundamenta iam sunt omnia consequi poterit. (281r-308v) [book xii] Liber XII. De hiis quae premittuntur ad regressus plan<e>tarum demonstrandos. Perspicuum est quod de regressibus nunc dicendum — priore distantia quoniam maior est quam posterior. (308v-351r) [book xiii] Incipit liber XIIIus. De suppositionibus quae ad motus latitudinis quandoque planetarum pertinent. Quoniam etiam propter eas sensibiles differentie (?): Apparitiones et occultationes stellarum dicit — maius inter observationes temporis spatium exigit quam vita hominis sit. [colophon] Laudetur nomen tuum, qui me hoc opus in die felici salutis nostre absolvere voluisti, Christe benedicte, quod in die quam foelici tue incarnationis incoepi absolvique novem id mensibus, traductionum vero textus mensibus novem diebus 22, cuius rei testis gravissimus est, tempore pontifex summus Nicolaus V, qui volumen traducendum mense Marcii tradidit et mense Decembris anni eiusdem et librum traductum et commentarios vidit absolutos propter quos postea me destruxit, ut cedule ostendunt, per ignorantissimum Iacobum Cremonensem apposite. Deo gratias.’

Bibl. W. Norlind, ‘Georgius Trapezuntius och hans Almagest-kommentar’, Nordisk Tidskrift för Bok-och-Biblioteksväsen 53 (1966), 19-24; P. L. Rose, The Italian Renaissance of Mathematics. Studies on Humanists and Mathematicians from Petrarch to Galileo, Genève, 1975, 41-42; J. Monfasani, Collectanea Trapezuntiana: Texts, Documents, and Bibliographies of George of Trebizond, Binghamton (NY), 1984, 671-687 (and 248, 285, 322 786-789 for the prefaces); H. Zepeda, The Medieval Latin Transmission of the Menelaus Theorem, PhD dissertation, University of Oklahoma at Norman, 2013, 329-334; M. Shank, ‘The Almagest, Politics, and Apocalypticism in the Conflict between George of Trebizond and Cardinal Bessarion’, Almagest 8 (2017), 49-83.

Modern ed. None, except several exerpts, ed. Monfasani, 679-687, and the various prefaces, ed. Monfasani, 248-251 (to Iacopo Antonio Marcello), 286-287 (to Matthias Corvinus), 322-325 (preface to the reader from Torino, BNU, G.II.36) and 796-804 (Andreas of Trebizond to Sixtus IV). Andreas of Trebizond’s preface to Sixtus IV had already been edited by M. Fuiano, ‘Astrologia ed umanesimo in due prefazioni di Andrea di Trebizonda’, Atti dell’Accademia Pontaniana, Nuova Serie 17 (1968), 385-412: 405-412.

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