Presented by Adam Douglas, Senior Rare Book Specialist at Peter Harrington. First edition in Latin. Ptolemy’s treatise on astrology, the Tetrabiblos, was the most popular astrological work of antiquity and also enjoyed great influence in the Islamic world and the medieval Latin West. The translation was made from Arabic to Latin in 1138 by Plato of Tivoli, the 12th-century Italian mathematician, astronomer and translator who lived in Barcelona from 1116 to 1138. It has a commentary by Ali ibn Ridwan ibn Ali ibn Ja’far al-Misri (c.988c.1061; known in the west as Haly, or Haly Abenrudian). The work is divided into four books: the first is a defence of astrology and technical concepts, the second deals with the influences on earth (including astrological geography and weather prediction), and the third and fourth discuss the influences on individuals. The present copy confirms to the second copy mentioned in BMC, with the impression of two headings from a law book printed in red on the lower half on verso of the last page.
From Page to Stage
Live theatre is, by its very nature, transient. It is experienced by an audience on a specific evening and, after the curtain falls, it is only the memory of the performance that remains. Or is it? In this blog I’d like to look at a few special scripts that are...
