8vo. 63 leaves (127 pp), Latin text, printed in gothic type throughout, Sessa’s woodcut device on title (cat with mouse), woodcut diagrams, large ornamental initials, tables, contemporary parchment-covered boards, new spine & endpaper, remnants of clasps, another title with which this work was originally bound was likely removed, cover soiled, light damp stain at top margin of few leaves, scattered foxing, otherwise copy in general good condition, Melchior Sessa & Petrus de Ravanis, Venice, 8 June 1521.

Synopsis

Al-Qabisi (died 967), was a famous Arab astrologer in the circle of Sayf al-Dawla, the ruler of Aleppo. This edition of the Al-madkhal ila Sina’at Ahkam al-Nujum ( Introduction to the Art of Judgments of the Stars) contains De planetarum coniunctionibus, a work which was once attributed to Alchabitius, translated into Latin by Joannes Hispalensis, and commented on by Joannes de Saxonia. However, this is probably not section four and five of the Madkhal as previously thought, since it does not seem to have been known to the two chief Arabic sources on al-Qabisi’s life, al-Bayhaqi and Hajji Khalifa. This possibly spurious text was only previously published by Ratdolt in 1485.
This work was dedicated to the Emir of Aleppo, Prince Sayf al-Dawla, and survives in at least twenty-five Arabic manuscripts, and over two hundred manuscripts of its Latin translation, with twelve printed editions of the Latin work between 1473 and 1521 (this edition). The Arabic text has received at least three Latin translations, which attracted several commentaries and were, in turn, translated into other European languages. In the 12th century Johannes Hispalensis translated it, but it was not published until in 1512 by Melchiorre Sessa in Venice. The 1473 copy and others until 1521, have writings about Al-Qabisi by John of Saxony.
Al-Qabisi wrote a modest book on arithmetic, in which he discusses Euclid’s perfect numbers and how to form them, and Thabit ibn Qurra’s theorem on amicable numbers.
Bibliographic references: BL STC Italian, p.1; Adams A-24; Sander 223; Sarton I, 669.