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The ''Centiloquium'' (= "one hundred sayings"), also called ''Ptolemy's Centiloquium'', is a collection of one hundred
aphorism An aphorism (from Greek ἀφορισμός: ''aphorismos'', denoting 'delimitation', 'distinction', and 'definition') is a concise, terse, laconic, or memorable expression of a general truth or principle. Aphorisms are often handed down by tr ...
s about
astrology Astrology is a range of divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that claim to discern information about human affairs and terrestrial events by studying the apparent positions of celestial objects. Di ...
and astrological rules. It is first recorded at the start of the tenth century CE, when a commentary was written on it by the Egyptian mathematician Ahmad ibn Yusuf al-Misri (later sometimes confounded with his namesake Ali ibn Ridwan ibn Ali ibn Ja'far al-Misri, or in Latin "Haly ibn Rodoan", who lived a century later and wrote a commentary on Ptolemy's ''Tetrabiblios'').


Influence and authorship

The ''Centiloquium'' opens with a dedication to Syrus, like the classical astronomer
Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importance ...
's astrological treatise the ''
Tetrabiblos ''Tetrabiblos'' () 'four books', also known in Greek as ''Apotelesmatiká'' () "Effects", and in Latin as ''Quadripartitum'' "Four Parts", is a text on the philosophy and practice of astrology, written in the 2nd century AD by the Alexandrian ...
'' ("Four books"). Ptolemy was indeed accepted as its author by medieval Arabic, Hebrew and Latin scholars, and the book was widely taken up and quoted. In Arabic it was known as the ''Kitab al-Tamara'' ("Book of the Fruit"), the name supposedly a translation of the Greek καρπος meaning "fruit", the book's aphorisms being seen as standing as the fruit or summation of the earlier treatise. It was translated at least four times into Latin, in which it was also known as the ''Liber Fructus'', including by
John of Seville John of Seville ( Latin: ''Johannes Hispalensis'' or ''Johannes Hispaniensis'') ( fl. 1133-53) was one of the main translators from Arabic into Castilian in partnership with Dominicus Gundissalinus during the early days of the Toledo School of Tr ...
in Toledo in 1136 and by
Plato of Tivoli Plato Tiburtinus ( la, Plato Tiburtinus, "Plato of Tivoli"; fl. 12th century) was a 12th-century Italian mathematician, astronomer and translator who lived in Barcelona from 1116 to 1138. He is best known for translating Hebrew and Arabic documen ...
in Barcelona in 1138 (printed in Venice in 1493). In Hebrew it was translated at the same time by Tivoli's collaborator
Abraham bar Hiyya Abraham bar Ḥiyya ha-Nasi (; – 1136 or 1145), also known as Abraham Savasorda, Abraham Albargeloni, and Abraham Judaeus, was a Catalan Jewish mathematician, astronomer and philosopher who resided in Barcelona. Bar Ḥiyya was active in tra ...
, and again in 1314 by
Kalonymus ben Kalonymus Kalonymus ben Kalonymus ben Meir (Hebrew: קלונימוס בן קלונימוס), also romanized as Qalonymos ben Qalonymos or Calonym ben Calonym, also known as Maestro Calo (Arles, 1286 – died after 1328) was a Jewish philosopher and transl ...
, as the ''Sefer ha-Peri'' ("Book of the fruit") or ''Sefer ha-Ilan'' ("Book of the tree").Shlomo Sela (2003), ''Abraham ibn Ezra and the rise of medieval Hebrew science''. Brill. , p
321
/ref> Regardless of its authorship, the text has been described as "one of the most influential texts in astrology's history". It was, for example, a standard set text for medical students at the
University of Bologna The University of Bologna ( it, Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna, UNIBO) is a public research university in Bologna, Italy. Founded in 1088 by an organised guild of students (''studiorum''), it is the oldest university in contin ...
in the fifteenth century. However, as even the original commentary on the book noted, the ''Centiloquium'' contains quite substantial differences in focus from the ''Tetrabiblos'': for example, it is very concerned with " Interrogations", the asking of astrological questions about forthcoming plans and events, which is not treated at all in the earlier work. In the 1550s the Italian scholar Cardano considered this, and pronounced the work to be pseudoepigraphic – not by Ptolemy at all. This has also tended to be the view of subsequent centuries. For example, aphorism 63 discusses implications of a conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn; but this is a doctrine developed by Arabic astrologers, not known to the Greeks. The author of the book is therefore now generally referred to as Pseudo-Ptolemy. One influential view, argued by Lemay (1978) and others, is that the original author of the work was in fact
Ahmad ibn Yusuf Abu Ja'far Ahmad ibn Yusuf ibn Ibrahim ibn Tammam al-Siddiq Al-Baghdadi ( ar, أبو جعفر أحمد بن يوسف بن ابراهيم بن تمام الصديق البغدادي; 835–912), known in the West by his Latinized name Hametus, was a ...
himself, reckoning that presenting his views as a commentary on an unknown work by the great Ptolemy would make them far more influential and sought after than merely issuing such a compilation under his own name. Others however still see the ''Centiloquium'' as potentially containing a core of genuinely Hellenistic material, which may then have suffered adaptation and partial substitution in the chain of transmission and translation.


Other works called ''Centiloquium''


''Centiloquium of Hermes Trismegistus''

A Latin text containing one hundred propositions, again about astrology rather than
Hermeticism Hermeticism, or Hermetism, is a philosophical system that is primarily based on the purported teachings of Hermes Trismegistus (a legendary Hellenistic combination of the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth). These teachings are containe ...
, compiled by Stephen of Messina at a date between 1258 and 1266 for
Manfred, King of Sicily Manfred ( scn, Manfredi di Sicilia; 123226 February 1266) was the last King of Sicily from the Hohenstaufen dynasty, reigning from 1258 until his death. The natural son of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, Manfred became regent over the ...
, supposedly either from a variety of Arabic sources or from an unknown Arabic original.


''Bethem's Centiloquium''

One hundred astrological propositions ascribed to Muhammad ibn Jabir al-Battani (c.858–929), also known as Albategnius, or in astrology as Bethem. The text also exists in many manuscripts as ''De consuetudinibus'' ("According to the customs"), ascribed to Abraham ibn Ezra (1089–1164).Deborah Houlding
Bethem's Centiloquium
skyscript.co.uk; with a translation by Henry Coley (1676).
David Juste and Charles Burnett,
Warburg Institute The Warburg Institute is a research institution associated with the University of London in central London, England. A member of the School of Advanced Study, its focus is the study of cultural history and the role of images in culture – cros ...
br>Bibliotheca Astrologia Latina
Accessed 20 June 2011.


Further reading

* Richard Lemay (1978), "Origin and Success of the ''Kitab Thamara'' of Abu Jafar ibn Yusuf ibn Ibrahim: From the Tenth to the Seventeenth Century in the World of Islam and the Latin West", in ''Proceedings of the First International Symposium for the History of Arabic Science, April 5–12, 1976'' (Aleppo: Aleppo University), Vol. 2, pp. 91–107.


References

{{reflist


External links

* Deborah Houlding

skyscript.co.uk; with a translation by Henry Coley (1676). Ptolemy Astrological texts Pseudepigraphy