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Fun with Astrological Abbreviations

Copies of Ὁ Καρπός, a Greek collection of astrological aphorisms that was for centuries attributed to Ptolemy, often contain a variety of common and sometimes not so common abbreviations and symbols for astrological terms. Aphorism 97 in this particular manuscript (BnF gr. 2509) includes three typical abbreviations.

Aphorism 97 with its various abbreviations: πανσελήνου in orange; συνόδου in yellow; ἐπίκεντροϲ in green.

Ὁ κύριοσ τῆσ πανσελήνου ἢ τῆσ συνόδου, ὅτε ἐστὶν ἐπίκεντροϲ, προστελειοῖ τὸ πρᾶγμα, οὗ ἐστιν ἡ ἐρώτησιϲ. [When the ruler of the full moon or of the new moon is angular, the matter about which there is an interrogation is accomplished.]

When I came across these abbreviation in this copy, after seeing them dozens of times, they seem perfectly clear to me. I can readily remember, however, how just a couple years ago, sitting there in the manuscript reading room at the ÖNB and trying to make sense of them, I was happy to have another copy of the text at hand to help figure out what they meant.