page_title: Tetrabiblos
section_title: Title and date of composition
hierarchical_section_title: Tetrabiblos / Title and date of composition
caption_attribution_description: English: First edition in Greek of Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos, published in Nuremberg in 1535. Greek text of the opening chapter displayed.
context_page_description: Tetrabiblos 'four books', also known in Greek as Apotelesmatiká "Effects", and in Latin as Quadripartitum "Four Parts", is a text on the philosophy and practice of astrology, written in the 2nd century AD by the Alexandrian scholar Claudius Ptolemy.
  Ptolemy's Almagest was an authoritative text on astronomy for more than a thousand years, and the Tetrabiblos, its companion volume, was equally influential in astrology, the study of the effects of astronomical cycles on earthly matters. But whilst the Almagest as an astronomical authority was superseded by acceptance of the heliocentric model of the Solar System, the Tetrabiblos remains an important theoretical work for astrology.
  Besides outlining the techniques of astrological practice, Ptolemy's philosophical defense of the subject as a natural, beneficial study helped secure theological tolerance towards astrology in Western Europe during the Medieval era. This allowed Ptolemaic teachings on astrology to be included in universities during the Renaissance, which brought an associated impact upon medical studies and literary works.
context_section_description: The commonly known Greek and Latin titles  (Tetrabiblos and Quadripartitum respectively), meaning 'four books', are traditional nicknames for a work which in some Greek manuscripts is entitled Μαθηματικὴ τετράβιβλος σύνταξις, 'Mathematical treatise in four books'. Frank Eggleston Robbins, editor of the Loeb English translation published in 1940, considered it likely that this was the title used by Ptolemy himself, although he acknowledged that many other Greek manuscripts use the title Τὰ πρὸς Σύρον ἀποτελεσματικά, 'The prognostics addressed to Syrus'. An ancient anonymous commentary on the work states that some considered the term Tetrabiblos to be a fictitious name.
  Hübner, editor of the 1998 Teubner Greek edition, uses the title Apotelesmatiká (biblía), '(books on) effects', which has been followed by recent scholars. Alexander Jones, editor of the Springer publication Ptolemy in Perspective (2010), considers that Ptolemy's own title remains unknown, but agrees that the term Apotelesmatika is "a credible guess". This term is variously translated to mean 'influences', 'effects' or 'prognostics'; reflecting the theme of work, which is concerned with gaining foreknowledge of the effects of predictable astronomical cycles.
  There is no firmly established date for the compilation of the Tetrabiblos, but Ptolemy discloses in his 'Introductory Address' that he wrote his astrological treatise after completing his astronomical one: the Almagest.  Evidence within the Almagest reveals that the astronomical work could not have been completed before about 145 AD,  which demonstrates that Ptolemy wrote the Tetrabiblos towards the end of his life, sometime between completing the Almagest and his death, generally reported to be around 168 A.D.
caption: Opening chapter of the first printed edition of Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos, transcribed into Greek and Latin by Joachim Camerarius (Nuremberg, 1535).
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