VMs: George of Trebizond's horoscope...

[Nick Pelling <incoming@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi everyone,

According to David Pingree (pp. 855-856 of Monfasani's "Collectanea 
Trapezuntiana"), George of Trebizond's horoscope appears in his taken from 
his "Brevis de antisciis" [Chicago, Newberry L., Case 93-2]

Monfasani quotes these figures given by Pingree:-

                David Pingree   George of Trebizond (?)
Saturn  19 Sco 55 R             21 Sco R
Jupiter 02 Gem 13               02 Gem
Mars            10 Ari          11 Ari
Sun             22 Ari 33               23/24 Ari
Venus   07 Tau 41               07 Tau
Mercury 27 Ari          20 Ari
Moon            01 Pis 30               00 Pis
Asc node        12 Cap          12 Cap
Ascendant       06 Cap          (circa midnight)

Dr Pingree also notes that there are some computational confusions in the 
passage, perhaps deliberately made by George for the sake of his thesis.

                Claus Anders    Owen Gingerich
Satu            20 Sco 55               20 Sco 19
Jupi            01 Gem 38               02 Gem 14
Mars            11 Ari 09               11 Ari 34
Sun             23 Ari 49               23 Ari 52
Venu            07 Tau 55               08 Tau 24
Merc            20 Ari 51               21 Ari 03
Moon            05 Pis 08               02 Pis 06
MC              29 Cap 57               -
Asc             17 Tau 10               -

This is going to take a bit of careful verification: I'll try to get a copy 
of the actual document so that I can rework the calculations for myself (as 
I'm not 100% convinced yet). Claus' calculations differ from the left 
column, and Prof Owen Gingerich's Alfonsine tables differ from the right 
column, so we have multiple data-sources we'll need to co-evaluate carefully.

I suspect that when Dr Pingree quotes the time as being "circa midnight", 
he *may well* be referring to midnight GMT, not midnight local time. 
:-(  I'll email him (I believe he's retired, but he might be interested in 
clarifying this a little).

George was also extremely pro-Ptolemy and anti-Arab astrologers: for more 
on the contents, look at Thorndike: Magic 4: 395-396. "Antisciis" were the 
opposite signs of the zodiac, which George felt had been somewhat sidelined 
by his contemporary astrologers.

Incidentally, George was also associated with George Amiroutzes in 
Constantinople in 1465-1466, which may prove to be another interesting 
connection... :-o

Cheers, .....Nick Pelling.....

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