Eight Books on Mathematics (Matheseos Libri VIII), Vol. 2

...of the $Δ$ lineage remained, and, we suspect, by the same man who was decorating his book by collating and supplementing, his own conjectures were also added quite boldly. Therefore, one must use this book with the utmost caution, lest, deceived by its virtue, we buy the base inventions of 15th-century Italians (truly learned men) as the true words of Firmicus; one who did not even fear to impertinently fill the lacuna that is in book III, chapter 13 (p. 189 7) with those trifles that are read in Angelus and in the editio princeps first printed edition intruded after 189 16 (as in N); in order to indicate their nature—since not many copies of the books of Angelus and the editio princeps exist—it is sufficient to transcribe the extreme part here: In the ninth place from the horoscope, placed partilely in a diurnal birth, it will make... it will also give many thoughts: change through regions: and if this house has been that of Mercury, astronomy. If Venus, songs and joy. If Mars, the work of weapons and instruments // If Jupiter, divine worship and knowledge in law. If Saturn, knowledge of alchemy // If the Sun, providence in quadrupeds // If in Cancer, its own house, it will give knowledge of all things that come from water // When we had experienced the virtue of the Neapolitan [codex] in reviewing books V—VIII, we decided that the whole thing must also be checked through books I—IV. Therefore, having been transmitted to Breslau original: "Vratislaviam" through this part, it was collated by Ziegler (1910); Kroll (books VI—VIII) and Hölk (book V) had already collated the latter part. And even in books I—IV, which we have handed down through ancient books, N provided many memorable readings, confirmed many emendations—both our own and those of others—and supplied numerous supplements. Those of these that seemed of greater moment, we brought forward in the addenda (p. 546 sqq.). But not even the other readings of this most useful codex—from which someone might perhaps imagine that more could be fished out for amending the author—did we think should be kept in the darkness of desk drawers, and so we added them at the foot of this preface, having naturally omitted orthographic and other errors of that kind. Collations of some pages by Foerster and Wünsch, formerly kindly prepared for our use, were also available to us. — It will appear below that the readings subsequently added to the Neapolitan N² by a more recent hand flowed from $α$.