The Greek Text of Ptolemy, Almagest XIII, as Source of Book VI of Copernicus's De Revolutionibus

(ProQuest: ... denotes non-USASCII text omitted.)The Greek text of Ptolemy's Almagest became accessible only in 1538, when the editio princeps was published by Walder at Basel.1 Before 1538, the Almagest was read either in the Arabic-Latin translation of Gerard of Cremona, which appeared in Venice in 1515,2 or in the Greek-Latin translation of George of Trebizond (Crete 1396 - Rome 1472), which appeared in Venice in 1528.3 Upon his arrival in Frombork in May 1539, Georg Joachim Rheticus brought to Copernicus the editio princeps of the Greek text of the Almagest. The copy given by Rheticus to Copernicus (now preserved in Uppsala, Universitets Bibliotek, Copernicana 104) has no marginal annotations or underlinings, which L. Prowe explained by the fact that Copernicus made use of the Arabic-Latin translation.5 Prowe's opinion was shared by E. Rosen; he agreed with Prowe that the Greek text of the Almagest was not used by Copernicus, but provided a different reason: in May 1539, when Rheticus brought the editio princeps to Copernicus, it was already too late to make use of it, as Copernicus had practically completed the composition of De revolutionibus.6This thesis, which once appeared well established, must now be abandoned. Indeed, as our analysis will show, it is precisely the Greek text of the Almagest, and not the Arabic-Latin translation, that constitutes the major source of Book VI of De revolutionibus. Although, up to 1539, Copernicus had read the Almagest only in the Arabic-Latin translation, of which he owned a copy he annotated,7 or - which is much less sure - in the Greek-Latin translation,8 his new access to the edition of the Greek text allowed him a much more direct approach to the Almagest and, consequently, a clearer and more precise understanding of this major source. The use of the Greek text of the Almagest (Book XDI) by Copernicus is extensive in Book VI, where we have identified some thirty passages that translate Ptolemy's text in a more or less literal fashion.9To give an exact idea of the utilisation of the Greek text of the Almagest in Book VI of De revolutionibus, we shall offer in the body of this article six10 of the thirty passages, underlining the literal renderings. All thirty passages appear in the Appendix to be found in the online edition.We cite the Greek text according to the editio princeps (siglum: G), giving in square brackets [ ] references to the Heiberg edition, for which we also indicate the divergences with respect to the editio princeps. We cite the text of De revolutionibus according to the forthcoming edition of M. Lerner, A.-Ph. Segonds and J.-P. Verdet."The most interesting characteristics of the translation are discussed at the end of each display of parallel passages. We indicate the differences between the holograph manuscript of Copernicus (siglum: Ms)12 and the text of the editio princeps, which appeared at Nuremberg in 1543 (siglum: N).13 For certain passages, we cite in parallel all three translations: Arabic-Latin (siglum: V), Greek-Latin (siglum: L2) and De rev., so that the reader may have at his or her disposal all the data necessary to appreciate the characteristics of Copernicus's translation and to evaluate its independence from the two preceding translations.The translation of this passage is strictly literal. To show the independence of Copernicus's translation from L' and L2, it suffices to compare them on the basis of a single sentence. The comparison shows that no element of Copernicus's translation is found in either of the two earlier translations:(a) The Greek text (AHM) confirms the reading of Ms (AN, AOM) against the reading of N (AN, AO, AM).(b) The reading of the Greek text (f|) confirms the reading of Ms (ipsa) against the reading of N (ipsce).(c) The editio princeps omits ..., an expression that Copernicus has, however, translated. While V (f. 147r. 55-56) reflects the same text as does the editio princeps: et angulus KAN et in latitudine quidem angulus EAN, the expression is translated in L2 (f. …