Alchandrus, De naturis planetarum, beginning missing and preceded by a fragment of a text on the planets

The Alchandreana texts were the first Arabic astrological treatises to be translated into Latin in the tenth century. See David Juste, Les Alchandreana primitifs: Étude sur les plus anciens traités astrologiques latins d'origine arabe (Xe siècle) (Leiden: Brill, 2007).

(begins imperfectly) '...ipsa erit quasi humida…[first complete entry f. 1r col. 1] Saturnus in quo signo....De naturis planetarum. Luna nature frigide coloris argentei...'

Written on vellum, unbound. Beginning and end missing. Lower outer corner of last leaf torn away. The upper margin has been cut into a semi-circular shape. As the manuscript both begins and ends imperfectly, it clear that this is either one quire of a longer work, or that an outer bifolium or set of bifolia were removed at some stage.

Written in a small gothic hand, in double column of 53-55 lines to a column, between red and black rules in the design of Norman arches with two large and one small light at the top. The top light contains a few lines of text belonging to the first column. Initials in alternate blue and red, headings in red. Illustrated on fol. 4 with a diagram of five interlocking circles in red, green and black, containing Roman letters and numerals; and on fol. 7v with the Spheres of Pythagoras' in red and black.

Archives & Manuscripts
Keywords: Fortune telling; mathematica; ms 21; western manuscripts; Physiognomy; Astrology