Who Edited and Who Translated the Anonymous Commentary to Ptolemy’s Tetrabiblos and (Ps.-)Porphyry’s Isagoge (Basel 1559)?

Abstract

It is shown against recently advanced doubts that both works were edited and translated by the hmanist Hieronymus Wolf. Moreover, the true authorship of the prefauces to both works, which has been an issue of confusion, is ascertained. The evidence comes mostly from Wolf’s letters and autobiographies which were hitherto unknown to classical philologists and historians of astrology. These texts elucidate the reasons that account for the lack of clarity and certain deceptive features of both prefaces in the 1559 edition. Moreover, Wolf’s hitherto unknown autograph of an earlier attempt at revising Giorgio Valla’s rough Latin translation of the anonymous commentary is presented, and it is shown that Wolf wished to publish also a Latin translation of the third Greek text that tries to facilitate the understanding of Ptolemy’s Tetrabiblos, namely the so-called Proclus paraphrase, and why that additional plan eventually failed.