LETTERS ON SCIENTIFIC SUBJECTS. 49 



you ; the 23 of Julian July, and 4th of ours, on Wednesday 

 Morning, 1623. 



Yours, THOMAS LYDYAT. 



THOMAS MAN TO THOMAS LYDYAT. 



[MS. Bodl. 313, Orig.] 



April 19th, 1625. 



Sir, In your letter, written to Mr. Crane, and dated the 

 23rd of July, 1623, you made mention of a manuscript, which 

 was a paraphrase of Ptolomie's Almagest, and extant in our 

 Library* : out of which you desired to have copied out the 

 beginning of the third book so far as to those words answer- 

 ing the Greek TOVTOW 8' ov T&>9 e^ovrwv, &c., together with the 

 marginal notes, and if there were ought else to be found either 

 in the beginning, or end thereof, or any where else concerning 

 the antiquity and author of it. To give you satisfaction 

 herein, Mr. Warden hath taken great care and pains ; for he 

 hath employed one of our fellows in copying it out, and hath 

 transcribed it himself. You shall receive both the copies by 

 the bearer hereof, Mr. William Griffith ; but I fear neither of 

 them will answer your expectation. For first, whereas you 

 suppose this manuscript to be a paraphrase of Ptolomy, it 

 appears plainly by the same book being extant in the library 

 of All Souls 5 College, that it is only a mere translation. In 

 the preface of which book, after a strong commendation of 

 this Ptolomy and his work, there is some mention made of 

 this translation. The words, because they are a sufficient 

 proof hereof, and will satisfy your demand concerning the 

 author and antiquity of it, I have sent you as I find them at 

 the end of the preface; and they are these : Liber hie prcecepto 

 Maimonis regis Arabum, qui regnavit in Baldath, a Alahazer 

 filio Josephifilii Matte Arismetici, et Sergio filii Elbe Yplano, 

 in anno 12 et 2000 Sectce Sarracenorum translatus est ; qui 

 quidem liber est Magnus dictus Almagesti, quern Bartholomceus 

 Bheleudensis de scientia stellarum, et motuum, qui sunt in 

 ccelOy conscripsit. The same translation, but without this 

 preface, is extant in the same Library, excus. a Petro Liech- 

 tenstein, Colon. Venetiis, 1535. Again, that clause which you 

 aim at especially, as I understood by Mr. Doctor Bainbridge, 



* The manuscript here referred to is probably that mentioned in Bernard's 

 Catalogue (fol. Oxon. 1697, p. 37.) under the title of " Ptolomaei almagestum ex 

 Arabica in Latinam linguam versum." This forms No. 281 of the manuscripts in 

 the library of New College. 



E 



