Ptolemy, Claudius; ed. / tr. Whalley, John ’The Quadripartite; or, Four Books Concerning the Influences of the Stars. First written in Greek, By Claudius Ptolemy, And now more faithfully rendered into English, from the best Greek Coies, and Latin Translations, than any hitherto published. To which are added, Variety of Notes and Illustrations, Explaining the most difficult and obscure Passages throughout the Whole. By John Whalley, Professor of Physic and Astrology; and Others’ The Second Edition Revised, Corrected, and Improved – Printed for the Editors: and Sold by M. Sibly, No 35, Goswell-Street, & E. Sibly, No 29, Brick-Lane, 1786[1].
Old full leather with (remains of) gilt titling on leather label to spine, in old plain card dj. (Former owner’s name in fine brown ink manuscript hand to second ffep.) [2] + [pp. iii-v] + [1] + [pp. 3-169] + [p. 174 (1)] + [p. 173 (1)] + [pp. 172-219]
[1] After the original John Sprint edition of 1701
About this Book Scan
In 1796, English astrologers and brothers Manoah and Ebenezer Sibly joined forces to reprint the first published English translation of Ptolemy’s Tetrabiblos, which was originally published by John Sprint in 1701.
Like the later translations by Ashmand and Wilson, which are separately available from Astrolearn, it was based on the Latin translation by Leo Allatius of the ancient paraphrase by Proclus. Unlike Ashmand’s translation, it has never been professionally reprinted again since 1796; and originals of both the first and second editions are rare outside long-established institutional libraries.
The file offered here is scanned in full colour from the original second-edition printing of Whalley’s translation in our library.
Please note that as is common with books of this age, our original printed source of this book has one or two printing flaws, chiefly slightly blurred print to the final 5-10 lines of p. 74, as though two different print heads were slightly misaligned, but without detriment to legibility; and weaker print to pp. 36-7, again not affecting legibility. The text is complete as issued.