A series of 113 lectures on the complete text of the Quadripartitum in Camerarius’s translation (A.2.9, thus including Books III and IV in Plato of Tivoli’s translation), delivered by the Carmelite monk Giuliano Ristori (1492-1556) at the University of Pisa in 1547-1548. Book I includes Lectures 1-33, Book II Lectures 34-61, Book III Lectures 62-96 and Book IV Lectures 97-113. All manuscripts have essentially the same text, at least judging from the number and distribution of the lectures and from the incipit and explicit of each book. Ristori was professor of mathematics and astrology at the University of Pisa from 1543 to 1550 and there are reasons to think that he lectured on the Quadripartitum in the academic year 1547-1548. First, this is the date given in MS Modena, BEU, Campori 1635 (Gamma E.4.13), where the lectures began in 1547 (f. 1r) and ended on 19 June 1548 (f. 258v). Second, in the course of Lecture 20, the current date is given as 29 November 1547 (‘quia est dies 29 Novembris 1547’). The fact that all manuscripts bear this very same date (Florence, BNC, Conv. Soppr. B.VII.479-I, f. 104v; Florence, BNC, Conv. Soppr. F.IX.478, f. 73v; Florence, BR, 157, f. 87v; Modena, BEU, Campori 1635 (Gamma E.4.13), f. 47r) suggests that Ristori lectured on the Quadripartitum in 1547-1548 for the first time – and, possibly, for the last time as well. The date given in the explicit of MS Florence, BNC, Conv. Soppr. F.IX.478, ‘Die 19 Iunii Pisis 1547’, is evidently a mistake for 1548. Finally, Francesco Giuntini (on whom see C.2.34) tells us that he attended Ristori’s lectures on the Quadripartitum in Pisa in 1548 (see also Bezza/De Meis, 55 n. 5; Rutkin, ‘Teaching Astrology’, 357 and n. 23).

Note Two manuscripts appear to be those of students, Amerigo Roncioni (Florence, BR, 157, continued in Florence, BNC, Magliabech. XI.103) and Petrus Bertachius (or Bertacha), priest of Camporeggiano (Modena, BEU, Campori 1635 (Gamma E.4.13)). In Florence, BNC, Conv. Soppr. F.IX.478 (possibly in Ristori’s hand), Ristori’s name has been corrected into Filippo Fantoni, while in Florence, BNC, Conv. Soppr. B.VII.479, his name has been replaced by Filippo Fantoni. Fantoni taught mathematics at Pisa from 1560 to 1566 and from 1582 to 1589. This shows that Fantoni reused Ristori’s lectures without significant changes. MS Florence, BNC, Conv. Soppr. B.VII.479 includes corrections and additions in the same hand that added the title with Fantoni’s name, but these corrections and additions do not extend beyond Lecture 12. There is evidence that MS Florence, BNC, Conv. Soppr. F.IX.478 was used also in teaching from early November 1558 to 26 January 1559 (see MS entry). This seems too early for Fantoni and would better fit Francesco Ottonaio, the immediate successor of Ristori as professor of mathematics at Pisa (in his autobiography, Giuliano de’ Ricci says that he attended lectures on Ptolemy’s Quadripartitum in Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence in 1558, see Bezza/De Meis, 55 n. 3). Then, presumably, the same manuscript was used again for teaching by Fantoni, either between 1560 and 1566 or between 1582 and 1589. The relationship between the four manuscripts would require a detailed study, but it is interesting to note the variations in the incipit from ‘Cum in omni scientia…’ (Florence, BR, 157 and Modena, BEU, Campori 1635 (Gamma E.4.13)) to ‘Cum in omni scientia…’ (Florence, BNC, Conv. Soppr. F.IX.478) to ‘In omni scientia…’ (Florence, BNC, Conv. Soppr. B.VII.479). This seems to indicate that MS Florence, BNC, Conv. Soppr. F.IX.478 was the manuscript used in teaching from Ristori (to Ottonaio) to Fantoni, while Florence, BNC, Conv. Soppr. B.VII.479 would be a later copy of the former, presumably under Fantoni’s supervision. The fact that this manuscript was copied by four alternating hands makes it unlikely to be a student’s copy. If these assumptions are correct, then the corrections to Florence, BNC, Conv. Soppr. B.VII.479 are probably in Fantoni’s hand (and Fantoni might also be responsible for correcting the title and colophon of Florence, BNC, Conv. Soppr. F.IX.478). All this seems to suggest that Fantoni appropriated Ristori’s lectures for himself.

Text ‘(Florence, BNC, Conv. Soppr. F.IX.478) In Quadripartitum Tholomaei regis expositio praeclara magistri Iuliani de Ristoriis Pratensis astrologiam (corr. in Philippi de Fantoniis mathesim) profitentis in almo studio Pisano, una cum questionibus necnon observationibus comprobatur undique textus. (1r-126v) [book i] Cum in omni scientia plura preponuntur et ut Avere (!) testis est — et sic habetis quae dici potuerunt in hac re. Et haec de isto primo libro dicta sufficiant. (127r-236r) [book ii] Liber secundus. Incipit liber secundus cum expositione. Lectio trig<inta> quarta. Hactenus quidem percurrimus: Iste est secundus liber Pt<holome>i in quo cum in primo declaravit — et regulae certissimae et comprobatae. Et haec sufficiant (?) quo ad istum secundum librum. Finis secundi libri. (236v-380v) [book iii] Liber tertius Quadripartiti Tholomaei regis cum expositione magistri Iuliani Ristorii Pratensis Carmelitae. Cap. 1. Lectio sexagesima secunda. Huc usque accidentia generalia: Ista est secunda pars principalis huius voluminis in qua Pt<olomeu>s pertractat ea quae spectant ad particularia nati — ut patuit in genitura Martini Lutheri. Et haec de libro isto tertio. Dicta (?) sufficiant pro nunc. Deo sit laus et gratia. (381r-440v) [book iv] Lectio nonagesima septima. Rerum igitur in quibus ea qua ante partum sunt et quae in ipsius: Iste est quartus liber Apotelesmatum Pto<lom>ei, in quo cum declaravit — vobis autem gratias refero quamplures et valete. Die 19 Iunii Pisis 1547. Finis commentariorum (corr. in lectionum) … (?) magistri (?) Philippi Fantonii … (?) in Pt<olom>ei Quadripartitum. Completus die Iovis 26 Ianuarii hora … (?) 1558 [=1559].’

Bibl. C. B. Schmitt, ‘The Faculty of Arts at Pisa at the Time of Galileo’, Physis 14 (1972), 243-272: 259 and n. 82 (reprinted in C. B. Schmitt, Studies in Renaissance Philosophy and Science, London, 1981, IX); C. B. Schmitt, ‘Filipo Fantoni, Galileo Galilei’s Predecessor as Mathematics Lecturer at Pisa’, in Science and History. Studies in Honor of Edward Rosen, eds E. Hilfstein, P. Czartoryski, F. D. Grande, Wrocław-Warszawa, 1978, 53-62: 59 (reprinted in C. B. Schmitt, Studies in Renaissance Philosophy and Science, London, 1981, X); R. Castagnola, ‘Un oroscopo per Cosimo I’, Rinascimento 29 (1989), 125-189: 131 n. 11; H. D. Rutkin, ‘The Use and Abuse of Ptolemy’s Tetrabiblos in Renaissance and Early Modern Europe: Two Case Studies (Giovanni Pico della Mirandola and Filippo Fantoni)’, in Ptolemy in Perspective. Use and Criticism of His Work from Antiquity to the Nineteenth Century, ed. A. Jones, Dordrecht-Heidelberg-London-New York, 2010, 135-149: 141-145 and 146 n. 3; R. S. Westman, The Copernican Question. Prognostication, Skepticism, and Celestial Order, Berkeley-Los Angeles-London, 2011, 354 and 575 n. 6; G. Bezza, S. De Meis, ‘The Chapter on Comets in the Commentary to Quadripartitum by Giuliano Ristori’, MHNH 13 (2013), 53-76; H. D. Rutkin, ‘Teaching Astrology in the 16^th Century: Giuliano Ristori and Filippo Fantoni on Pseudo-Prophets and Other Effects of Great Conjunctions’, in From Māshāʾallāh to Kepler: Theory and Practice in Medieval and Renaissance Astrology, eds C. Burnett, D. G. Greenbaum, Ceredigion, 2015, 353-406: 363-365.

Modern ed. None, except for Lecture 57 on comets, ed. Bezza/De Meis, 59-63, from MS Florence, BR, 157, f. 229r-232v.