First part of Book I (I.1-14 in Heiberg’s edition) translated from the Greek by Matthias Bergius (1536-1592), professor of Greek and Latin in Braunschweig (1566-1582), then professor of philosophy in Altdorf (1582-1592). If we accept the chronology of the documents in MS Milan, BA, A. 71 inf. as an indicator, then the translation was made before 1587. A note added by the scribe (Johannes Praetorius) in the margin of Munich, BSB, Cod. Graec. 579, f. 9v, seems to imply that Bergius’s translation stopped at the end of c. I.8 (sphere of the Sun) and that the remaining chapters (I.9-14) were translated by someone else and are completely corrupt (‘Hic desinit Bergii versio et antecedentia quidem intelligi et conciliari possunt mediocriter, sed quae sequuntur videntur esse admodum corrupta’). In the title f. 8r, Praetorius speaks of an incorrect Greek exemplar (‘ex libello manuscripto et incorrecto’). Munich, BSB, Cod. Graec. 579 also contains an additional chapter at the end (f. 15r), which repeats the beginning of c. I.8 on the sphere of the Moon (as on f. 10r) in a slightly revised version, probably in an attempt to improve the translation.

Text ‘(Munich, BSB, Cod. Graec. 579) Fragmentum versionis M. Bergii ex libello manuscripto et incorrecto, cuius titulus erat Κλαυδίου Πτολεμαίου περὶ ὑποθέσεων τῶν πλανωμένων. Hypotheses, o Syre, coelestium motuum in iis quidem, quas de mathematicis scripsimus commentariis, oratione explicare conati sumus — (14r) Stella tandem a boreo limite obliqui circelli in consequentia mundi partibus. Finis. (15r) Pro lunari sphaera cogitetur iterum circulus zodiaco concentricus — et excessu quo excedit medius motus Solis.’

Bibl. 450 Jahre Copernicus „De revolutionibus“. Astronomische und mathematische Bücher aus Schweinfurter Bibliotheken. Ausstellung des Stadtarchivs Schweinfurt in Zusammenarbeit mit der Bibliothek Otto Schäfer (21. November 1993 – 19. Juni 1994), ed. U. Müller, Schweinfurt, 1998, 49 and 330-331, no. 151 (entries by M. Folkerts).

Modern ed. ---