Translated from the Greek by Philipp Melanchthon and published by him in Basel in 1553, together with Camerarius’s edition of the Greek text. For the first two books, Melanchthon used and improved on Camerarius’s translation (A.2.9), which he praises in his dedicatory letter to Erasmus Ebner (ed. Basel 1553, sig. 8-9). Books III and IV are translated anew and no mention is made of Gogava’s translation (A.2.10). There is evidence that the present translation, or at least a draft of it, already existed by 1544 (see C.2.22). Melanchthon’s translation is the source text of commentary C.2.41.
Text ‘(ed. Basel 1553) Claudii Ptolemaei mathematici operis de iudiciis astrologicis libri quatuor Philippo Melanthone interprete. (10-68) [book i] Liber primus. Duo sunt, Syre, per quae praedictiones astrologicae extruuntur, praecipua et maxima. Unum, quod primum ordine est, et potestate, quo deprehendimus quolibet tempore motus Solis et Lunae et aliorum siderum — in imo coeli, aut alio loco aspiciente eum. Sed cum prorsus non aspiciunt, omnino languidi sunt, et imbecilles. (68-120) [book ii] Liber secundus Ptolemaei. Praecipuam doctrinam breviter expositam, ut in tabella, necessariam ad praedictiones eventuum singularium, hactenus in summa tradidimus — et particularium signorum breviter disserere. Quod superest, geniturarum indicia (!), sicut et ordo postulat, nunc deinceps exequemur. (120-204) [book iii] Liber tertius Ptolemaei. De conceptu, et edito foetu. Cum hactenus tractata sit consideratio universalium eventuum, quae et prior esse dicitur, et saepe vincit particulares significationes in naturis singulorum hominum — Mercurius famosiores, et crebras morum mutationes, et maiora damna. (204-251) [book iv] Liber quartus Ptolemaei. De eventuum significationibus vel causis. Exposui ea quae ante editionem partus spectantur, quaeque partu edito statim insunt, et quae postea sequuntur — Haec de consideratione temporum hoc loco dixisse sufficiat. Genera eventuum in quibusque temporibus non attexam, eo quod, ut initio proposuimus, universali stellarum efficacia cognita, particularia consequenter accommodari possunt, si apte cum mathematici causa, iuncta fuerit etiam causa mixtionis. Finis.’
Bibl. A. Lerch, Scientia astrologiae. Der Diskurs über die Wissenschaftlichkeit der Astrologie und die lateinischen Lehrbücher 1470–1610, Leipzig, 2015, 27-29.
Modern ed. No modern edition. The text has been translated into German by E. Winkel, Claudius Ptolemaeus: Tetrabiblos. Nach der von Philipp Melanchthon besorgten seltenen Ausgabe aus dem Jahre 1553, Berlin, 1923, 2 vols.
