[687] The Incipit, however, which Albert gave for Hermes’ Liber praestigiorum, namely, “Qui geometriae aut philosophiae peritus, expers astronomiae fuerit,” identifies it with Thebit ben Corat’s work on images.
[688] See Florence II-iii-214, fols. 8-9, already listed with Incipits among the MSS of the Liber lune on p. 223, note 1 above. Also Bodleian 463, 14th century, written in Spain, fol. 77v, “Dixit hermes editor huius libri lustranti plures imaginum (?) scientias invenit.” The work is mutilated at the end, as a leaf has been torn out between those now numbered 77 and 78. See also Sloane 3883, 17th century, fol. 95-; Arundel 342, fol. 78v, “Hermetis ut fertur liber de imaginibus et horis.”
[689] Owing to the missing leaf above mentioned only the latter part of the Liber Toc is now contained in Bodleian 463. Sloane 3883, fols. 96r-99, “Liber Toc; et vocatur liber veneni (sic), et liber de lapidibus veneris. Dixit Toc Graecus observa Venerem cum perveniret ad pliades et coniuncta fuerit.” In the text and Explicit, however, the author’s name is often spelled Toz. This MS seems to be directly copied from Bodleian 463, for not only is it preceded by the Hermes on images for the seven planets and also by an “Instructio ptholomei” which deals with the subject of astrological images, but furthermore it exactly reproduces its text, down even to such a manuscript copyist’s pi as “ad dumtanpo itulia” for “alicui ad potandum.”
[690] Arundel 377, fol. 100v, “Thoz Grecus Liber Veneris.”
[691] Spec. astron., cap. 11 (Borgnet, X, 641), “Toz Graeci, de stationibus ad cultum Veneris” opening “Commemoratio historiarum”; “de quatuor speculis eiusdem” opening “Observa Venerem cum pervenerit ad Pleiades”;—this is the Incipit of our treatise in Sloane 3883, but the title does not seem to fit very well; perhaps Albert, who says that he last looked at these bad books long ago and then with abhorrence, so that he is not sure he always has the titles and Incipits exact, has exchanged the Incipit with that of the third treatise, “de imaginibus veneris,” which opens, “Observabis Venerem cum intrabit Taurum.”
[692] De universo II, ii, 96 (p. 895, ed. 1591), “Thot grecus in libro quern scripsit de cultu veneris dixit quandam stationem cultus illius obtinere ab ipsa venere colentes septem qui illi et veneri serviant.”
[693] Math. 8 in the catalogue of 1412 A. D., Liber Toz Greci continens 50 capitula de stacionibus planetarum.
[694] II, 30.
[695] II, iii, 3.
[696] BN 15127, fols. 1-100, Toz Graeci philosophi nominatissimi expositio super libros salomonis de secretis secretorum ad Roboam.