A commentary on Almagest I-III, written by Simon Bredon in Oxford probably c. 1340. The author used Gerard of Cremona’s translation of the Almagest (A.1.2) and the Almagesti minor (C.1.4). None of the three extant manuscripts is complete and it is unclear whether a fuller commentary once existed. MS Oxford, BL, Digby 168 is Simon’s autograph, but this copy is truncated, missing I.3-12 (due to three lost folia) and the first chapters of Book II (due to two lost folia). MS Oxford, BL, Digby 178 opens with I.9 and MS Cambridge, UL, Ee 3.61 (1017) only preserves an excerpt from Book I.

Text ‘(Oxford, BL, Digby 168) ‘Edicio Bredonis de Almagesti. (21r) [preface] Quoniam princeps nomine Albuguafe in libro suo quem scientiarum electionem et verborum nominavit — et motuum qui sunt in celo inscripsit. (21r-23v) [book i] In hoc autem libro sunt 13 distinctiones… Huc usque seriem (?) textus inserui 63 amplius nequaquam textui 63 autoris — totum quod intendebam ultimum propositum Tholomei. Et terminatur hic sententia primi libri. (24r-30v) [book ii] … [beginning missing] — ad primum Capricorni 200.12.31 et ad primum Arietis 200.92.20. (30v-39r) [book iii] Capitulum primum de scientia quantitatis longitudinis anni et numero dierum eius… (31r) Post declarationem premissorum considerare convenit secundum Tholomeum de Sole et Luna et eorum motibus — erunt qui provenerint anni Nabugodonosor, qui sunt per quos intrabis in hunc librum.’

‘(Oxford, BL, Digby 178) (39r-41v) [book i, c. 9-11] Arcus dicitur pars circumferencie circuli sive medietati talis circumferentie — Et hec pauca sufficiunt dicta pro sinus et arcus aliquali notitia. Explicit. (42r-47r) [book i, c. 12-14] Commentum magistri Symonis Bredon super aliquas demonstrationes Almagesti. Nunc superest ostendere quanta sit maxima declinatio ecliptice ab equinocciali — totum quod intendebam ultimum propositum Ptholomei. Et terminatur hic sententia primi libri. (47r-65r) [book ii] Arcum diei maximi seu minimi per notam poli altitudinem reperire — ad primum Capricorni 200.12.31 et ad primum Arietis 200.92.20. (65r-86v) [book iii] Capitulum primum de scientia quantitatis longitudinis anni et numero dierum eius… (65v) Post declarationem premissorum considerare convenit secundum Ptholomeum de Sole et Luna et eorum motibus — erunt qui provenerint anni Nabugodonosor, qui sunt per quos intrabis in hunc librum.’

Bibl. C. H. Talbot, ‘Simon Bredon (c. 1300-1372): Physician, Mathematician and Astronomer’, The British Journal for the History of Science 1 (1962), 19-30: 21 n. 8 and 26-28; R. Lorch, ‘Jābir ibn Aflaḥ and the Establishment of Trigonometry in the West’, in R. Lorch, Arabic Mathematical Sciences. Instruments, Texts, Transmission, Farnham-Burlington, 1995, VIII, 30-31; K. Snedegar, ‘The Works and Days of Simon Bredon, a Fourteenth-Century Astronomer and Physician’, in Between Demonstration and Imagination. Essays in the History of Science and Philosophy presented to John D. North, eds L. Nauta, A. Vanderjagt, Leiden, 1999, 285-309: 295-298; H. Zepeda, The Medieval Latin Transmission of the Menelaus Theorem, PhD dissertation, University of Oklahoma at Norman, 2013, 282-301; H. Zepeda, The First Latin Treatise on Ptolemy’s Astronomy: The Almagesti minor (c. 1200), Turnhout, 2018, 95-98.

Modern ed. Books I-II are edited by Zepeda, The Medieval Latin Transmission, 637-686, from all three MSS. Chs III.22-24 are edited by L. Miolo, S. Zieme, ‘Lewis Caerleon and the Equation of Time: Tabular Astronomical Practices in Late Fifteenth-Century England’, Archive for History of Exact Sciences 78 (2024), 183-243: 229-239 (from the two Digby MSS).