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Don Ferrante passed much time in his study, where he had a

considerable collection of choice books; he had selected the most

famous works on many different subjects, in each of which he was

more or less versed. In astrology he was justly considered more

than an amateur, because he not only possessed the general

notions, and the common vocabulary of influences, aspects, and

conjunctions, but he could speak to the point, and, like a

professor, of the twelve houses of heaven, of the great and

lesser circles, of degrees, lucid and obscure, of exaltations,

passages, and revolutions; in short, of the principles the most

certain and most recondite of the science.