Work A.2.4
Ptolemy
Quadripartitum (tr. Toledo 1236)
Translated from the Arabic (in the anonymous version partially extant in MS Istanbul, Üniversitesi, A 6141) in Toledo in 1236. The date given in the colophon reads: ‘in the month of February, on Saturday, the Sun being at 26° Aquarius, the Moon in the same <sign> <at> 6°, Saturn in Taurus, in 1234 A.D., in the year of the Arabs 633, in the year of the <Spanish> era 1274’, where 1234 is clearly a mistake for 1236, for 1236 (not 1234) corresponds to both the year of the Arabs 633 and the year of the Spanish era 1274. The planetary positions are reasonably correct for 7 February 1236 at 9am in Toledo (Sun at 25°22′ Aquarius, Moon at 6°35′ Aquarius and Saturn at 27°00′ Taurus), but that was a Thursday, not a Saturday. On Saturday 9 February 1236 (again, at 9am in Toledo), the Sun was at 27°23′ Aquarius and the Moon at 06°59′ Pisces, so that either the weekday or the sign of the Moon was wrongly reported. The additional paragraph at the end does not seem to be part of the text.
Text ‘(London, BL, Harley 267) Quadripartitum Ptholomei [title added in upper margin]. (24r-32r) [
Bibl. F. J. Carmody, Arabic Astronomical and Astrological Sciences in Latin Translation. A Critical Bibliography, Berkeley-Los Angeles, 1956, 19 (no. 10d); L. Thorndike, ‘The A.D. 1234 Latin Translation of Ptolemy’s Quadripartitum’, Manuscripta 8 (1964), 98-101; R. Lemay, Abū Maʿšar al-Balḫī [Albumasar]: Liber introductorii maioris ad scientiam judiciorum astrorum, Napoli, 1995-1996, IV, 186; 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.
Modern ed. None. The chapter index of Books II-IV is reproduced by Thorndike.
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