Work B.1.1
Pseudo-Ptolemy
Centiloquium (tr. Adelard of Bath)
Translated from the Arabic by Adelard of Bath, probably around 1120. This translation does not include Abū Jaʿfar Aḥmad ibn Yūsuf’s commentary and breaks off after v. 39 in all copies.
Note Besides the two manuscripts listed below, this version survives in about 20 copies as part of the so-called ‘threefold version’ described under Plato of Tivoli’s translation of Abuiafar Hamet filius Joseph’s commentary on the Centiloquium (see C.3.1.1, Note 3). Verba 1-25 also occur together with the ‘Mundanorum’ version of Abuiafar’s commentary (C.3.1.3) in MS Leipzig, UB, 1463, and the first verbum only, also with ‘Mundanorum’, in MS Berlin, SBPK, lat. fol. 246.
Text ‘(London, BL, Sloane 2030) [1] Doctrina stellarum ex te et illis. Nec est docti in ea ut prophere (!) formam actus individualis sicut nec sententis ut capiat formam sensiti individualem… [2] Cum quesierit electionem meliorem, non est inter eum et connaturalem diversitas. [3] Connaturalis in re est cui invenitur dux huius rei potens in nativitate eius. [4] Anima connaturalis iudicabit super elthenias, id est secundas stellarum… (87v) [5] V. Iam potest astrologus supra removendos multos actus stellarum… [6] VI. Proderit autem cum electione cum fuerit hora addens supra incrementum… [7] Non accedat ad iudicium supra complexiones stellarum… [8] VIII. Anima sapiens actum stellarum adiuvat <sicut> seminator potens… [9] Forme que in mundo composito sunt formis circularibus obediunt… [10] Subserviant tibi infelicitates in electionibus, sicut quod facit medicus peritus cum quantitate sufficienti — [39] Mala habitudo undecimi et domini eius in statutione regis, dux supra eventus principis et censum eius infortunii. Similiterque mala habitude secondi dux supra parvitatem lucri agricolarum suorum cum eo.’
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: 101; E. R. McCarthy, ‘A Lexical Comparison of Four Twelfth Century Versions of Ptolemy’s Centiloquium from the Arabic’, in Actas del V Congreso Internacional de Filosofía Medieval, II, Madrid, 1979, 991-997; C. Burnett, ‘Catalogue. The Writings of Adelard of Bath and Closely Associated Works, Together with the Manuscripts in which they Occur’, in Adelard of Bath. An English Scientist and Arabist of the Early Twelfth Century, ed. C. Burnett, London, 1987, 163-196: 166 (no. 1); R. Lemay, Le Kitāb aṯ-Ṯamara (Liber fructus, Centiloquium) d’Abū Jaʿfar Aḥmad ibn Yūsuf [Ps.-Ptolémée], 1999 [unpublished], I, 203-213; 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, 62-63; C. Burnett, ‘The Arabic Hermes in the Works of Adelard of Bath’, in Hermetism from Late Antiquity to Humanism. La tradizione ermetica dal mondo tardo-antico all’umanesimo (Atti del Convegno internazionale di studi, Napoli, 20-24 novembre 2001), eds P. Lucentini, I. Parri, V. Perrone Compagni, Turnhout, 2003, 369-384: 370-372; J.-P. Boudet, ‘Astrology Between Rational Science and Divine Inspiration. The Pseudo-Ptolemy’s Centiloquium’, in Dialogues among Books in Medieval Western Magic and Divination, eds S. Rapisarda, E. Niblaeus, Firenze, 2014, 47-73: 51; J.-P. Boudet, ‘Nature et contre-nature dans l’astrologie médiévale. Le cas du Centiloquium du Pseudo-Ptolémée’, in La nature comme source de la morale au Moyen Âge, ed. M. van der Lugt, Firenze, 2014, 383-410: 386; J.-P. Boudet, ‘Causalité et signification dans le Centiloquium du pseudo-Ptolémée’, in Orbis disciplinae. Liber amicorum Patrick Gautier Dalché, eds N. Bouloux, A. Dan, G. Tolias, Turnhout, 2017, 607-624: 607; J.-P. Boudet, ‘The Medieval Latin Versions of Pseudo-Ptolemy’s Centiloquium: A Survey’, in Ptolemy’s Science of the Stars in the Middle Ages, eds D. Juste, B. van Dalen, D. N. Hasse, C. Burnett, Turnhout, 2020, 283-304: 284 and passim; A. Calcagno, El libro delle Cento Parole di Ptholommeo. Saggio di edizione critica del volgarizzamento fiorentino del Centiloquium pseudo-tolemaico, Milano, 2021, 17; J.-P. Boudet, ‘La traduction incomplete du Centiloquium du pseudo-Ptolémée par Adélard de Bath’, Cahiers de Recherches Médiévales et Humanistes 47 (2024), 405-426.
Modern ed. Critical edition by Boudet, ‘La traduction incomplete’.
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