The Tetrabiblos (Greek: Μαθηματικὴ τετράβιβλος σύνταξις, ‘Mathematical Composition in Four Books’, or Τὰ πρὸς Σύρον ἀποτελεσματικά, ‘The Prognostics Addressed to Syrus’; Arabic: al-Maqālāt al-arbaʿ, ‘the Four Treatises’, or Kitāb al-Arbaʿ maqālāt, ‘The Book of the Four Treatises’) is often described as the most influential astrological text ever written. It comprises four books. Book I provides a philosophical justification of astrology (chs 1-3) and reviews the essential astrological doctrines. Book II deals with mundane or general astrology and Books III-IV with individual astrology, essentially genethlialogy. The Tetrabiblos was translated at least three times into Arabic, by al-Biṭrīq and/or ʿUmar ibn al-Farrukhān in the late-eighth or early-ninth century (A.2.1), by Ibrāhīm ibn al-Ṣalt in a revision by Hunayn ibn Iṣhāq and Thābit ibn Qurra in the ninth century (A.2.2), and by an anonymous translator at an unknown date (A.2.3). There are 13 extant Latin translations made between the twelfth and the seventeenth century, five from the Arabic (A.2.1, A.2.2, A.2.3, A.2.4, A.2.5) and eight from the Greek (A.2.6, A.2.7, A.2.8, A.2.9, A.2.10, A.2.11, A.2.12, A.2.13).

Bibl. General: J.-B.-J. Delambre, Histoire de l’astronomie ancienne, Paris, 1817, II, 543-544; F. Boll, ‘Studien über Claudius Ptolemäus. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der griechischen Philosophie und Astrologie’, Jahrbücher für Classische Philologie, Suppl. 21 (1894), 49-244: 111-217; W. J. Tucker, Ptolemaic Astrology. A Complete Commentary of the Tetrabiblos of Claudius Ptolemy, Sidcup, 1961; W. Gundel, H. G. Gundel, Astrologumena. Die astrologische Literatur in der Antike und ihre Geschichte, Wiesbaden, 1966, 205-213; M. Riley, ‘Theoretical and Practical Astrology: Ptolemy and his Colleagues’, Transactions of the American Philological Association 117 (1987), 235-256; M. Riley, ‘Science and Tradition in the Tetrabiblos’, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 132 (1988), 67-84; L. Taub, Ptolemy’s Universe. The Natural Philosophical and Ethical Foundations of Ptolemy’s Astronomy, Chicago, 1993, 129-134; B. Besnier, ‘L’astrologie de Ptolémée’, in Signes et prédiction dans l’Antiquité. Actes du Colloque International Interdisciplinaire de Créteil et de Paris (22-23-24 mai 2003), ed. J. Kany-Turpin, Saint-Etienne, 2005, 167-191; O. Pedersen, A Survey of the Almagest. With Annotation and New Commentary by Alexander Jones, New York-Dordrecht, 2011 (first edition 1974), 400-403; G. Aujac, Claude Ptolémée: Astronome, astrologue, géographe, Paris, 2012, third edition (first edition 1993), 69-105; C. Tolsa, Claudius Ptolemy and Self-Promotion. A Study on Ptolemy’s Intellectual Milieu in Roman Alexandria, PhD dissertation, Universitat de Barcelona, 2013, 232-243; J. Feke, Ptolemy’s Philosophy. Mathematics as a Way of Life, Princeton-Oxford, 2018, 168-187 and passim. Specific: R. Uhden, ‘Das Erdbild in der Tetrabiblos des Ptolemaios’, Philologus 88 (1933), 302-325; I. Dąmbska, ‘La théorie de la science dans les oeuvres de Claude Ptolémée’, Organon 8 (1971), 109-122: 117-119; F. A. Illiceramius, G. Bezza, ‘Il problema di un recupero dell’astrologia classica nella lettura di una nuova edizione di Tolomeo’, Paideia 41 (1986), 215-236; J.-F. Bara, ‘Les morts violentes chez Vettius Valens et Ptolémée: calculs, présages et signes’, Mélanges de l’Ecole Française de Rome. Antiquité 102 (1990), 829-844; S. Fazzo, ‘Un’arte inconfutabile. La difesa dell’astrologia nello Tetrabiblos di Tolomeo’, Rivista di Storia della Filosofia 46 (1991), 213-244; R. Martins, ‘A influênca de Aristóteles na obra astrológica de Ptolomeu (o “Tetrabiblos”)’, Trans/Form/Ação 18 (1995), 51-78; W. Hübner, ‘Astrologie et mythologie dans la Tétrabible de Ptolémée d’Alexandrie’, in Sciences exactes et sciences appliquées à Alexandrie, eds G. Argoud, J.-Y. Guillaumin, Saint-Etienne, 1998, 325-345; E. Calderón Dorda, ‘Ptolomeo, μαθηματικòς άνήρ’, in Homo Mathematicus. Astrólogos Griegos y Romanos. Actas del Congresso Internacional sobre Astrólogos Griegos y Romanos (Benalmádena, 8-10 de Octobre de 2001), eds A. Pérez Jiménez, R. Caballero, Málaga, 2002, 103-122; J. Fernández Quintano, ‘Acerca del carácter tropical del Tetrabiblos’, in Homo Mathematicus. Astrólogos Griegos y Romanos. Actas del Congresso Internacional sobre Astrólogos Griegos y Romanos (Benalmádena, 8-10 de Octobre de 2001), eds A. Pérez Jiménez, R. Caballero, Málaga, 2002, 123-142; J. Halbronn, ‘Comparaison du Tétrabible attribué à Ptolémée et la Mathesis de Firmicus Maternus’, in Homo Mathematicus. Astrólogos Griegos y Romanos. Actas del Congresso Internacional sobre Astrólogos Griegos y Romanos (Benalmádena, 8-10 de Octobre de 2001), eds A. Pérez Jiménez, R. Caballero, Málaga, 2002, 143-154; G. Bezza, ‘La Tétrabiblos de Ptolémée entre physique et mythologie’, in Cosmology Through Time. Ancient and Modern Cosmologies in the Mediterranean Area, eds S. Colafrancesco, G. Giobbi, Milano, 2003, 91-98; J. Crane, ‘Ptolemy’s Digression: Astrology’s Aspects and Musical Intervals’, in The Winding Courses of the Stars: Essays in Ancient Astrology, eds C. Burnett, D. Greenbaum, Bristol, 2008 [Culture and Cosmos 11 (2007)], 211-227; J. Komorowska, ‘Astrology, Ptolemy and technai stochastikai’, MHNH 9 (2009), 191-204; T. Gee, Strategies of Defending Astrology: A Continuing Tradition, PhD dissertation, University of Toronto, 2012, 65-93; W. Hübner, ‘Gender in Ptolemy’s Apotelesmatica’, MHNH 14 (2014), 147-166; G. Bezza, ‘Saturn and Jupiter Conjunctions and General Astrology: Ptolemy, Abū Ma’shar and Their Commentators’, in From Māshāʾallāh to Kepler: Theory and Practice in Medieval and Renaissance Astrology, eds C. Burnett, D. G. Greenbaum, Ceredigion, 2015, 5-48; J. Komorowska, ‘Those Happy People: Arabia Felix and the Astrological oikoumenē of Claudius Ptolemaeus’, in The Routledge Handbook of Identity and the Environment in the Classical and Medieval Worlds, eds R. F. Kennedy, M. Jones-Lewis, London, 2016, 353-372; C. Steel, ‘What is the Advantage of Knowing the Future? Some Comments on Ptolemy’s Tetrabiblos, I, 3’, Medioevo 42 (2017), 31-55; C. Hall, ‘Horoscopes of the Moon: Weather Prediction as Astrology in Ptolemy’s Tetrabiblos’, Early Science and Medicine 26 (2021), 231-253. Influence – General: D. Houlding, ‘The Transmission of Ptolemy’s Terms: An Historical Overview, Comparison and Interpretation’, in The Winding Courses of the Stars: Essays in Ancient Astrology, eds C. Burnett, D. Greenbaum, Bristol, 2008 [Culture and Cosmos 11 (2007)], 261-307; C. de Amorim Machado, O papel da tradução na trasmissão da ciência: o caso do Tetrabiblos de Ptolomeu, PhD dissertation, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro, 2010; S. Heilen, ‘Ptolemy’s Doctrine of the Terms and Its Reception’, 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, 45-93. In Greek (Hellenistic/Byzantine, see also C.2.12, C.2.16, C.2.25 and C.2.40): F. Boll, ‘Beiträge zur Überlieferungsgeschichte der griechischen Astrologie und Astronomie’, Sitzungsberichte der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Phil.-Hist. Klasse 1899, 77-140: 80-97; S. Fazzo, ‘Alessandro d’Afrodisia e Tolomeo: aristotelismo e astrologia fra il II e il III secolo d.C.’, Rivista di Storia della Filosofia 43 (1988), 627-649; G. Bezza, ‘Intorno ai primi commentatori del Quadripartitum tolemaico: il commento ascritto ad Eutocio d’Ascalona’, MHNH 9 (2009), 265-272. In Syriac: B. Dimitrov, ‘‘Fort. recte’: Witnesses to the Text of Ptolemy’s Tetrabiblos in Its Near Eastern Transmission’, in Ptolemy’s Science of the Stars in the Middle Ages, eds D. Juste, B. van Dalen, D. N. Hasse, C. Burnett, Turnhout, 2020, 97-113; B. Dimitrov, Tetrabiblos Syriaca. A Case-Study in Graeco-Semitic Textual Transmission, PhD dissertation, Philipps-Universität Marburg, 2020. In Arabic: M. Ullmann, Die Natur- und Geheimwissenschaften im Islam, Leiden, 1972, 282-283; F. Sezgin, Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums, VII: Astrologie – Meteorologie und Verwandtes, Leiden, 1979, 43-44 (no. 1); C. de Amorim Machado, ‘Uma breve história das traduções árabes do Tetrabiblos de Ptolomeu’, Exilium 3 (2021), 121-148; F. Martorello, ‘Sul Commento di al-Battānī al terzo libro del Quadripartito Tolemaico’, in Studi sull’arte dei decreti delle stelle in memoria di Guiseppe Bezza, ed. F. Martorello, Sarzana-Lugano, 2022, 59-89; C. Burnett, ‘Ptolemy’s Differentiation between Astronomy and Astrology in the Greek-Arabic-Latin Tradition’, Cahiers de Recherches Médiévales et Humanistes 47 (2024), 373-403. In Hebrew: M. Steinschneider, Die hebraeischen Uebersetzungen des Mittelalters und die Juden als Dolmetscher. Ein Beitrag zur Literaturgeschichte des Mittelalters, Berlin, 1893, II, 525-527; M. Benedetto, ‘A Hebrew Version of Ptolemy’s Tetrabiblos: The Decrees of the Stars by Judah ben Solomon ha-Cohen’, Iberia Judaica 7 (2015), 111-120. In Latin (see also A.2.1-13 and C.2): M. Lejbowicz, ‘Guillaume Oresme, traducteur de la Tétrabible de Claude Ptolémée’, Pallas 30 (1983), 107-133; O. Pompeo Faracovi, ‘The Return to Ptolemy’, in A Companion to Astrology in the Renaissance, ed. B. Dooley, Leiden, 2014, 87-98; D. Juste, ‘The Impact of Arabic Sources on European Astrology: Some Facts and Numbers’, Micrologus 24 (2016), 173-194: 186-187 (no. 9); H. D. Rutkin, ‘Optimus malorum: Giovanni Pico della Mirandola’s Complex and Highly Interested Use of Ptolemy in the Disputationes adversus astrologiam divinatricem (1496), A Preliminary 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, 387-406; C. Steel, ‘A Discussion on Ptolemy’s Authority: Henry Bate’s Prologue to His Translation of Ibn Ezra’s Book of the World’, in Ptolemy’s Science of the Stars in the Middle Ages, eds D. Juste, B. van Dalen, D. N. Hasse, C. Burnett, Turnhout, 2020, 245-281.

Modern ed. The Greek original text was first published by Joachim Camerarius on Johannes Petreius’s press in Nürnberg in 1535 (see ed. Nürnberg 1535). The text has received four critical editions: F. Boll, E. Boer, Claudii Ptolemaei opera quae exstant omnia, III.1: ΑΠΟΤΕΛΕΣΑΤΙΚΑ, Leipzig, 1940; F. E. Robbins, Ptolemy: Tetrabiblos, Cambridge (Mass.)-London, 1940 (with facing English translation); S. Feraboli, Claudio Tolomeo: Le previsioni astrologiche (Tetrabiblos), Milano, 1985 (with facing Italian translation); W. Hübner, Claudii Ptolemaei opera quae exstant omnia, III.1: ΑΠΟΤΕΛΕΣΑΤΙΚΑ. Post F. Boll et Ae. Boer secundis curis, Stuttgart-Leipzig, 1998. The Tetrabiblos has been translated into most modern Western languages. Besides the English and Italian translations just mentioned, see the French translation by P. Charvet, Ptolémée: Le livre unique de l’astrologie. Astrologie mondiale et thèmes de naissance, Paris, 2000 (based on Hübner’s edition, with notes), and the Italian translation of Books I-II by G. Bezza, Commento al primo libro della Tetrabiblos di Claudio Tolemeo. Con una nuova traduzione e le interpretazioni dei maggiori commentatori, Milano, 1990 (reprinted 1992) (based on Boll/Boer’s edition, with a thorough commentary) and G. Bezza, Claudio Tolemeo: Il secondo libro del Quadripartitum con il commento di ‘Alī ibn Riḍwān. Introduzione, traduzione e note, Lugano, 2014 (based on ed. Venice 1493, which includes Egidius de Tebaldis’s and Plato of Tivoli’s Latin translations, together with Haly Abenrudian’s commentary, see C.2.2). The Arabic and Latin versions are unpublished, except for William of Moerbeke’s translation (A.2.6).