A collection of excerpts from the Quadripartitum, with Haly Abenrudian’s commentary, in Egidius de Tebaldis’s translation (C.2.2). These excerpts were assembled by Lorenzo Bonincontri, probably when he was lecturing on astrology at the University of Florence (1475-1478). At least, the Florence MS was copied in Florence and also includes Bonincontri’s commentary on the Centiloquium (C.3.14), whose copy is dated 10 May 1477. The Paris MS was also copied in Florence and appears to be the personal notebook of the astronomer and astrologer Francesco Sirigatti, which includes a section dated 1492 and additions in his hand until 1506. In this manuscript, the text is attributed not to Bonincontri, but to Sirigatti himself (‘Abreviatio Francisci Sirigatti super Quadripartito Ptholomei’) and the two references to Bonincontri found in the title and in the explicit of Book I in the Florence MS (f. 62r and 71v) have disappeared. What is more, in the Paris MS, we find traces of erasure in these two places (f. 1r and 16v), as well as in the final explicit (f. 66r). This suggests that Francesco Sirigatti attempted to appropriate the text for himself.

Text ‘(Florence, BML, Plut. 29.3) ‘Exerpta per me Laurentium Bonincontrum Miniatensem ex Quadripartito Ptholomei et expositione Hali commentatoris sive Porphiri. (62r-71v) [book i] Ex capitulo primo commenti. Scientia stellarum est ars a principiis certis aliarum scientiarum proveniens, quibus ea que accidunt possunt sciri cuius principia in phisicis… Ex textu et commento de pronosticandi scientia. Duas esse res quibus pronosticandi scientia perficitur et has maiores aliis quia de omnibus rebus potest cognoscere astrologus — in ceteris vero domibus male. Finiuntur extracta per me Laurentium Bonincontrum Miniatensem ex primo libro Quadripartiti Ptholomei. (71v-79r) [book ii] Excerta ex secundo libro Quadripartiti Ptholomei et ex commento. Rationabiliter dicit Aly ut convertere (?) in hac arte confidat — cum significatoribus luminarium. Finis primi libri et secundi. (79r-94v) [book iii] Incipit tertius liber Quadripartiti Ptholomei. Capitulum primum prohemiale et que ex his excerpsimus. Si res generales eclipsium et fortium coniunctionum planetarum — quam habet cum bonis vel malis. (94v-105r) [book iv] Excerta ex libro quarto Quadripartiti Ptholomei. Ex capitulo primo de fortuna et prosperitate nati cum divitiis. Fortunam et prosperitatem nati in divitiis — et extrahemus a locis mensium et dabimus cuilibet signo duos dies et tertium. Finis. Deo gratias.’

Bibl. B. Soldati, La poesia astrologica nel Quattrocento, Firenze, 1906, 135-136; L. Thorndike, A History of Magic and Experimental Science, IV, New York, 1934, 409 n. 1; A. Field, ‘Lorenzo Buonincontri and the First Public Lectures on Manilius (Florence, ca. 1475-78)’, Rinascimento 36 (1996), 207-225: 211 n. 17; L. Giorgetti, ‘Da Giorgio Trapezunzio a Luca Gaurico intorno a Tolomeo’, Roma nel Rinascimento (2002), 201-212: 206.

Modern ed. ---