PAL

Ptolemaeus Arabus et Latinus

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Work C.3.16

Giovanni Pontano
Liber commentationum in Centum sententiis Ptolemaei

An extensive commentary on the Centiloquium written by Giovanni Pontano (1429-1503) in Naples in 1477-1479. The commentary includes, for each proposition, Pontano’s own translation of the original text from the Greek (B.1.9). The work is divided into two books. Book I (v. 1-50) was completed in 1477 and addressed to the duke of Urbino Federico da Montefeltro. Book II (v. 51-100) was completed in 1479 and addressed to Pontano’s close friend and member of the Accademia Pontaniana Pietro Golino (Petrus Compater). Pontano kept revising his work until 1490, as witnessed by MS Rome, BANLC, 43 F 2 (Cors. 1287), which preserves the final version with Pontano’s autograph corrections. MS Vatican, BAV, Vat. lat. 5984 preserves both a first draft of the text in Pontano’s hand (f. 177r-314v) and the revised version with autograph corrections (f. 1r-173r). MS Venice, BNM, lat. VIII.66 (3437) (Book I only) is an autograph copy and MS Vatican, BAV, Urb. lat. 1393 (also Book I only) contains autograph corrections. Three manuscripts (Munich, BSB, Clm 26764; Vienna, ÖNB, 5209; and Warsaw, BN, Rps 6627 III) and most of the early printed editions preserve the translation only and omit the commentary. Pontano’s translation is the source text of commentary C.3.22 and was also used in commentary C.2.21.

Note 1 In addition to the manucripts listed below, v. 51 is found as part of commentary C.2.13 in MS Cracow, BJ, 1963, f. 64r-64v.

Note 2 Pontano also translated from the Greek a few passages from Tetrabiblos I.8 and I.23. These passages, found in MS Milan, BA, G. 109 inf., s. XV, f. 30r and 32r-32v (autograph), have been edited by M. Rinaldi, ‘Per gli studi astrologici del Pontano: un autografo inedito e quattro frammenti di traduzione dal greco nel codice Ambrosiano G. 109 inf., ff. 30r-32v’, Atti della Academia Pontaniana. Nuova Serie 50 (2001), 335-378. These fragments were translated by Pontano for his own use and do not form an independent work.

Text ‘(ed. Naples 1512) [book i] Ioannis Ioviani Pontani commentationum in centum sententiis Ptolemaei ad Federicum Urbini ducem lib<er> primus. [preface] Tametsi publicarum rerum administratio, bellique gerendi cura deterrere me iure possunt, Federice dux fortissime — quam laborum studiique huius nostri laudem inde quaeri. [1] I. Ptolemaeus. A te et a scientia. Fieri enim nequit ut qui sciens est particulares rerum formas pronuntiet, sicuti nec sensus particularem, sed generalem… [comm.] Pontanus. Nec medici, nec moralis philosophi sola est cognitio, sed quaedam etiam operatio… [2] II. Ptolemaeus. Cum is qui consultat ipsium melius scrutabitur… [comm.] Pontanus. Haec sententia ad auspicationes, consultationes et rerum incepta… [3] III. Ptolemaeus. Qui ad rem quampiam aptus est habebit profecto… [comm.] Pontanus. Superiori verbo cum essent dictum species rerum earum… [4] IIII. Ptolemaeus. Anima ad cognitionem apta veri plus assequitur… [comm.] Pontanus. Et a stellarum munere et a rerum coeli peritia… [5] V. Ptolemaeus. Potest qui sciens est multos stellarum effectus avertere… [comm.] Pontanus. Cum elementa ipsa invicem convertantur necesse est… [6] VI. Ptolemaeus. Tunc dierum prodest et horarum electio cum tempus a genitura… [comm.] Pontanus. Ea coeli pars quae hora nativitatis supra terras ascendit… [7] VII. Ptolemaeus. Non potest quispiam stellarum misturas percipere… [comm.] Pontanus. Primo nobis verbo declaravit Ptolemaeus versari mathematicum… [8] VIII. Ptolemaeus. Sapiens anima confert coelesti operationi… [comm.] Pontanus. Quanquam generi animalium est omni naturaliter… [9] IX. Ptolemaeus. In generatione atque corruptione formae afficiuntur a coelestibus formis… [comm.] Pontanus. Ut supra est dictum utque inter physicos constat… [10] X. Ptolemaeus. In dierum horarumque electionibus utere maleficis… [comm.] Pontanus. Nec omnes morbi eisdem curantur remediis — [50] … cognitio eorum quae fiunt in mundo et generationis et corruptionis. [comm.] … sunt centum decem et novem, septem simul planetarum coniunctione adiuncta. Finis. [book ii] Ioannis Ioviani Pontani ad Petrum Compatrem Neapolitanum. Commentationum in centum sententiis Ptolemaei liber secundus. [preface] Queruntur de natura Petre Compater et quidem non pauci, quod ea prorsus iniusta atque omnino imprudens sit — hoc est divinae constitutioni insolenter frustraque praescribere. [51] LI. Ptolemaeus. In quo signo Luna est geniturae tempore, illud in conceptu fac ascendens… [comm.] Pontanus. Plinii Secundi ex septimo Naturalis historiae libro de partu hominis verba sunt… [60] LX. Ptolemaeus. Super aegrotis criticos dies inspice ac Lunae peragrationem in angulis… [comm.] Pontanus. Qui sint critici dies non medicis solum, verum etiam cuivis aliquo ingenio preadito satis cognitum est… [99] XCIX. Ptolemaeus. Traiectiones aeris siccitatem indicant… [comm.] Pontanus. Consentaneum erat ut traiectionum crinitarumque significationes… [100] C. Ptolemaeus. Cometae quorum intercapedo est undecim signorum a Sole… [comm.] Pontanus. Stella critina, quam comatam non minus recte diceremus — … sin non moventur, provincialis hostis erit. [comm.] … tum stellarum radii vel trahentes eas, vel impellentes pro qualitate aspectus et virium efficatia. Finis.’

Bibl. R. Lemay, ‘Origin and Success of the Kitāb Thamara of Abū Jaʿfar Aḥmad ibn Yūsuf ibn Ibrāhīm from the Tenth to the Seventeenth Century in the World of Islam and the Latin West’, in Proceedings of the First International Symposium for the History of Arabic Science (Aleppo, April 5-12, 1976), Aleppo, 1978, II, 91-107: 105-106; R. Lemay, Le Kitāb aṯ-Ṯamara (Liber fructus, Centiloquium) d’Abū Jaʿfar Aḥmad ibn Yūsuf [Ps.-Ptolémée], 1999 [unpublished], I, 412-418; M. Rinaldi, ‘Pontano, Trapezunzio ed il Graecus Interpres del Centiloquio pseudo-tolemaico’, Atti della Accademia Pontaniana, Nuova Serie 48 (1999), 125-171; M. Rinaldi, Le Commentationes in Ptolemaeum di Giovanni Giovano Pontano: fonti, tradizione e fortuna del Centiloquio pseudo-tolemaico dalla Classicità all’Umanesimo, PhD dissertation, Università degli Studi di Napoli “Federico II”, 2002; M. Rinaldi, ‘Sic itur ad astra’. Giovanni Pontano e la sua opera astrologica nel quadro della tradizione manuscritta della Mathesis di Giulio Firmico Materno, Napoli, 2002, 150-217; O. Pompeo Faracovi, ‘Le immagini e le forme. Pontano e il commento al nono aforisma del Centiloquio’, Bruniana & Campanelliana 10 (2004), 73-86; M. Rinaldi, ‘Un sodalizio poetico-astrologico nella Napoli del Quatroccento: Lorenzo Bonincontri e Giovanni Pontano’, MHNH 4 (2004), 221-243: 237-243; M. Rinaldi, ‘Due capitoli sulla fortuna delle Commentationes in Ptolemaeum di G. Pontano. Le Eruditiones ad Apostelemata Ptolemaei di Agostino Nifo e il Libellus de difficitionibus et terminis astrologiae di O. Brunfels’, MHNH 10 (2010), 201-216; M. Soranzo, ‘Giovanni Giovano Pontano (1429-1503) on Astrology and Poetic Authority’, Aries 11 (2011), 23-52: 35-41; M. Rinaldi, ‘La lettera di dedica a Federico da Montefeltro del primo libro delle Commentationes in centum sententiis Ptolemaei di Giovanni Gioviano Pontano’, Cahiers de Recherches Médiévales et Humanistes 25 (2013), 341-355; A. Lerch, Scientia astrologiae. Der Diskurs über die Wissenschaftlichkeit der Astrologie und die lateinischen Lehrbücher 1470–1610, Leipzig, 2015, 37-38; M. Rinaldi, ‘Pontano, le ‘elezioni’ e i pronostici annuali: tra astrologia dotta e astrologia ‘popolare’’, in Acta Conventus Neo-Latini Vindobonensis. Proceedings of the Sixteenth International Congress of Neo-Latin Studies (Vienna 2015), eds A. Steiner-Weber, F. Römer et al., Leiden-Boston, 2018, 571-580; M. Rinaldi, ‘Nec vero terrae ferre omnes omnia possunt. Pontano, Virgilio e l’origine celeste della divinazione naturale e dell’ispirazione poetica’, in L’Exemplum virgilien. Itinera Parthenopea, I, Paris, 2018, 271-293; M. Rinaldi, ‘Obscurus sane hic aphorismus est. A proposito di alcune interpolazioni nei manoscritti delle Commentationes in centum sententiis Ptolemaei di Giovanni Pontano’, in Dulcis alebat Parthenope. Memorie dell’antico e forme del moderno all’ombra dell’accademia Pontaniana, eds G. Germano, M. Deramaix, Napoli, 2020, 227-237; A. Calcagno, El libro delle Cento Parole di Ptholommeo. Saggio di edizione critica del volgarizzamento fiorentino del Centiloquium pseudo-tolemaico, Milano, 2021, 20.

Modern ed. None, except for the preface to Book I, ed. Rinaldi, ‘La lettera di dedica’, 352-353 (with an Italian translation, 354-355) and for the commentary on v. 1 and 4, ed. Rinaldi, ‘Nec vero terrae’, 278-285 (with an Italian translation, 285-293). A critical edition is in preparation by Michele Rinaldi.

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