A commentary on the Quadripartitum in Egidius de Tebaldis’s translation (A.2.5). The only known copy is Albertus de Magna Opatow’s notebook, one section of which is dated 1447, the year when he earned his master’s degree at the University of Cracow. Rosińska wondered whether Albertus was the author of the commentary or only the scribe. The chaotic arrangement of the material suggests that this is an author’s copy, but it is also possible that the commentary derives from university lectures. Two scholars are known to have lectured on astronomy at Cracow in those years, Martinus Krol de Zurawica in 1445 (his Algorismus minutiarum is preserved in the notebook, f. 41r-56r) and Andreas Grzymala c. 1447 (see C.3.9). Ptolemy’s text (omitting Haly Abenrudian’s commentary) has been copied in the centre of the page and the commentary in the margins, although this pattern varies and the dividing line between the text and the commentary is not always easy to discern. While Haly’s commentary has been ignored, Albertus (or his teacher) used it and commented on it, as is already clear in the preface and in the opening sentence ‘Hali glozat…’. Albertus de Magna Opatow, also known as Albertus or Albertinus Polonus, was a student at the University of Cracow from 1442 to 1447, studied medicine at the University of Bologna in the 1450s and later became professor of medicine at Cracow.

Text ‘(Cracow, BJ, 1859) (65r) [preface] Principiatur thema egregii Hali super Quadripartitum sapientissimi Ptolomei in quo textualiter vademus in prologo et sequitur thema in hec verba, unde dicit Egidius: Scire aliquid laus est… [text] Res, o Mizori, quibus perficiuntur prenosticationes accepte de astronomia, maiores et nobiliores sunt due. [comm.] Hali glozat ‘o Mizori’ id est ‘o mi domine’ — ut finem libro imponemus. Pro quo ait Deus benedictus in secula seculorum. Amen.’

Bibl. G. Rosińska, Scientific Writings and Astronomical Tables in Cracow. A Census of Manuscript Sources (xiv^th-xvi^th Centuries), Wrocław-Warszawa, 1984, nos 1635 and 1854; M. Markowski, Astronomica et astrologica Cracoviensia ante annum 1550, Firenze, 1990, 31. On Albertus de Magna Opatow (Wojciech z Opatowa), see A. Birkenmajer, ‘Les débuts de l’école astrologique de Cracovie’, in A. Birkenmajer, Etudes d’histoire des sciences en Pologne, Wrocław, 1972, 469-473: 472 [originally published in Polish in 1936]; Markowski, Astronomica, 20-21; M. Markowski, ‘Repertorium bio-bibliographicum astronomorum Cracoviensium medii aevi: Adam Tussinus de Tarnovia – Andreas Grzymała de Posnania’, Studia Mediewistyczne 27.1 (1990), 111-163: 138-140; P. W. Knoll, “A Pearl of Powerful Learning”. The University of Cracow in the Fifteenth Century, Leiden-Boston, 2016, 386; Clavis scriptorum et operum Medii Aevi Poloniae, eds J. Kaliszuk, A. Pieniądz, P. Węcowski, K. Skwierczyński, Kraków, 2019, 957-958 (no. 969).

Modern ed. ---