In the Latin versions of Abraham’s astrological treatises besides the five named by the Histoire Littéraire are found the Liber rationum,[2885] the Liber luminarium et de cognitione diei cretici,[2886] and Tractatus particulares, which are really three treatises, namely: (1) “Incipit alius tractatus particulare. Incipit tractatus de partibus horarum in interrogationibus”;[2887] (2) “Tractatus in tredecim manieribus planetarum”;[2888] and (3) “Tractatus de significationibus planetarum in duodecim domibus Abrahe.”[2889] The De consuetudinibus in judiciis astrorum et est centiloquium Bethen, which occurs in the midst of Abraham’s treatises in the MSS, is probably not by him and is placed last in the 1507 edition. The Tractatus particulares are not included by Steinschneider in his list of Abraham’s astrological writings.[2890]
A Latin translation by Henry Bate.
While in general the Latin translation of Abraham’s astrological treatises is ascribed to Peter, in all the editions and manuscripts that I have seen,[2891] one of them, entitled De mundo vel seculo and dealing with conjunctions and revolutions, is ascribed to Henry Bate, the same under whose patronage the French translations were made.[2892] It would therefore seem that Peter found Henry Bate’s own Latin translation of 1281 more satisfactory than the French translation made at Bate’s house in 1273,[2893] and did not attempt to revise it. In some manuscripts Bate is also credited with a Latin translation of The Beginning of Wisdom or Liber introductorius, made in 1292.[2894]
Other writings of Henry Bate.
This Henry Bate was called by Pico della Mirandola “a disciple of Albertus Magnus.”[2895] In 1274 at Malines and in fulfilment of a promise made to William of Moerbeke, the noted translator of the Dominican Order and at that time papal chaplain and penitentiary, when they were together in Lyons, Bate composed a treatise on the astrolabe.[2896] Later Bate also wrote an account of his own horoscope and destiny.[2897] It gives the year of his birth as 1244. He was a canon, doctor of theology, and university professor; and seems to have spent his life mainly at Malines, Liège, and Paris. He also wrote on errors in the Alfonsine astronomical tables.[2898] Another unpublished work of his is entitled Speculum divinorum et quorundam naturalium.[2899]
Other works by Abraham.
There were also Latin versions of other astronomical and astrological works by Abraham than those translated by Bate or Peter.[2900] One cannot, however, be sure that “Abraham Judaeus” always refers to Abraham Avenezra, as there was a translator or translators of the thirteenth century by that name. Simon Cordo of Genoa was assisted in his Latin translation of the medical works of Serapion by an Abraham Judaeus of Tortosa;[2901] and Alfonso X of Castile employed a Jew named Abraham in astronomical translation from Arabic into Spanish.[2902] An Abraham Iudeus of Barcelona translated Haly on Elections from Arabic into Latin,[2903] and was perhaps the same as Abraham Bar Chasdai, a rabbi of Barcelona who translated the supposititious Aristotelian work De pomo from Arabic into Hebrew, after which Manfred, the illegitimate son of Emperor Frederick II, translated it or had it translated from Hebrew into Latin.
[2885] Incipit liber de rationibus habrabe avenerze quem transtulit petrus paduanus.... Explicit translatio libri de rationibus per petrum paduanum.
[2886] Explicit liber luminarium Abrabe Avenare quem Petrus de Padua Lombardus ordinavit quam melius potuit in planum ydioma latinum, qui liber potest de cognitione cause crisis intitulari. It was printed separately by Ratdolt, Venice, 1482.
[2887] This Titulus is wanting in the printed edition (1507), fol. lxxxv recto, but is found in BN 7336, fol. 109r and 7438. fol. 168v.