PAL

Ptolemaeus Arabus et Latinus

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London, British Library, Royal 12.E.XV

Date:

s. XIII-XIV.

Prov.:

Edward IV before his accession (f. 2v: ‘Iste liber constat Edwardo comiti Marchie primogenitus filius ducis Eboraci’).

Parchment, 136 f., two hands (f. 3-18 and 19-135). The second (and main) hand is rather neat, with golden initials at the beginning.

Medicine, natural philosophy and astrology: short medical texts on bloodletting, women’s diseaces, anatomy, etc. (3r-18v); Pseudo-Aristotle, Secretum secretorum (19r-116r); Ptolemaica (117r-135r); added notes on planetary distances (136v). Blank: 1-2 (except ex-libris and a few notes), 116v, 135v-136r.

Bibl. G. F. Warner, J. P. Gilson, Catalogue of Western Manuscripts in the Old Royal and King’s Collections, II: Royal MSS 12 A.I to 20 E.X and App. 1-89, London, 1921, 54-55; R. Lemay, Le Kitāb aṯ-Ṯamara (Liber fructus, Centiloquium) d’Abū Jaʿfar Aḥmad ibn Yūsuf [Ps.-Ptolémée], 1999 [unpublished], I, 249-250.

117r–⁠135r

‘Incipit liber 100 verborum Ptholomei. Dixit Ptholomeus: Iam scripsi tibi fore libros de hoc quod operantur stelle in hoc seculo… Verbum primum. Scientia stellarum ex te et ex illis (132v) ad occidentem erit hostis de regno ipso. 99. De nominibus cometarum. Dixit Ptholomeus: Iste stelle cum caudis sunt IIa (!) (133v) in regibus et divitibus apparebit. 100. Dixit Ptholomeus et Hermes: (134r) Locus Lune in hora qua infunditur ubi eam inveneris erit ascendens nativitatis. Explicit Centilogium Ptholomei philosophi cui Deus parcat.’

= Abuiafar Hamet filius Joseph, 〈Commentum in Centiloquium〉 (‘Mundanorum’ version) (C.3.1.3)

, in ‘Mundanorum 2’. The commentary is missing, but this section contains unusually large margins, which have been left blank. The text includes Pseudo-Ptolemy’s De cometis (B.4) on f. 132v-133v (see below) and Dixerunt Ptholomeus et Hermes quod locus Lune… (B.5) on f. 133v-135r (see below), as v. 99 and 100 respectively. No glosses.

132v–⁠133v

‘99. De nominibus cometarum. Dixit Ptholomeus: Iste stelle cum caudis sunt IIa (!) in regibus et divitibus apparebit.’

= Pseudo-Ptolemy, De cometis (B.4)

, as v. 99 of the Centiloquium (see above). No glosses.

133v–⁠135r

‘100. Dixit Ptholomeus et Hermes: (134r) Locus Lune in hora qua infunditur ubi eam inveneris erit ascendens nativitatis.’

= Pseudo-Ptolemy, Dixerunt Ptolemeus et Hermes quod locus Lune... (B.5)

, as v. 100 of the Centiloquium (see above). No glosses.