Note 294 — NO. II ALMAGEST; BOOK II. EXTRACT FROM CHAP. IX

Moxon’s Mathematical Dictionary says, that the “Centiloquium is a book containing one hundred astrological aphorisms, commonly ascribed to Ptolemy, as its author, but by some to Hermes Trismegistus.” This account, however, seems to be inaccurate; for the Centiloquy attributed to Osiris’s contemporary and counsellor (eulogized by Lilly as having been “one of the wisest of all mortal men, and as ancient as Moses”), is very different from that known by the name of the Καρπος, or “Fruit of the Tetrabiblos.” Whether this latter Centiloquy be really the work of Ptolemy is another question: it has been usually edited as his, but some of the aphorisms seem to relate to horary questions only, which are not adverted to in the Tetrabiblos, and there are others also which do not appear to result from the doctrine of that book.