A paraphrase of the Anonymous Commentary on the Tetrabiblos (C.2.12) written around 1370 by the Byzantine mathematician and astronomer Isaac Argyros and translated from the Greek in the first half of the sixteenth century. The translator translated not only Argyros’s paraphrase but also Ptolemy’s Tetrabiblos (A.2.8) and arranged both texts in alternating sequences by lemmas, with Argyros’s paraphrase copied in smaller script. The only extant manuscript (Madrid, UC-BH, cod. 122) is the original copy, as evidenced by the numerous corrections throughout, which can only have been made by the translator. The Greek exemplars have been identified with MSS Madrid, UC-BH, cod. 27 (for Argyros’s paraphrase) and cod. 29 (for Ptolemy’s text). These three manuscripts belonged to the University of Alcalá by 1565 and the translation has been generally attributed to Hernán Núñez de Guzmán (Nonius Pincianus or El Pinciano, c. 1478-1553) or to someone of his circle at Alcalá (Signes Codoñer et al., Domingo Malvadi, Domínguez Alonso). Recently, however, Martínez Manzano argued against Núñez’s authorship, relocated the manuscripts in Rome, dated the translation to c. 1530 and suggested that the three manuscripts may have been brought to Alcalá by the astrologer Pedro Sánchez Ciruelo (1470-1548). A full paleographical and codicological study would be needed to sort out the authorship, date and place of the translation.

Text ‘(Madrid, UC-BH, cod. 122) (1r-43v) [book i] [chapter index] Hec insunt in primo libro Quadripartiti Ptolemaei. 1. Quod praenotio (corr. ex precognitio) que per astronomiam fit comprehendi possit et quatenus… [ptolemy’s text] Claudii Ptolemei conclusivi Quadripartiti ad Syrum liber primus. Proemium. Cum duo maxima sint eademque precipua, Syre, que prognosticationem quae per astronomiam fit, constituunt, alterum quidem, quod ordine ac potestate primum censetur, quo videlicet configurationes motuum Solis et Lunae ac stellarum… (1v) [Argyros’s paraphrase] Cum duo maxima sint: Conclusivi Quadripartiti proemium Ptolemeus adversus eos facit qui astrologiam non esse scientiam existimabant — [text] (42v) … imbecilles penitus redduntur. (43v) [paraphrase] … septimum per hec aut nonum locum significavit. (44r-81r) [book ii] [chapter index] Hec insunt in secundo libro Quadripartiti Ptolemei. 1. Universalis considerationis divisio… [text] Claudii Ptolemei conclusivi Quadripartiti ad Syrum liber secundus. Cap. 1: Universalis considerationis divisio. Ea quidem que tabulari modo a nobis superius exposita ad particularem… [paraphrase] Ea quidem que tabulari modo: Cum omnia introductoria theoremata dixerit — [text] … secundum congruentem consequentiam pertractabimus. [paraphrase] … comete enim siccitates significant, traiectiones autem ventos. (81v-133r) [book iii] [chapter index] Hec insunt in tertio libro Quadripartiti Ptolemei. Proemium. 1. De conceptione et partu… (82r) [text] Claudii Ptolemei conclusivi Quadripartiti ad Syrum liber tertius. Proemium. Cum in superioribus de universalium accidentium speculatione… [paraphrase] Propositum est Ptolemei in huius libri tertii proemio dicendorum ordinem — (132v) [text] … et affectionum ipsarum concitativum ac multimodum. [paraphrase] … que predicta sunt causa efficitur. Explicit liber tertius. (133r-159r) [book iv] [chapter index] Haec insunt in quarto libro Quadripartiti Ptolemaei. 1. De fortuna acquisitiva… (133v) [text] Claudii Ptolemei conclusivi Quadripartiti ad Syrum liber quartus. Proemium. Quae igitur ante genituram et in ipsa genitura perspici possunt… [paraphrase] Que igitur: Quecunque ante genituram opus erat considerare — [text] … cum ea causa que ex commixtione redundat pariter coniunctae. [paraphrase] … sed ob rei necessitatem magis particularia capitula conticuerit. Τέλος.’

Bibl. P. O. Kristeller, Iter Italicum, IV, London-Leiden, 1989, 587; J. Signes Codoñer, C. Codoñer Merino, A. Domingo Malvadi, Biblioteca y epistolario de Hernán Núñez de Guzmán (El Pinciano). Una aproximación al humanismo español del signo XVI, Madrid, 2001, 61-63; R. Caballero-Sánchez, ‘Historia del texto del Comentario Anόnimo al Tetrabiblos de Tolomeo’, MHNH 13 (2013), 77-197: 83 and 101-102; A. Domingo Malvadi, ‘La enseñanza del griego en Alcalá de Henares. The Teaching of Greek in Alcalá de Henares’, in V Centenarío de la Bíblía Políglota Complutense. La Universidad del Renacímíento. El Renacímíento de la Universidad, ed. J. L. G. Sánchez-Molero, Madrid, 2015, 395-415: 400; A. C. Domínguez Alonso, ‘La influencia astrológica sobre la pasión amorosa en el Comentario Anónimo al Tetrabiblos de Tolomeo: Edición crítica, traducción y comentario’, MHNH 15 (2015), 253-270: 259-264; A. C. Domínguez Alonso, ‘La paráfrasis de Isaac Argiro al Comentario Anónimo al Tetrabiblos de Tolomeo: Algunas aportaciones originales al Libro I’, MHNH 16 (2016), 233-250: 235; A. C. Domínguez Alonso, ‘La paráfrasis autógrafa de Isaac Argiro al Comentario anónimo al Tetrabiblos de Tolomeo. Algunas cuestiones sobre su autoría’, in Plutarco, entre dioses y astros. Homenaje al profesor Aurelio Pérez Jiménez de sus discípulos, colegas y amigos, eds J. F. Martos Montiel, C. Macías Villalobos, R. Caballero-Sánchez, Zaragoza, 2019, II, 1049-1060: 1052; A. C. Domínguez Alonso, La parafrasi bizantina di Isaac Argiro del Commento Anonimo al Tetrabiblos di Tolomeo. Edizione critica bilingue, PhD dissertation, Università di Salerno, 2019, cliv-clvii and clxi-clxii; T. Martínez Manzano, ‘Ptolomeo en la Alcalá renacentista’, in Curiositas nihil recusat. Studia Isabel Moreno Ferrero dicata. Estudios dedicados a Isabel Moreno Ferrero, eds J. A. González Iglesias, J. Méndez Dosuna, B. M. Prósper, Salamanca, 2021, 305-325

Modern ed. Argyros’s paraphrase, both the Greek original and the Latin translation, has been edited in two columns by Domínguez Alonso, La parafrasi bizantina (this edition does not include Ptolemy’s text). Selected passages (Greek and Latin) had already been edited by Domínguez Alonso, ‘La paráfrasis de Isaac Argiro’, 240-253.