Dodekatemoria in Alfonso d’Este Anonymous horoscope

 

Several years ago I commented some techniques employed by an unknown astrologer in a judgement written for Alfonso d’Este, the illegitimate son of the Duke of Ferrara. This judgement contains many  tables summarizing several traditional techniques: of some I have already talked here.

Someone asked  me about the table concerning dodekatemoria.

Dodekatemoria are subdivisions of the twelve signs of the Zodiac into a further twelve or thirteen parts each.

In the case of 12 sub-parts we have the following:

The problem with this method is that Taurus should start with sub-Taurus so we jump from Aries/Pisces to Taurus/Taurus skipping Aries.

So while some authors choose to divide by 12, others used a different kind of dodekatemoria, which is obtained dividing the sign by 13. In this case we can go from Aries/Aries to Taurus/Taurus without forgetting the poor Aries.

This is the method as explained in Paulus of Alexandria (p.40 Greenbaum translation) :

This is again the original birth chart of Signor Don Alfonso:

 

This is the dodekatemoria table given by the Anonymous astrologer:

The method is easy:

Multiply the longitude of a planet by 13 and count the result from the beginning of the sign occupied by the planet.

For example let’s try with Mars, which is at 2°16′ Sagittarius.

2°16′=2.26666666

2.26666666 x 13= 29.46666666

240+ 29.46666666 = 269.46666666

269.46666666 —– > 269° 28′  ——>  29° 28′ Sagittarius

We can do the same more quickly with Solar Fire.

We can choose Harmonic/transform and select 13.

And voila the result:

So stay home and play with Renaissance dodekatemoria !