Here begins the book that Sahl made concerning the judgments of astrology, translated from Latin into French by the command of Charles, eldest son of the King of France.

In the name of our Lord, The initial 'N' begins the phrase "In the name of..." (In nomine...) Duke of Normandy and Dauphin, full of pity and mercy. Sahl ibn Bishr original: "zehel de mesni"; Sahl ibn Bishr was a famous 9th-century Jewish astrologer and mathematician, a man of the people of Israel, says: Know that there are 12 signs in the heavens. Six of them are masculine and six are feminine. Aries is a masculine sign and is among the signs of the day; Taurus is feminine and among the signs of the night. In like manner, the twelve signs follow one another, one masculine and the next feminine, until the end of the twelve signs.

And of these twelve signs, there are six that mount and rise straight up over the horizon—that is to say, their ascendant or rising is quite straight—and six that rise obliquely, meaning they have an oblique and crooked ascent. Those that rise straight are from the beginning of the sign named Cancer until the end of the sign named Sagittarius. The reason for this is because the latitude of each is greater than its longitude, and it takes more than two equal hours An "equal hour" is a fixed 60-minute hour, as opposed to "unequal hours" which varied by season—meaning that each of these signs takes more than two equal hours to rise—and for this reason they are named "straight-ascending."

Those that rise obliquely are from the beginning of Capricorn until the end of Gemini. This is because the latitude of each of them is less than the longitude, and it rises in less than two equal hours—meaning that each of these six takes less than two equal hours—and for this reason they are named "obliquely-ascending."

And of these signs, some are called "movable" movable: now known as Cardinal signs, marking the start of the seasons, namely: Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn. They are called movable because when the sun enters the beginning of these signs, the weather changes according to the season that follows. And four of these signs are "stable" and "fixed" fixed: signs that occur in the middle of a season, namely: Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius. And they are named fixed because when the sun enters the co—