The Book of Akbar 23.3

23.3

The book is in the British Museum, and there is another copy of Alchabitius and of John of Saxony’s Commentary which was printed at Venice in 1521. In this, too, we have the expression, “Et ex hoc adorogen” and “et ex hoc padorogen.” This is the passage according to the Venetian editions of 1485 and 1521. In another edition, printed at Bologna in 1473 (B.M. press-mark 8610 d. 10.) we have the form abdorungen, but otherwise the wording is the same. It begins, “Et ex hoc abdorungen” and lower down has the important expression “ejus abdorungen, id est, decanus, est Mars.” The occurrence of the letter b certainly seems to favour the supposition that the first syllable is merely the Arabic article, the b being a misprint for l. As for the expression et ex hoc, the explanation is that the Differentia Quarta is a glossary of astrological terms and that et ex hoc seems a literal rendering of the Arabic wa-minhu. The difficulty arising from A.F.’s using the word as if it were of different meaning from darijān, his speaking, for instance, both of the darijān and ādarjan in the same passage.