Ben Dykes translation of Bonatti's Liber Astronomiae

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As some of you know Ben Dykes has been working on the first complete english translation of Guido Bonatti's Book of Astronomy (Liber Astronomiae) for some time. In fact this is the first full translation of the work into any other language. The translation is now complete and will be available for sale in May.

Ben states his translation comprises 3 volumes. The translation itself will comprise 1500 pages. However, Ben has also added a number of other features as well as annotations throughout the translation.

Most of this immense book has never been available in english before so this is clearly a momentous development for anyone interested in medieval astrology. The book comprises 10 treatises which cover all aspects of traditional astrology including natal, electional , horary and mundane.

Ben is now taking email addresses of people interested in buying the book. The cost is likely to be around $270 for those signed up at this introductory offer stage. This seems very reasonable considering the enormous scale and importance of this work. The book will only be available for sale by ordering direct from Ben Dykes website.

Here is the link to Ben's website:
http://www.bendykes.com/bonattiupdate.htm

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Fantastic news - thanks for the notice, Mark!

And what a colossal undertaking Ben Dykes has completed - the first translation of this great work in more than five centuries since the Latin original was first widely printed! I have emailed him my congratulations and firm order, and I'm sure that I'm one of many here at Skyscript who will be in the market for the first printing.

For a three-volume hardcover set of such a specialised work, I would agree with Mark that $270 is really not a lot. I believe this translation has been a labour of love for Professor Dykes first and foremost - it is not a mass-market work, the physical production cost of three hardcover volumes will be significant, the time and labour he has invested has been vast, and his recompense for this will have to be shared out among a relatively small field of purchasers.

Aside from their inherent study value to those who buy them at the outset, experience shows also that first editions of translations of important astrological works retain and increase their resale value in the long-term, partly because there will always be newer generations of students eager to get hold of them, and once they are out of print, used copies tend to be few and far between.

To give just one example from the same field, it is generally impossible to obtain the 1933 hardcover printing (with Arabic text and facing translation) of Al Biruni's 'Book of Instruction in the Elements of the Art of Astrology', as published by Luzac, at any price. A hardcover reprint by UMI or one of their agents will cost $240, and otherwise only softcover facsimiles of the translation (without the source text) can be bought.

I have a strong feeling that once the initial print run of Ben's translation of Bonatti is sold out, second-hand sets will be able to command offers of $500 or upwards within a decade or two, if they can be obtained at all.

But let's not forget the real reason for buying Bonatti's Liber Astronomiae - its astrological content, being a vast and lucid compilation of the techniques of the Arabic astrologers, as distilled through Guido Bonatti's critical lens honed by experience. It is generally acknowledged as being the pinnacle of medieval astrological literature.

Philip