STRO-RESEARCH CENTER ©: "ZENITH" www.babylonianastrology.com ~- REGIOMONTANUS : &* CONTENTS * THE PRIMARY DIRECTIONS OF REGIOMONTANUS & WILLIAM LILLY CONTENTS HISTORY OF THE REGIO DIRECTIONS 2 THE BASIS OF THE PRIMARY DIRECTIONS 3 THE REGIOMONTANIAN INTERPLANETARY 8 THE REGIO MATH ALGORITHM ll ZENITH DISTANCE & POLE COMPUTATION 14 PRACTICAL COMPUTATION OF A REGIO DIRECTION 17 HOW DID REGIOMONTANUS DIRECT? DETAILS 26 MUNDO REGIOMONTANIAN PRIMARIES, 27 BIBLIOGRAPHY 28 THE PRIMARY DIRECTIONS OF WILLIAM LILLY 29 BIBLIOGRAPHY 57 COMPUTER PROGRAMS FOR PRIMARY DIRECTIONS & 3D 58 The TITLE PAGE of REGIOMONTANUS' 'TABULAE DIRECTIONUM ET PROFECTIONUM', written in 1467, published in 1551. In this book Regiomontanus ex- pounds for the first time his own system of house division and primary directions and names it 'Via Rationalis' or the Rational Way. Naibod and Andreas Argolus followed him. Cover Page: The title page of Andreas Argolus' 'TABULAE PRIMI MOBILIS' published in Rome in 1610. William Lilly used the tables from this book for his calculations of primaries. 1¢ REGIOMONTANIAN PRIMARY DIRECTIONS HISTORY OF THE REGIO DIRECTIONS Regiomontanus lived 1436-1476 His sources were chiefly Latin translations of Arab authors, but also Greek manuscripts. In 1467 Regiomontanus finished his book 'Tabulae Directionum et Profectionum’, where he explained his method of primary directions together with several hundreds pages of tables designed for their speedy calculation. I do not know to what degree did Regiomontanus realize that his method deviated considerably from the method of Ptolemy (described in ‘Tetrabiblos', book 3, chapter 10). The commentary of Haly Ridwan on Ptolemy, which circulated in Europe in Latin translation from the middle of the 13th century on, described equally well the real Ptolemaic primaries. ‘There are unconfirmed facts, which make me suspect that the first to invent the Regiomontanus primaries were certain Arab astrologers from the 8th-13th centuries. The astrolabe for primary directions calculations in the court of Alfonso the Xthof Castilia, is designed for computation of 'regiomontanian’ directions and predates Regiomontanus with several centuries. There is detailed description of this curious instrument in Islamische Encyclopedie published in Berlin in the begin of XX century (‘tafsir' article) Whatever the reasons of Regiomontanus may have been, the fact re- mains that his method is very different in principle and in results from the method of Ptolemy-Placidus. Regiomontanus does not say much of Ptolemy and does not comment on him. After Regiomontanus, many astrologers like Naibod, Maginus, Argolus, Leovitius, Moren and others....followed his steps. Maginus (1555-1617) was a professor in Bologna and he was actually the first to make tables for the what later became known as Placidian House Division. Maginus thought that he simply ressurected what Ptolemy had in mind. He himself, however, used in his practice the Regio directions. Maginus, a sincere researcher, gave himself an account of the difference between Ptolemy and Regiomontanus. Something that later was not perceived by Naibod who vehemently ‘proves’ in his Enarratio...' that Ptolemy directed as Regiomontanus, a notion so obviously untrue that only to a fanatical mind can seem otherwise. ‘Andreas Argolus was a student of Maginus and teacher of Placidus. He directed as Regiomontanus did and also commented on Ptolemy. 2