Note 1510 — Chapter XIII · THE BOOK OF ENOCH
Reading edition
Ascribed to Enoch in Harleian MS 1612, fol. 15r, Incipit: “Enoch tanquam unus ex philosophis super res quartum librum edidit, in quo voluit determinare ista quatuor: videlicet de xv stellis, de xv herbis, de xv lapidibus preciosis et de xv figuris ipsis lapidibus sculpendis,” and Wolfenbüttel 2725, 14th century, fols. 83-94v; BN 13014, 14th century, fol. 174v; Amplon, Quarto 381 (Erfurt), 14th century, fols. 42-45: for “Enoch’s prayer” see Sloane MS 3821, 17th century, fols, 190v-193.
Ascribed to Hermes in Harleian 80, Sloane 3847, Royal 12-C-XVIII; Berlin 963, fol. 105; Vienna 5216, 15th century, fols. 63r-66v; “Dixit Enoch quod 15 sunt stelle / ex tractatu Heremeth (i. e. Hermes) et enoch compilatum”; and in the Catalogue of Amplonius (1412 A.D.), Math. 53. See below, II, 220-21.
The stars are probably fifteen in number because Ptolemy distinguished that many stars of first magnitude. Dante, Paradiso, XIII, 4, also speaks of “quindici stelle.” See Orr (1913), pp. 154-6, where Ptolemy’s descriptions of the fifteen stars of first magnitude and their modern names are given.