On the Months

xv

...which he had received as a gift from [Luch]tenbach, I have transcribed and equipped with a brief annotation. In this work, since the stars discussed by the author are designated not by their names but mostly by astronomical symbols original: "siglis astronomicis", and indeed not those common symbols which Du Cange Charles du Fresne, sieur du Cange (1610–1688), a preeminent philologist of Byzantine Greek. appended to his Notes on Abbreviations on page 5 (at the end of the Glossary of Medieval and Late Greek, vol. II), I have—in order to leave the judgment of my interpretation to those skilled in these matters—designated all the names of the stars, which are marked by symbols in the transcription original: "Apographo", with asterisks, while the [symbols] themselves...

...for those who wish to know the foolish daughter of [a wise] mother The editor likely refers to astrology as the "foolish daughter" of astronomy., I will add this: that this very book of Valens' Anthologies original Greek: "Ἀνθολογιῶν" is contained in the Royal Paris Manuscript No. 94. I learned this late from the booklet of the most learned and sagacious Letronne Jean-Antoine Letronne (1787–1848), a famous French archaeologist and scholar. titled: Critical and Archaeological Observations on the Purpose of Zodiacal Representations which remain to us from Antiquity. Paris 1824. On page 89 of that work, he writes: "To the same era belong other works of this type; among others, that of Vettius Valens, whose purpose was to facilitate for astrologers the calculations that their art required: it seems to have been composed under Marcus Aurelius: at least, the most recent examples cited there refer to the final years of Antoninus Pius." Compare also page 105 of the same work, where Letronne discusses the meaning of the word master of the house original Greek: "οἰκοδεσπότης," a technical term for the planet that "rules" a specific sign or birth chart.. And so that I myself do not depart from this banquet entirely without making a contribution original Greek: "ἀσύμβολος", I will add what I have noted regarding that book of Plotinus Plotinus (c. 204–270 AD) was the founder of Neoplatonism; here he is cited for his philosophical critique of astrology. in which he refutes the dreams of the astrologers (Book II, Chapter 3), regarding the words on page 140, D: but to wait for the rising of the zodiacal signs original Greek: "τὸ δὲ ἀναφοράς ζῳδίων ἀναμένειν". For indeed, a chapter of Valens is titled exactly thus: On the rising of the zodiacal signs original Greek: "περὶ ἀναφοράς ζῳδίων" (page 336, at the end of Johannes Laurentius Lydus) and this phrase is used very frequently in these fragments. Nor can you learn accurately what it means even from Estienne’s Thesaurus The "Thesaurus Graecae Linguae," a massive Greek dictionary. in the latest edition by Valpy (p. 10010). However, there exists a book by Hypsicles of Alexandria [titled] On Risings original Greek: "Ἀναφορικός". Likewise, the terms rising original Greek: "ἀναφορά", or succession original Greek: "ἐπαναφορά", and ascending original Greek: "ἀναφορικός", and ascensionally original Greek: "ἀναφορικῶς", and setting original Greek: "καταφορά", etc., are used in various ways by the ancient astrologers. You should see Sextus Empiricus, Against the Mathematicians V. 20, p. 341, where you may understand that J. A. Fabricius rightly defended the common reading against the conjectures of Salmasius Claude Saumaise (1588–1653), a French classical scholar., as is clear from the passage of Plotinus mentioned above. See also Sextus, book V, sections 52, 53, and following. Claudius Ptolemy uses it no less frequently in his astrological books. See, for example, his Canon, or The Hundred Sayings, section 25; Porphyry’s Introduction to Ptolemy’s Tetrabiblos, page 201, and everywhere else. Add Proclus’s Sphere and the notes of Henisch there, page 201, Augsburg edition, 1619. — Cr. Initials of Friedrich Creuzer.