In episode 372, astrologers Chris Brennan and Jenn Zahrt discuss the life and work of second-century astrologer Vettius Valens and his new translation. Anthology that they just published.
Valens is one of our most important sources for understanding ancient astrological practice, as he wrote one of the longest surviving texts on Hellenistic astrology, which included over 100 example charts to show how the methods worked in practice.
In 2010, a classical scholar named Mark Riley released an unfinished PDF of his translation of Valens’ Anthology for free online, and it has become the main source many astrologers and academics use today to read Valens.
However, since the translation was not completed, Mark did not include diagrams in the text to illustrate Valens’s diagrammatic examples, and some important chapters were not completed.
The lack of illustrations in the text made it much more difficult for students to read Valens and understand what he was talking about with the table examples.
Therefore, with Mark’s permission, Chris has published a new print version of his Valence translation, which includes diagrams each time an example of a diagram is included.
We have also completed unfinished chapters and fixed a number of errors, making this publication more clear.
The final book is 440 pages and includes a 50-page study of the Valens anthology by Mark, which contains some very interesting material about the chronology of Valens’ life. Chris also wrote the foreword for the book.
The book was released yesterday, October 16, 2022, and you can order it through online retailers like Amazon or Barnes & Noble.
Vettius Valens Anthology on Amazon
A free e-book version of Valence’s anthology was later released in June 2025:
Learn more about the Jenn Astrological Library and Institute:
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