Page XII

It is easier to believe the ancient astrologers had no use for Ephemerides Daily tables showing the positions of celestial bodies than to believe the ancients themselves—such as Juvenal, who spoke of "worn-out ephemerides like greasy amber," and Porphyry, who even called them by the Arabic name almanacs original: "ἀλμενίχια", and Plutarch, who makes mention of "astronomical tables" original: "πινάκων ἀστρονομικῶν".

For Cardano wonders—to note this in passing—how Ali ibn Ridwan, the Arabian astrologer, could have established the chart of a single comet so accurately when, at that time, he says, it would have been most difficult to calculate the motions of the stars because Ephemerides were lacking. Well done! ironic praise You pillar of the Genethliacs Astrologers who cast birth charts. Go before those ancients, Juvenal and Porphyry, for judgment. They themselves shall decide your dispute.

How could astrologers, who were consulted daily by so many curious people, have been able to give answers if the motions of the planets had to be extracted, the chart constructed, and the Chronocrators Time-lords; specific planets ruling over periods of a person's life directed without Tables and Ephemerides? A Genethliacus could scarcely have provided six apotelesmata Astrological forecasts or horoscopes in a single year.

But as for why he wonders so much at the chart of that comet, why did he not describe it? This certainly would have been more glorious for Cardano than for Ali himself to construct any chart whatsoever from Tables. We, therefore, say that this comet was seen in the year of Christ 1006, at the end of March. All details agree. It was the twentieth year of Ali himself. And he himself says that he noted that time when he was devoting his efforts to liberal studies in the schools. Furthermore, the Moon with...