“Sapiens homo dominabitur astris.” This famous tag is continually quoted. Cf. Tomkis' “Albumazar” (acted at Cambridge, March, 1615), I, 7, where Albumazar says:

          Indeed th' Ægyptian Ptolemy, the wise,
          Pronounc'd it as an oracle of truth,
            
      Sapiens dominabitur astris.

    In Book III, Epigram 186, of John Owen's first published volume, we get:

          “Fata regunt reges; sapiens dominabitur astris.”

    Sir Sampson Legend in Congreve's “Love for Love,” was produced at Lincoln's Inn Fields, 30 April, 1695, II, I, bantering old Foresight, who loudly acclaims the influence of the stars, throws at him: “I tell you I am wise; and sapiens dominabitur astrust; there's Latin for you to prove it.” According to W. Aldis Wright's note on Bacon's “Advancement of Learning,” II, xxiii, 12: “Mr. Ellis says this sentence is ascribed to Prolemy by Cognatus.” The reference is to Cognati's collection of Adages, which together with the “Adagia” of Erasmus and other famous repertories of saws and proverbs may be found in the voluma “Adagia” compiled by Joynaeus. Joannes Nevizanus, “Sylva Nuptialis,” II, 96, notes: “Dicit tamen Bal. in c.j. at lite pand. quod sapiens dominabitur astrist.” Bal. is Baldus, Baldo degli Ubaldi (b. 1327), the most famous canonist of his day and Professor utriusque iuris at the Universities of Padua, Perugia, and Piacenza, who wrote ample glosses on the “Corpus Iuris Ciuilis.” Burton, “Anatomy of Melancholy,” quotes “spapiens,” etc., and A.R. Shilleto in his notes says that it is also cited by Jeremy Taylor, and that C.G. Eden, his best editor, could not trace the origin of the phrase.