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Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, C 86

Collection of six works: Arabic. Date:

ff. 1r–100r completed on Friday, 23 Rabīʿ al-awwal 1071/26 November 1660 (100r); ff. 117v–144r completed on a Friday at the end of Rabīʿ al-awwal (i.e., 30 Rabīʿ al-awwal) 1071/3 December 1660 (144r); ff. 101v–117v copied by the same hand as ff. 1r–100r and 117v–144r; ff. 149r–171v undated, c. 1200/1800 (Griffini, p. 127).

Or.:

ff. 1r–144r: Arabic peninsula, perhaps Ḥijāz (Griffini, p. 127); ff. 149r–171v: Yemen (Griffini, p. 127).

Prov.:

a statement dated 1114/1702-3 (1r); a statement by Sharaf al-Dīn b. Salāḥ b. al-Qāsim dated Rabīʿ al-thānī 1120/June-July 1708 and possibly referring to another on the same page as having been written by al-shaykh al-raʾīs ʿAlī 〈b.〉 Aḥmad al-Kāmil (146v). A statement by Yaḥyā b. Salāḥ b. al-Qāsim (Sharaf al-Dīn’s brother?), who inspected the manuscript in Medina on 8 Jumādā l-thāniya 1123/24 July 1711; a statement mentioning the date Tuesday, 19 Rabīʿ al-awwal 1126/3 April 1714, al-Ḥūṭa near Riyadh and Minā near Mecca, plus two further statements (147v); a marginal note by the above-mentioned Yaḥyā likewise dated Jumādā l-thāniya 1123/July 1711 and mentioning Medina (114v). An ownership statement by the astronomer Yūsuf b. Yūsuf al-Maḥallī dated Rabīʿ al-thānī 1149/July-August 1736 (1r) (he was in Sanʿa in 1157/1744-5, cf. Griffini, p. 107). An ownership statement dated 1243/1827-8 (1r); several illegible statements (1r, 171v). A paper slip with an incomplete horoscope and an unreadable blind stamp (bound between ff. 101–102). The manuscript belongs to the ‘nuovo fondo’ acquired by Eugenio Griffini and others from Giuseppe Caprotti, an Italian merchant active in Yemen between 1880 and 1909, and later donated to the Biblioteca Ambrosiana (Griffini, p. vii).

Cod.: paper (ff. 1–148: white deteriorated to brown; ff. 149–171: slightly brighter), 171 ff. (foliated with Arabic-European numerals; occasional quire numbers in the first work; catchwords). Two black naskh hands. First hand (1r–144r, including the Ptolemaic work): clear; mostly dotted ductus with some quick ligatures, occasional vowels and shaddas, occasional textual dividers; bold black thuluth titles, subtitles either in red or in black overlined with red; occasional overlining in brown by a later hand (e.g., 68v, 69r, 100v). Second hand (149r–171v): small and slightly inconsistent naskh; mostly undotted ductus, no vowels, high density of text; a few formulaic expressions in bold to highlight the beginning of a new section; subtitles in red and formulaic expressions in black overlined in red. Diagrams,1r–144r: horoscopes mostly in black and carelessly drawn, sketches for the curves on a quadrant in black and brown (144v and 145v), a decorative sketch in red and brown (147v); 149r–171v: horoscopes carefully drawn in black and red with a ruler, a circular table in black and red (167v), somewhat sloppy tables in black and red with bold framing (168v–171v). Numbers in abjad notation or written out in full; also Hindu-Arabic numerals in red on ff. 149r–171v. At least nine different naskh hands adding glosses, computations, astronomical as well as non-astronomical sketches, and an additional chapter on f. 146v; one hand apparently annotating both ff. 1r–144r and 149r–171v; various chapter numberings in the margins in blue-violet pencil, probably by Griffini (cf. similar notes in other Ambrosiana manuscripts). Codex in good condition; some pages detached from the original binding, moisture stains not affecting the readability, several holes in the margin caused by intentional scratching. Dimensions, ff. 1–148: 209×158 mm, written area: 150×85 mm with 21 lines per page on ff. 1v–39v and 178×101 mm with 25 lines on ff. 40r–143v; ff. 149–171: slightly smaller paper size, written area: between 136×100 mm and 198×121 mm with 29–39 lines per page. Recent black and blue leather cover over paper pasteboards (‘rebound in March 1961’ in Italian on the inside of the back cover). Type III binding.

Cont.: astrology. — Index: Hermes, Kitāb Miftāḥ ʿarḍ asrār al-nujūm (1r–100r, with an addition on geographical astrology on ff. 100v–101v; cf. GASFuat Sezgin, Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums, 17 vols, Leiden: Brill / Frankfurt am Main: Institut für Geschichte der Arabisch-Islamischen Wissenschaften, 1967–2015, vol. IV, p. 41; Muḥammad b. Abī Bakr al-Fārisī, Ṭirāz al-dahr fī asrār al-khalq wa-l-amr fī l-aḥkām al-Jāmāspiyya ʿalā l-qirānāt al-ʿulwiyya wa-mā yadullu ʿalay-hi min al-nabawāt wa-l-milal (101v–117v); Ptolemaica (117v–144r); sketches for the curves on a quadrant with some calculations (144v–145v); a short note on a pilgrimage (146v); a decorative sketch (147v); an astrological compilation drawing on the Kitāb Miftāḥ al-qaḍāʾ by Abū ʿAlī l-Khayyāṭ (149r–157r; cf. Löfgren & Traini, p. 166); astrological chapters by ʿIzz al-Dīn b. Aybak al-Amjadī (?) (157r–163v); tables extracted from al-Battānī’s al-Zīj al-Ṣābiʾ together with planetary computations for Sanʿa and the year 841/1437-8 (164r–171r; cf. Griffini, pp. 123–127, and King); a note on zodiacal signs and ascendants (171v). Blank: 145r, 147r, 148r.

Bibl.: Eugenio Griffini, Catalogo dei manoscritti arabi di nuovo fondo della Biblioteca Ambrosiana di Milano. Volume I: codici 1-475, Roma: Rivista degli Studi Orientali, 1910–1919, pp. vii, 107, and 110–127; Oscar Löfgren and Renato Traini, Catalogue of the Arabic Manuscripts in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Vol. II: Nuovo fondo: Series A-D (Nos. 1-830), Vicenza: Neri Pozza Editore, 1981, pp. 166–167; David A. King, Mathematical Astronomy in Medieval Yemen. A Biobibliographical Survey, Malibu: Undena Publications, 1983, pp. 39–40; Franco Martorello and Giuseppe Bezza, Aḥmad ibn Yūsuf ibn al-Dāya. Commento al Centiloquio Tolemaico, Milano / Udine: Mimesis, 2013, pp. 34 and 40–41; Jean-Charles Ducène and Florence Somer, ‘Le Kitāb Ṭirāz al-dahr fī asrār al-ḫalq wa-l-amr de Ğāmāsp dans la rédaction de Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr al-Fārisī (VIIe/XIIIe siècle) (Milan, Ambrosienne C. 86)’, Annales Islamologiques 57 (2023), pp. 177–250, pp. 191–192.

117v–⁠144r	\118r\ [formulae] قال بطليموس الحكيم قد قدّمنا لك يا سوريّ كتابًا في مأثّرة الكواكب في عالم التركيب كثيرة المنفعة في تقدّم المعرفة بعلمها وهذا الكتاب ممّن اشتملت عليه تلك الكتاب وقد جعلناه مائة كلمة موجزة على الحصر والتجريد منها وعرف وليس يميل إلى معرفة من لم ينعم النظر في جميع ما قدّمنا قبله من العلوم في علوم اخر من علوم الرياضة فكان سعدًا — \143v\ فهذا ما حضرني أيدك الله من تفسير كلمات بطلميوس وأرجوا أن يكون مطابقًا لمعانيه مستوفيًا لشرحه والصواب لك أن يمنعه مما يؤثّر منه إلّا الكتب بملكه ويروي حصوله تمّ الكتاب الثمرة المسمّى اقطرطسطا ومعناه المياه كلمة اختصرها بطلميوس في كتبه وكتب سائر الحكماء وقرّبها من فهم المرتاضين لهذه الصناعة الجليلة والعلم النفيس الدالّ على توحيد الله وجلاله وجبروته وعظمته لا مبدل \144r\ لكلمات الله ولا رادّ لحكمه وهو السميع العليم. = Abū Jaʿfar Aḥmad b. Yūsuf, Tafsīr Kitāb al-Thamara (C.3.1) , version with 100 verba. — Title: Kitāb al-Thamara li-Baṭlīmūs al-mālik al-ḥakīm ilā mālik al-yawnāniyya Sūray (sic) tafsīr Aḥmad b. Yūsuf al-Miṣrī al-Munajjim wa-hiya miʾat kalima mulakhkhaṣa (117v). — Additional title: al-Kitāb al-Thamara al-musammā ā-q-ṭ-r-ṭ-s-ṭ-ā wa-maʿnā-hu l-miyāh al-kalima (143v). — Index: title page, 117v; Pseudo-Ptolemy’s introduction, 118r; verbum 1, 118r; commentator’s introduction, 118r; commentary on verbum 1, 118r-119v; remaining 99 verba intertwined with the commentary, 119v–144r. — Commentator’s colophon with Greek title; dated scribal colophon. Text of verbum 61 omitted, verba 62–63 numbered as 61–62, correct numbering restored from verbum 64 onward (Martorello & Bezza, p. 34). Verbum 98 replaced by the first part of its commentary (ibid., p. 41). Very few corrections by the main scribe (a marginal restoration of text initially left out on f. 127v and two corrections indicated by ṣḥ on ff. 126v and 135r). An otherwise unattested horoscope based on verbum 73 (137v); computations in Hindu-Arabic and abjad numerals by a later hand (124v). Marginal cross-references to the verba as numbered in the version with verba sorted by Ibn al-Kammād (black, Hindu-Arabic numerals); marginal numbering of the first 20 verba in Roman numerals (in black, probably by Griffini). This witness was used for the edition in Martorello & Bezza.

117v–⁠144r

\118r\ [formulae] قال بطليموس الحكيم قد قدّمنا لك يا سوريّ كتابًا في مأثّرة الكواكب في عالم التركيب كثيرة المنفعة في تقدّم المعرفة بعلمها وهذا الكتاب ممّن اشتملت عليه تلك الكتاب وقد جعلناه مائة كلمة موجزة على الحصر والتجريد منها وعرف وليس يميل إلى معرفة من لم ينعم النظر في جميع ما قدّمنا قبله من العلوم في علوم اخر من علوم الرياضة فكان سعدًا — \143v\ فهذا ما حضرني أيدك الله من تفسير كلمات بطلميوس وأرجوا أن يكون مطابقًا لمعانيه مستوفيًا لشرحه والصواب لك أن يمنعه مما يؤثّر منه إلّا الكتب بملكه ويروي حصوله تمّ الكتاب الثمرة المسمّى اقطرطسطا ومعناه المياه كلمة اختصرها بطلميوس في كتبه وكتب سائر الحكماء وقرّبها من فهم المرتاضين لهذه الصناعة الجليلة والعلم النفيس الدالّ على توحيد الله وجلاله وجبروته وعظمته لا مبدل \144r\ لكلمات الله ولا رادّ لحكمه وهو السميع العليم.

= Abū Jaʿfar Aḥmad b. Yūsuf, Tafsīr Kitāb al-Thamara (C.3.1)

, version with 100 verba. — Title: Kitāb al-Thamara li-Baṭlīmūs al-mālik al-ḥakīm ilā mālik al-yawnāniyya Sūray (sic) tafsīr Aḥmad b. Yūsuf al-Miṣrī al-Munajjim wa-hiya miʾat kalima mulakhkhaṣa (117v). — Additional title: al-Kitāb al-Thamara al-musammā ā-q-ṭ-r-ṭ-s-ṭ-ā wa-maʿnā-hu l-miyāh al-kalima (143v). — Index: title page, 117v; Pseudo-Ptolemy’s introduction, 118r; verbum 1, 118r; commentator’s introduction, 118r; commentary on verbum 1, 118r-119v; remaining 99 verba intertwined with the commentary, 119v–144r. — Commentator’s colophon with Greek title; dated scribal colophon. Text of verbum 61 omitted, verba 62–63 numbered as 61–62, correct numbering restored from verbum 64 onward (Martorello & Bezza, p. 34). Verbum 98 replaced by the first part of its commentary (ibid., p. 41). Very few corrections by the main scribe (a marginal restoration of text initially left out on f. 127v and two corrections indicated by ṣḥ on ff. 126v and 135r). An otherwise unattested horoscope based on verbum 73 (137v); computations in Hindu-Arabic and abjad numerals by a later hand (124v). Marginal cross-references to the verba as numbered in the version with verba sorted by Ibn al-Kammād (black, Hindu-Arabic numerals); marginal numbering of the first 20 verba in Roman numerals (in black, probably by Griffini). This witness was used for the edition in Martorello & Bezza.