Cleomedis Meteora Graece et Latine (Balfour 1605)

The text continues from the previous page: "and because of this, he was deformed in wondrous ways by antiquity and miserably disfigured by many faults." I pitied him as much for his own sake as for the public cause: for his own sake, because I thought a brilliant and honest writer of the ancient age deserved a better fate than to be so ignored; for the public cause, because I did not want the youth who are studious of Astrology to be deprived of such a great aid to their studies any longer. Nor do I hope that from all of antiquity, another work can be found that can be read privately at home or taught publicly in schools with greater profit for the correct perception of the elements of Astronomy; which one fact caused me to spend all the spare time I had on revising Cleomedes and translating him into Latin. And although I was well aware of my own insignificance, I preferred to risk my own reputation to excite the studies of the learned toward him, rather than allow such a great writer, destitute of all help, to perish. If only the burden of this most laborious task or the ability—by an abundance of corrected copies—had granted me enough leisure to adorn this Sparta, I would have given you (best of youths) this learned monument of antiquity, purged of the errors with which it teemed, entirely sound and whole. But if it was not permitted to give as we wished, at least we chose to give as we were able. For although, lacking an abundance of books, we did not remove all the errors from it, we did achieve—nor did envy itself deny this—that fewer remain. For I do not deny that some things still remain that await the help of a more corrected codex; there are also some things that can be restored by a better wit, and we hope that this will happen. From the beginning, I had only two copies, of which the first, I believe, was printed in Paris in the year 1539, and the other in Basel in the year 1561; both were faulty with an equal number of errors and were plainly twins, so that one could easily judge the sins committed in one were transferred and copied into the other. Therefore, when I saw that I could not correct Cleomedes without the help of a better copy any more than I could cross the great sea without a ship, I wrote to Jacobus Cadanus, Professor of both Laws at the Academy of Toulouse, who is as much joined to me by an old private friendship as he is known to all others for the fame of his outstanding erudition: to see if there was any help for me in the rich library of the Most Illustrious Cardinal Joyeuse, and if there was, to obtain it. He shared the matter with M. Maranus, his colleague, a man truly famous and, beyond the decorations of Jurisprudence and other letters, also equally great in the love and knowledge of our Astrology. They, for the sake of their zeal for the republic of letters and their affection for me privately, obtained by joined prayers a manuscript codex of the best quality, but on the condition that it would not be exported even one foot from their house or the city. Wherefore I sent my copy to Toulouse to M. Cadanus, so that he might compare it with that manuscript. He provided me with faithful and learned work in this, and diligently noted everything that was read differently there. And if that copy had been complete, and not missing a few pages at the end, it would have clearly blessed both me and my Cleomedes. There also came, beyond expectation, another aid from Ioannes Voysinus, a man equally learned in Greek and Latin. Through his kindness and love for me, he gave me his book to use, in the margins of which that learned old man, Elias Vinetus, had once noted by his own hand all the variant readings from some old copy or other. And although not everything I found in them pleased me—many good things, many grievous things—nevertheless they were often an aid to me in otherwise hopeless places. I have changed absolutely nothing in the entire work, unless it was a manifest error, which I have indicated in good faith in the notes. As for the Latin interpretation, I have indeed tried to express everything, if not eloquently and ornately as I should have, at least in Latin according to my ability and faithfully. I could, I confess, have translated certain things more elegantly and changed the phrasing more frequently; I preferred, however, to consult the more modest, and not to strive so much for affected elegance, but rather to instill the meaning of Cleomedes into their minds in simple and known speech. For to my own taste, for some reason, that "less learned but clearer" Greek original: "amathsteron alla saphesteron" has always pleased me vehemently, and even today it still pleases. And how much more convenient our Latin version is for all use than that old one of Valla, he who wishes to compare a few pages of that version with the Greek of Cleomedes and our Latin will easily judge. But we leave it to the learned and candid readers to judge what the difference is between the two, and I bid them farewell; and you, too, tender shoots of Aquitaine, I wish you to be very well, and to grow in virtue toward glory.