Page:The Library, volume 5, series 3.djvu/370

 356 SOME ROGUERIES OF hand ; and a new book is made with the most tradesmanlike indifference to its quality. A bolder and, if we may so, a more magnificent and successful example of the same cynical busi- ness methods is to be found in the ' Compost of Ptholomeus.' The book was first printed by Wyer - 1 (about 1532?), was reprinted by him 2 (about 1540?), was licensed to I. Colwell in 1563-4,3 and was alive into the early seventeenth century, having been licensed to Henry Gosson in i632. 4 The ' Compost ' has deceived the world to this day, being catalogued in the British Museum as a trans- lation of the 'Quadripartitum,' and entered by Miss Palmer 4 in a non-commital way under the name of Ptolemy with no indication of its original. Now, the c Quadripartitum ' is a very systematic, cautious, and if such a thing may be, scientific book of judicial astrology. It requires a good deal of astronomical knowledge even to be under- stood, demands exa<5l observation of the heavens in the carrying out of its direftions, and insists on a careful balancing of a multitude of infer- ences 'in the predictions of the future made under its guidance. The title-page of the ' Compost ' looks suitable to the c Quadripartitum.' Ptolemy in kingly robes he was traditionally supposed to have been a royal Ptolemy is observing the stars with a quadrant, an armillary globe at his side; and a woman (A stronomye ?) behind him is 1 No. 7 in Mr. Plomer's list. 2 No. 26 in Mr. Plomer's list. 3 * Stationers' Register,' ed. Arber, vol. v, p. 25. 4 PP- 92-3-