{"title":"Astronomy","description":"\u003cp\u003eCelestial objects, space, cosmology, and the scientific study of the universe beyond Earth.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"danti-egnatio","title":"DANTI, Egnatio","description":"First edition of Egnatio Danti s translation of Proclus   Sfera  and his companion treatise on the use of the sphere, and second edition of Piccolomini s treatise on the proportions respectively of water and dry land of the Earth. According to Graesse there was a 1540 edition of the latter, but from Ziletti s dedication a Venetian senator, it is clear that the book was first published in 1558. Houzeau \u0026amp; Lancaster lists a  very rare  1571 first edition of Danti s translation and treatise, but it is probably confusing the latter with Danti s commentary upon the translation of Sacrobosco s  Tractatus de Spaera  made by his grandfather Pier Vincenzo Rainaldi (called  Dante  after the author of the  Divine Comedy ) and first published in 1571. Egnatio Danti (1536-86), referred to as  Cosmographer of the Grand Duke of Tuscany  on these title-pages, was an outstanding scientist who taught at Pisa and Bologna, drew maps for Cosimo de  Medici, designed a number of astronomical instruments (two of which were set up in Santa Maria Novella, Florence), brought about the reformation of the Gregorian calendar after having detected a 11-day error, wrote the first book to be published in Italy on the astrolabe (1569), and was appointed Papal Cosmographer and Mathematician by Gregory XIII (1580). His translation of Proclus   Sfera , dedicated to Isabella de  Medici, opens with a two-page life of Proclus and contains long and detailed annotations, often flanked by diagrams, for each of the fifteen chapters of the book. It ends with a five-page essay on how to study the stars without using scientific instruments. Proclus (412-485), illustrious Neo-Platonic philosopher from Constantinople, was also a fine astronomer who expounded the division of the celestial sphere with modern accuracy. Danti s treatise on the use of the sphere is divided into thirty short chapters dealing with, i.a., how to make a sphere, determine the various positions of the sun and stars and the corresponding times of day and night, and study the Zodiac.\r The proportions of water and dry land was a much debated topic of the time. Like Aristotle, Leonardo was convinced that the quantity of water exceeded that of the land, and that a great quantity of water was collected in caverns underneath the surface of the Earth. Piccolomini was one of the first scientists to maintain the opposite. In his fifteen-chapter essay he provides detailed explanations of why, from the antiquity, the amount of water on the Earth had been thought to exceed that of the land, followed by the exposition of his own revolutionary theory. Alessandro Piccolomini (1508-1578), a typical Renaissance polymath, wrote poems along with scientific, philosophical and legal works. An important scientific collection in a very attractive contemporary Spanish binding - a charming example of 'encuadernaci√≥n plateresca', most widespread in university town in the C16. Both the Danti and the Piccolomini are also of interest as early Americana.","brand":"DANTI, Egnatio","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816078287183,"sku":"L48","price":7500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L48-8.jpg?v=1781795322"},{"product_id":"pontano-giovanni-gioviano","title":"PONTANO, Giovanni Gioviano","description":"First Aldine edition of the astrological writings of Johannes Jovianus Pontanus (Giovanni Gioviano Pontano, 1429-1503), humanist, diplomat, scholar and poet who became the driving force behind the Neapolitan Academy and its official leader after 1471, as well as Naples' Secretary of State. His was considered by contemporaries as good as, or superior to, his Classical models. Pontanus' career provides an excellent illustration of the power and prestige which might be attained by men of letters in fifteenth-century Italy.\r \r The present volume consists of Pontanos' scientific (or proto-scientific and astrological) works: a translation and commentary on the Centum Ptolemaei sententiae, and other, briefer treatises, including De luna and De rebus coelestibus.\r \r The pseudo-Ptolemaic Centum Sententiae, or Centiloquy, is a collection of astrological aphorisms, once thought to have been the work of Claudius Ptolemaeus - from whose work it differs in many key respects. Seventeenth-century English scholars such as Joseph Moxon and William Lilly noted that some ascribed it to the mythical Hermes Trismegistus. More recent speculation has centred around the figure of Abu Ja'far Ahmad ibn Yusuf Ibn Daya (d. c.941), who wrote extensive glosses to the work, and translated it into Hebrew and Latin. While some of the sententiae demonstrate typical astrological vagueness (III: a person skilled in a particular field will have been born under the relevant star; VI, XI: the day and time for a particular activity should be chosen carefully, with reference to one's horoscope), others are extremely specific (XX: 'Do not pierce not with iron that part of the body which may be governed by the sign occupied by the Moon'; XXII: 'Do not either put on or lay aside any garment for the first time, when the Moon is located in Leo'). Pontanus' commentary is notable for its concern with proving the superiority of astrology over much contemporary 'science', and for the socio-psychological rather than theological nature of its speculations. It was immensely influential in contemporary and later astrological and prophetic writing: Nostradamus quotes with approval his first proposition 'Soli numine divino afflati praesagiunt \u0026amp; spiritu prophetico particularia' ('Only those inspired by the divine godhead can prophesy, and only those inspired by the spirit of prophecy can prophesy detailed events').","brand":"PONTANO, Giovanni Gioviano","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816117707087,"sku":"L593","price":3950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/frontcover_6d949577-4acb-4edf-a998-12eee4563161.png?v=1781795303"},{"product_id":"alfonso-x-king-of-castile-and-leon","title":"ALFONSO X, King of Castile and Leon","description":"\u003cp\u003eAn attractive copy, beautifully printed by Lucantonio Giunta, of the work which underpins Alfonso X's \"lasting scientific fame\" (DSB); the first edition with an additional table by the astronomer and mathematician Luca Gaurico, perhaps best known for the first published Latin translations of Archimedes  works  De Mensura Circuli  and  De Quadratura Parabolae . Astrologer and mathematician, Luca Gaurico was appointed professor of mathematics at Ferrara, in 1531 where Scaliger was one of his pupils. Gaurico may have met Copernicus at Padua, as they were both at the university in the early years of the 16th century, and would have shared a common interest in Ptolemy and Archimedes. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Alfonso X ('The Wise', 1221 - 1284), was an enthusiastic sponsor of the translation of Arabic works, especially, astronomy, into Latin and Castilian. The commission of the present work was his most enduring achievement, it became known as the Tablas alfonsinas and was widely popular throughout the Middle Ages, the Spanish text from which it was translated having been lost. The tables were not widely known, however, until a Latin version was prepared in Paris in the 1320s. Copies rapidly spread throughout Europe, and for more than two centuries they were the best astronomical tables available. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n First printed in 1483, the Alfonsine Tables were an important source of information for the young Nicolaus Copernicus before his own work superseded them in the 1550s. A theoretical text for astronomers, the tables were used to predict the motions of the planets and stars (cf. Kenney, no. 3). By following the rules of calculation, in principle the user could derive the positions of the planets for any given time or place. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Astronomical tables were also used to determine lunar phases, eclipses and calendrical information. Essentially, the work was a translation of the Toledan Tablets of the Cordoban astronomer al-Zarqali (Archazel, c. 1029 - c. 1087), with some new observations made in the years 1262-1272. It followed the general format of al-Zarqali's earlier compilation and, with only minor qualifications, retained the Ptolemaic system for explaining celestial motion. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The first printed edition was Ratdolt's in Venice, in 1483, and there were nine subsequent editions (the last one in 1649). The Alphonsine Tables, as they became known, were a standard work of reference for astronomers, cosmographers, astrologers and navigators for nearly five hundred years. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n A very good unsophisticated copy.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ALFONSO X, King of Castile and Leon","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816120361295,"sku":"L1712","price":4950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L1712-4.jpg?v=1781795294"},{"product_id":"stoffler-johannes-and-pitati-pietro","title":"ST√ñFFLER, Johannes and PITATI, Pietro","description":"\u003cp\u003eAn expanded and beautiful edition of the almanac by Johannes Stöffler. As with all books of this kind, it had a wide circulation, but complete copies are rare and sought after. The volume provides the positions of stars at regular intervals of date and time, through detailed tables of value. It includes five introductive treatises on astronomic rules and phenomena, along with the celestial calculations from 1551 up to 1555, all by Pietro Pitati. Stöffler (1452-1531) was a German mathematician, astronomer and priest. He invented some astronomical instruments and taught at the University of Tübingen. Embracing the timespan 1499-1551, his celestial calculations continued those by Regiomontanus (1436-1476) and exerted a paramount influence over contemporary astronomical and astrological knowledge. The sixteenth-century Italian scholar Pietro Pitati was a professor of astronomy in Verona. The book is dedicated to the city bishop and prominent cardinal Gian Matteo Giberti. Pitati s ephemerides published in Venice in 1542 are regarded as the earliest Italian publication of this genre. He kept publishing his calculation up to the year 1562. In his Compendium super annua solaris (1560), he put forward for the first time the idea of omitting the Julian leap day in three out of four centennial years, so to keep the calendar in line with the solar year. Rare.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ST√ñFFLER, Johannes and PITATI, Pietro","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816126619983,"sku":"L1860","price":4850.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/titlepage_397e283d-7929-4ac0-881a-e92ef0e8e901.png?v=1781795275"},{"product_id":"kepler-johannes-1","title":"KEPLER, Johannes","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst edition of Kepler's detailed essays describing the supernova which appeared at the foot of the costellation Ophiucus in 1604. Johann Kepler (1571-1630) is one of the most important modern astronomers and mathematicians, along with his teacher Tycho Brahe and Galileo Galileo. Working at the court of the Emperor Rudolph II in Prague, he was able to improve the refracting telescope and formulate the fundamental laws of planetary motion correcting Copernicus. This invaluable account provides information on the supernova's colour, brightness, distance to the earth as well as other events related to this still unsolved astronomical phenomenon announcing the death of a star. The supernova was the last to be seen in the Milky Way and was named after Kepler in the 1940s. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Its appearance revived the debate among scholars on whether the incorruptibility of the cosmos established by Aristotle was valid or not. For instance, Galileo delivered a lecture on the supernova, considering it as a disproof of the Aristotelian theory. In 1604, Kepler was observing the conjunction of Jupiter with Saturn, an event which he calculated to happen exactly every 800 years. On October 10, Kepler witnessed the supernova and assumed the two phenomena were related. While working on his scientific description, he came across the essay of the Polish astronomer Laurence Suslyga, who had argued that Christ had been born in 4 BC on the basis of other celestial calculations. On this account, Kepler concluded that 1600 years earlier (i.e. 4 BC) the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction had provoked another supernova, which had been recorded in the Gospel and it is known as the Christmas Star or Star of Bethlehem. Such a theory is set out in the fouth part of this remarkable collection of treatises. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n This editio princeps has two variants, depending on the presence of the imprint  impensis Authoris  in the main title. Although a definitive priority has not been established, Kepler s letters seem to suggest that the present title page is the second version, which is rarer and more correct. Kepler was probably unsatisfied with the quality of the first print-run and paid for another smaller one. This is confirmed by the fact that the presentation copy to James I in BL was from the second print-run.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"KEPLER, Johannes","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816127734095,"sku":"K25","price":69500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/K25-6.jpg?v=1781795272"},{"product_id":"piccolomini-alessandro","title":"PICCOLOMINI, Alessandro","description":"\u003cp\u003eSixth edition of this very influential Italian cosmography paired with a much important illustration of the Ptolemaic constellations, originally published together in 1540. The same years as this edition, another more common reprint by Varisco appeared in Venice. The scion of a papal family in Siena, Alessandro Piccolomini (1508-1578) was a leading Renaissance humanist, philosopher, dramatist and astronomer. He was a founding member of many Italian academies, notably the Intronati and Infiammati. After teaching philosophy in Padua, he moved to Rome and Siena to started an ecclesiastical career, which eventually led him to being appointed archbishop of Patras. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n A partisan of the Italian vernacular, he intentionally avoided Latin in his numerous works. These comprise a couple of moral comedies and collections of his letters and sonnets, several philosophical treatises and translations of classical authors, as well as his famous astronomical essays. Among them, La Sfera and Le Stelle fisse stand out for accuracy and success. The first describes the universe following the traditional Ptolemaic-Aristotelian geocentric cosmography, while the second contains the one of the earliest star atlases to be published in the Western World. All Ptolemy s 48 constellations, save Equuleus, were displayed without the traditional depiction of the related animals. Piccolomini introduced here the practice of identification of stars by Latin letters, which would be adopted using the Greek alphabet by Johann Bayer some seventy years later. The lunar crater Piccolomini is named after him.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"PICCOLOMINI, Alessandro","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816129700175,"sku":"L1976","price":2500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L1976-Piccolomini-4.jpg?v=1781795266"},{"product_id":"kepler-johannes-2","title":"KEPLER, Johannes","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst edition of Kepler's detailed essays describing the supernova which appeared at the foot of the costellation Ophiucus in 1604. Johann Kepler (1571-1630) is one of the most important modern astronomers and mathematicians, along with his teacher Tycho Brahe and Galileo Galileo. Working at the court of the Emperor Rudolph II in Prague, he was able to improve the refracting telescope and formulate the fundamental laws of planetary motion correcting Copernicus. This invaluable account provides information on the supernova's colour, brightness, distance to the earth as well as other events related to this still unsolved astronomical phenomenon announcing the death of a star. The supernova was the last to be seen in the Milky Way and was named after Kepler in the 1940s. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Its appearance revived the debate among scholars on whether the incorruptibility of the cosmos established by Aristotle was valid or not. For instance, Galileo delivered a lecture on the supernova, considering it as disproof of the Aristotelian theory. In 1604, Kepler was observing the conjunction of Jupiter with Saturn, an event which he calculated to happen exactly every 800 years. On October 10, Kepler witnessed the supernova and assumed the two phenomena were related. While working on his scientific description, he came across the essay of the Polish astronomer Laurence Suslyga, who had argued that Christ had been born in 4 BC on the basis of other celestial calculations. On this account, Kepler concluded that 1600 years earlier (i.e. 4 BC) the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction had provoked another supernova, which had been recorded in the Gospel and it is known as the Christmas Star or Star of Bethlehem. Such a theory is set out in the fourth part of this remarkable collection of treatises. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n This editio princeps has two variants, depending on the presence of the imprint  impensis Authoris  in the main title. Although a definitive priority has not been established, Kepler s letters seem to suggest that the present title page is the earlier. Kepler was probably dissatisfied with the quality of this first print-run and paid for another. The presentation copy to James I in BL was from the second printing.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"KEPLER, Johannes","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816131797327,"sku":"K26","price":40000.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/K25-Kepler-1.jpg?v=1781795259"},{"product_id":"tornamira-francisco-vicente-de","title":"TORNAMIRA, Francisco Vicente de","description":"\u003cp\u003eRare first edition of a wide-ranging astronomical, cosmographical and historical book, one of the first of its kind to be directly written in Spanish. Little is known of the life of Francisco Vicente de Tornamira (1534   1597), born in Tudela, Navarre. Chronographia was the most influential work of this prominent Spanish astronomer, illustrating in 162 chapters the creation of the universe, the various branches of philosophy, the movement of planets, the constellations and the Zodiac, the universal chronology realm by realm, a series of calendars, almanacs and weather forecasts. All the subjects were elucidated further with a large number of illustrations, including, most notably, a traditional depiction of the Armillary Sphere and other globes, the Astronomical Man and the Roman gods on their chariots representing the planets named after them. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n A fervent supporter of Ptolemaic vision of the universe against the heliocentric theory, Tornamira comes up with convoluted explanations to bridge the gap between mathematical calculation and the traditional model of planetary movement. A most interesting part is devoted to the solar calendar and the recent reform introduced in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII, discussing the exact days of the year in which Lent, Corpus Domini and Easter should be celebrated. Tornamira expanded on this topic in his subsequent work, the Spanish translation of the new Gregorian calendar (1591). \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n  On p. 40 there is a reference to the Magellan circumnavigation; on p. 497 a list of the midsummer s days of the New World; on p. 538-539 locations of New World cities.  Alden 585\/67.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"TORNAMIRA, Francisco Vicente de","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816133173583,"sku":"L2100","price":5250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/titlepage_58d321ef-f136-42e3-94ac-f02255bd5756.png?v=1781795254"},{"product_id":"albrecht-lorenz","title":"ALBRECHT, Lorenz","description":"\u003cp\u003eA remarkably clean copy of this German astrological almanac a rare survival of C16 ephemera. A former Lutheran preacher, Lorenz Albrecht (1540-1606) was the author of German and Latin religious works and re-converted to the Catholic faith in 1567.  Evangelisch Prognosticon  testifies to his disillusionment with the Protestant Reformation  the Gospel of Luther  and his intent to oppose this heresy through the popular genre of the almanac, imitating Johannes Nas s  Practica Practicarum . As usual in astrological almanacs, it discusses planets, constellations, zodiacal signs and the seasons and their influx on humans with references to ancient authorities like Pliny and Manilius; but the tone is grim and planets are seen as harbingers of vices. The ominous statement by which the seat of the devil is at the centre of the earth and heresy is at the centre of the universe shows how Albrecht s almanac presented the influence of the cosmos as something that Catholics should resist through will and spiritual exercise so as not to succumb to the Protestant heresy.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ALBRECHT, Lorenz","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816155816271,"sku":"L2915","price":2250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/titlepage-1_3248c45c-1777-4f47-b490-5a18443dd348.png?v=1781794913"},{"product_id":"doglioni-giovanni-nicolo-1","title":"DOGLIONI, Giovanni Nicol√≤","description":"\u003cp\u003eScarce copy of this important didactic almanac including the prediction of weather conditions, planetary influence and a perpetual calendar  one of the earliest if not the earliest almanack according to the Gregorian Calendar unknown to Poggendorff  ( Bibliotheca Chemico-Mathematica  1076). Giovanni Nicol√≤ Doglioni (1548-1629) was a Venetian notary appointed to several public offices in the city, and the author of works on chronology, cosmography and the calculation of time.  L anno  contextualised for a broader audience the reform of the Julian calendar introduced by Gregory XIII in 1582 a revision which led to major scholarly debates on  gnomonica  or the computation of the portions of the solar day. The first section of the work discusses the four elements that constitute the world, the subdivisions of the earth into continents, countries and provinces, the meteorological phenomena resulting from the mixture of the elements as well as a table tracing the movements of the planets. In the second section Doglioni explains the subdivisions of time according to conventional units. The fundamental unit the day can be natural (following the planetary course of the sun in relation to the earth as a whole) or artificial (according to the specific place in which the onlooker is situated). This distinction is used as the basis to explain the correct construction of sundials on buildings. There follows an examination of the subdivision of historical time the discipline of chronology so dear to the medieval and Renaissance periods and the meaning of  century ,  age ,  age of man  and  age of the world , with a perpetual calendar and a long table recording universal dates and events from the creation to the year 5545 [1586AD]. Later owners annotated the perpetual calendar counting the days for the years 1646, 1668 and 1709. The last section provides perpetual calendars to identify Feasts of the Saints and moveable liturgical feasts. It was reprinted as  L anno riformato  in 1599 and its tables accordingly updated. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Giovanni Battista Lambruschini S.J. (1755-1827) was professor at the Jesuit seminary in Genoa, a great opponent of the French Revolution and the centre of a Jesuit circle including the renowned philologist Cardinal Angelo Mai.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"DOGLIONI, Giovanni Nicol√≤","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816156078415,"sku":"L2885","price":2250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/titlepage_e03e142e-f040-46f2-84c1-4d818e74ac66.png?v=1781794912"},{"product_id":"pontano-giovanni","title":"PONTANO, Giovanni","description":"\u003cp\u003eHandsome clean copy of the second edition of this most influential astrological work. Giovanni Pontano (or Giovanni Gioviano, 1426-1503) was a poet, humanist and diplomat who, after studying at Perugia, moved to Naples. There he became an influential figure at the Accademia Antoniana (later Pontaniana) and the court of Aragon; he has been celebrated as the intellectual who introduced the Renaissance to Naples. His work spanned philosophy, natural science, astrology and poetry, and in 1512 his  opera omnia  in six parts of which  De rebus coelestibus  was the sixth was published by the Giunti in Florence. This is the second Giunti edition of the collected works and the fourth of  De rebus  as a separate work. Written in the course of twenty years, it was begun in 1475 just after Pico della Mirandola published his attack on judicial astrology. Pontanus sought to distance himself from the latter to pursue instead a kind of astrology which could benefit man, so that, through this knowledge,  astrologers could assess the nature of human beings, hence their inclinations and eventually the ultimate unfolding of their lives  (Cantamessa III, 6256). Presenting a cosmos based on Ptolemaic doctrines, the first section is a study of the nature,  houses , qualities and  fines  (degrees) which govern the interactions between planets and signs; this is mandatory knowledge for the real astronomer who should seek to identify the complexities of human nature. The second part analyses the  mapping  of the age and life of man onto the celestial system and changes in the qualities of planets according to their position. Parts three to eight focus on the effects of planetary interactions on individuals born under specific conjunctures. The last few sections are mostly devoted to medical conditions (e.g., sterility, skin illnesses, limping, epilepsy, kidney stones, baldness, nervous and mental issues). Despite his attempt to detach himself from judicial astrology, following the credo of Neo-Platonists like Pico and their scepticism against astral causation, Pontano remained greatly attracted to astrology and alchemy as appears from his  Letter on the Philosophical Fire . He was in time celebrated as a protagonist of the hermetic scene in Naples hence the intriguing Masonic provenance of this copy, from the library of the Supreme Council 33, one of two main governing bodies of the Scottish Rite Freemasonry in the USA.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"PONTANO, Giovanni","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816162468175,"sku":"L3109","price":3250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/20190409_175207.jpg?v=1781794892"},{"product_id":"ptolomaeus-claudius-bourdin-de-villennes-nicolas","title":"PTOLOMAEUS, Claudius. [Bourdin de Villennes, Nicolas.]","description":"\u003cp\u003eA remarkable authorial presentation copy of this rare first edition of the first French translation of Ptolemy s Tetrabiblos, finely bound with the authors arms and a long manuscript presentation letter to Monsieur de Saint L éger of Avignon. Little is known about Nicolas Bourdin, except that he was born around 1583 to a Berry family, was a prot ég é of Gaston d Orleans and died governor of Vitry-le-François in 1676. His controversies with Jean-Baptiste Morin (1583-1656), another Ptolemaic astrologer, probably derived from Morin s status as the prot ég é of Richelieu. The ms. dedication is most interesting as he refers to the nature of his translation and to the marginal notes he has made, stating that they are not made for the scholarly St. Andre, who already has a copy of the Basle edition in his collection, and who could have undoubtedly make better notes than the author. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Ptolemy (c.100-170AD) was a Roman geographer, mathematician and astronomer from Alexandria. His extant works, all written in Greek, influenced Western knowledge for centuries. Tetrabiblos  four books , also known in Latin as Quadripartitum  Four Parts , is a text on the philosophy and practice of astrology. Ptolemy s Almagest was an authoritative text on astronomy for more than a thousand years, and the Tetrabiblos, its companion volume, was equally influential in astrology, the study of the effects of astronomical cycles on earthly matters. But whilst the Almagest as an astronomical authority was superseded by acceptance of the heliocentric model of the Solar System, the Tetrabiblos remained an important theoretical work for astrologers. Besides outlining the techniques of astrological practice, Ptolemy s philosophical defence of the subject as a natural, beneficial study helped secure theological tolerance towards astrology in Western Europe during the Medieval era. This allowed Ptolemaic teachings on astrology to be included in universities during the Renaissance, which brought an associated impact upon medical studies and literary works.  Ptolemy regards the Tetrabilblos as the natural complement to the Almagest: as the latter enables one to predict the positions of the heavenly bodies, so the former expounds the theory of their influences on terrestrial things.   From the obvious terrestrial physical effects of the sun and moon, he infers that all heavenly bodies must produce physical effects  and  by careful observation of the terrestrial manifestations accompanying the various recurring combinations of celestial bodies, he believes it possible to erect a system which, although not mathematically certain, will enable one to make useful predictions.   Book I explains the technical concepts of astrology, book II deals with influences on the earth in general ( astrological geography  and weather predictions), and book III and IV with influences on human life.  \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n A most interesting presentation copy of this very rare work. USTC locates four copies only; three in France and one at the BL.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"PTOLOMAEUS, Claudius. [Bourdin de Villennes, Nicolas.]","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816164827471,"sku":"L3196","price":2750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/IMG_20190718_153803.jpg?v=1781794876"},{"product_id":"ptolemy-claudius","title":"PTOLEMY, Claudius","description":"\u003cp\u003eExceptionally rare edition of this popular astronomical text, very charmingly illustrated with numerous woodcuts, the last of the early editions, the only edition printed in the seventeenth century. The rather rudimentary map is marked i.a. with Mexico, New England, the West indies, Peru, the Straits of Magelan, Brasil and Virginia. Below the two southmost capes is a the land mass described as the  South Continent . The work was originally translated from the French  Compost et kalendrier des bergiers , and appeared in two forms throughout the C16th; one as  The Kalender of Shepards  and the other with the title  The Compost of Ptholomeus . Although they are often described as containing nothing from Ptolemy, other than the falsification of authorial attribution, the work does have a general articulation of some of the astrological matters set forth in Ptolemy s Quadripartitum. The influence of astronomy over individuals is discussed, and this version has a chapter on palmistry added at the end.  In the  Kalendar of Shepherds , the putative source of the astrological and health information is initially an unnamed, ancient shepherd.   the authentication for the information in the text was a natural and pastoral figure of wisdom, the void of book learning. In the prologue, it is also stated that  this boke was made for them that be no Clerkes to brynge them to great understandynge  thus identifying itself as a text for a non-elite readership yet at the same time offering access to the very traditional classical learning skills and intimating a connection between the occult knowledge and active reading. .. In Notary s 1506 edition, Ptolemy is merely cited in the table of contents in relation to the twelve signs of the zodiac but not mentioned in the text. In Pynson s 1518 edition, Ptolemy is referenced both textually and visually, again in relation to the zodiac, but as a very minor reference in the text. .. Beginning in the 1530s, the strand of the multi-text breaks off; the text is condensed, new images are added, others are eliminated, and the title is changed to the  Compost of Ptolomeus, Prince of Astronomy  .. These editions, initially published by Robert Wyer, make a significant modification: the name of the Ptolemy is increasingly inserted into the verbal text, shifting the authentication from the ancient shepherd to Ptolemy. .. The Catholic feast day calendar is eliminated, along with much of the Christian moralising and, generally, a narrower focus on the astrological components. Neither the woodblock image of the shepherd nor that of the scholar carries over once the text is renamed  The compost of Ptolomeus;  instead, the symbolic function previously vested in the figure of the scholar shepherd is now conflated into the single figure of Claudius Ptolomy,  Prince of Astronomeye . ..In his editions of the Compost, Wyer not only strengthened the association of the verbal and visual text with Ptolemy, but also incorporated specifically geographical information; Wyer appends a  Rutter , a navigational chart of the distances between various port cities, consequently increasing the function of the text as a source of geographic information.. For English readers in the early print era the images of and attribution to Ptolemy thus narrate and mediate an encounter with emerging geographical thought. The textual and visual attribution to Ptolemy created a kind of aura for the text that mystified the diffuse authorship of the work, and that subsumed the fascination with the occult and Catholic ritual into a pseudo-scientific discourse.  Keith D. Lilley  Mapping Medieval Geographies: Geographical Encounters in the Latin West . \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Unsurprisingly all editions of this ephemeral and popular work it are exceptionally rare; ESTC records no more than two copies of any of the five earlier editions of this text, and records this, the only seventeenth century edition, in three copies only, two at the BL and one at Birmingham University library. No copies recorded in the US.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"PTOLEMY, Claudius","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816166334799,"sku":"K153","price":19500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Untitled-1-1_9a584f5c-3067-4d95-ad05-137a9799d656.jpg?v=1781794869"},{"product_id":"magini-giovanni-antonio-1","title":"MAGINI, Giovanni Antonio.","description":"\u003cp\u003eUncommon important ephemerides. Giovanni Antonio Magini (1555-1617) was an Italian mathematician, astronomer and cartographer. A supporter of the geocentric system, in 1588 he was preferred to Galileo Galilei as professor of mathematics at Bologna. His copious production includes works on quadrants, commentaries on Ptolemy, Regiomontanus and Vi√®tes, and an atlas of Italy. In the 1580s, he began to publish  Ephemerides  numerical tables providing the trajectories and positions of celestial bodies at regular intervals, over the course of several years. He kept updating his calculations and they were reprinted seven times. The first, spanning the years 1611-30, was first published in 1612. The tables were created from the  Tabulae Prutenicae  first published by the astronomer Erasmus Reinhold in 1551, calculated from the position of Venice. This edition also includes a critique of J. Stadius s calculations, an introduction to judicial astrology, and treatises on the use of ephemerides, annual planetary movements, and fixed stars. The  Supplementum , here in its first edition, includes new tables based on Tycho Brahe s observations, including eclipses, and revised calculations of the previous  Ephemerides . For these, Magini relied on Kepler s  Tabulae Rudolphinae , making the  Supplementum   the first ephemerides calculated according to Kepler s principles  (Cantamessa 4747). A short epistolary exchange between him and Magini was also included in this work, and printed for the first time. He also followed a few Copernican theories using  the exentricities and different epicycles which Copernicus had substituted to those of Ptolemy  (Delambre,  Histoire , 508).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MAGINI, Giovanni Antonio.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57820346417487,"sku":"L3293","price":3250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/IMG_6363.webp?v=1781794813"},{"product_id":"leopold-of-austria-1","title":"LEOPOLD of Austria","description":"\u003cp\u003eBeautifully printed and finely illustrated second edition of this important and influential astronomy, by the 13th-century astronomer, Leopold of Austria, first printed by Ratdolt, in 1489. Primarily a work of astrology based on the writings of Albumasar, the sixth book concerns meteorology both from a theoretical and a practical point of view, and includes folkloric methods of weather prediction and general descriptions of winds, thunder etc. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Although virtually nothing is known of the author, the work was influential in the late Middle Ages, being cited by the great astronomer, Pierre d Ailly, and admired by Regiomontanus, who proposed to edit it. This edition retains the dedication to Udalricus de Frundsberg, bishop of Trient, by Erhard Ratdolt, printer of the first. In the introduction Leopold states that he cannot take credit for the work as there was more than one author and he was just a  fidelis illorum observator et diligens compilator.  He states his goal is to describe the motion of the stars, and to focus particularly on describing their effect. He describes astronomy as a necessary starting point and foundation for the study of astrology. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The Compilatio is divided into ten treatises: the first and second on the spheres and their motion. There is a dissertation on the comets at the end of the fifth book, beginning with a short discussion of Aristotle s theories, which recounts the opinion of John of Damascus (676   c. 749), who asserts, in his  De Fide Orthodoxa,  that these celestial bodies announce the death of a King, and that they do not belong to the stars created in the beginning, but are formed and dissolved by God s will. He then gives a list of the nine comets and their latin names, ending with the meanings derived from their presence in each Zodiacal sign. These are a transcription of Albumasar s  De magnis Conjunctionibus.  A very good copy of this beautifully illustrated and rare edition.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"LEOPOLD of Austria","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57820384166223,"sku":"L2159b","price":4500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_9403.jpg?v=1781793812"},{"product_id":"veer-gerrit-de","title":"VEER, Gerrit de.","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe rare second edition of the French translation of De Veer‚Äôs account of three most important polar voyages in search of the Northeast Passage to China and the East Indies, commanded by Willem Barents, with exceptional provenance; from the library of the celebrated astronomer Joseph Jér√¥me de Lalande including his notes and side notes. The three expeditions recounted here took place in 1594, 1595, 1596-1597. The commander of the three voyages was the pilot Willem Barents of Amsterdam. Gerrit De Veer himself only took part in the last two expeditions and described the first expedition from Barents notes. The account of the third voyage, during which the Dutch sailors had to winter at Novaya Zemlya, occupies more than half of the work. The three accounts include de Veer‚Äôs eyewitness journal, as a crew-member, of Barents‚Äô disastrous final voyage in 1596-97: a tale of extreme hardship and danger and it describes in the form of a daily diary the crew‚Äôs winter in a hut built from ship‚Äôs timbers on the coast of Novaya Zemlya, after their ship had been crushed by ice. It is the earliest recorded wintering this far north.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e‚ÄúThese voyages proved Barents one of history‚Äôs greatest arctic navigators. The first foray began in 1594, when Barents directed his ships down the length of Nova Zembla. Blocked by seasonal ice from further passage, the Dutch retraced their course to Vaigatz and passed through the Kara Sea as far as the latitude of Ob. The relative success of this effort prompted another attempt the following year. This time, however, an unusually severe winter kept the straits between Vaigatz and the mainland packed with ice all summer, and the voyagers returned to Holland after little success. Accompanying Barents as supercargo on both of these expeditions was the famed Dutch traveler Jan Huyghen van Linschoten. It was the third voyage in 1596 that ranks among the ‚Äúhardiest achievements of all Polar exploration‚Äù. Barents began by attempting to sail directly across the Pole. Though he was blocked by pack ice, along the way he became the first European to make contact with the Spitsbergen Islands. Steering back for Nova Zembla, the Dutch passed the farthest point they had reached on their first voyage in 1594, and pressed on around the northern tip of the island. Here their ship was crushed in the ice, and the crew was forced to wait out the winter. It was a winter of great misery, during which a number of the crew froze to death and several were eaten by polar bears. When the summer ice failed to release his ship, Barents directed the remaining members of this crew in a difficult voyage in an open boat; he died before they safely reached Russian territory‚Äù K Hill. ‚ÄúThe Hill Collection of Pacific Voyages.‚Äù\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eJoseph Jér√¥me Lefrançois de Lalande‚Äôs copy; his autograph on pastedown, with his notes concerning astronomical instruments and degrees of latitude and longitude taken from the  voyages on pastedown and ffep. It is not individually listed in the catalogue of the sale of his books in 1808 that took place a year after his death at the College de France. Lalande was a celebrated astronomer and at the centre of French intellectual circles during les Lumi√®res. He was close to Voltaire, Helvetius, and many others. He held the chair of astronomy in the Coll√®ge de France for forty-six years. His publications in connection with the transit of Venus of 1769 won him great fame. He was also a Freemason and founded the Lodge of ‚ÄúLes Trois Soeurs‚Äù in Paris, influential in the American war of independence: In 1778 Lalande arranged for Benjamin Franklin and John Paul Jones to join; Franklin became Master of the Lodge in 1779, and was re-elected in 1780. When Franklin, returned to America to participate in the writing of the Constitution, Thomas Jefferson, a non-Mason, took over as American Envoy. Lalande was a renowned atheist but still harboured priests fleeing the revolution at the College de France. It is possible that Lalande obtained this copy from his friend, another famous astronomer of the same period, Pierre Charles Lemonnier, from his note on rear pastedown ‚Äònotes de m. Lemonnier‚Äô.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eA very rare edition of these important voyages with remarkable provenance.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"VEER, Gerrit de.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859632398671,"sku":"L3549","price":10500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Untitled-1-1.jpg?v=1781793791"},{"product_id":"gerolamo-cardano","title":"GEROLAMO CARDANO","description":"\u003cp\u003eTwo influential works by the Italian polymath Gerolamo Cardano (1501-1576) in a beautifully decorated contemporary binding by the German bookbinder  Meister des Kolumbaquartiers  (Schunke 1937, 336; Einbanddatenbank 129874b), based in .Cologne.  \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Expert in mathematics, biology, physics, astronomy, astrology and author of more than 200 works on medicine, Cardano is today most known for introducing the use of negative numbers in Europe for the first time (Ars Magna, 1545). The first edition of De Astrorum Iudicii represents one of his most controversial works on astronomy and astrology. Structured as a four-part commentary on the Tetrabiblos (in Latin translation) by the Greek philosopher and mathematician Ptolemy (100-170 AD), the book presents a series of astrological techniques aimed at demonstrating that all the main events in people s lives can be attributed to the stars. In addition, the brief related volume  Geniturarum Exempla  contains twelve horoscope examples illustrated with attractive diagrams and symbols, among them the horoscope of King Edward VI and of the Archbishop John Hamilton of St. Andrews (Genitura I and II). To these eminent personalities, Cardano predicts a bright future; however, it appears that the latter was hanged by the reformers, while the former died of tuberculosis not long after the publication of this work. The author goes as far as casting the horoscope of Christ: accused of heresy by the Inquisition for these pages, Cardano was imprisoned in 1570.  \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n De Subtilitate Libri XXI is widely considered Cardano s masterpiece and, due to its enormous success, it continued to be reprinted long after the author s death. It is an encyclopaedia of natural science and metaphysics, divided into twenty-one books which respectively deal with: 1) matter and its natural motion, 2) the elements, 3) the sky, 4) light, 5) mixtures and compounds, 6) metals, 7) stones, 8) plants, 9-10) animals, 11-12) humans, their appearance and temperament, 13) the senses, 14) soul and intellect, 15)  de incerti generis aut inutilibus subtilitatibus , 16) Sciences, 17) Arts, 18) Miracles, 19) Demons, 20) Angels, 21) God and the universe. This edition constitutes Cardano s update to the first of 1550, and it accounts for more recent geographical discoveries and philosophical discourses. Among the detailed woodcut illustrations, the ones representing machines are perhaps the most fascinating: these include a suction pump, .the .Archimedean screw, a hoist, and many others. In the pages discussing engineering, Cardano also informs us that Leonardo da Vinci tried to fly, but he failed. In the section regarding the sky (Liber III) the author describes the stars observed by Amerigo Vespucci during his third voyage to the Indies.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"GEROLAMO CARDANO","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859633807695,"sku":"L3648","price":17500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L3648-1.jpg?v=1781793787"},{"product_id":"de-sacrobosco-johannes","title":"DE SACROBOSCO, Johannes.","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst edition printed in Spain of this important early modern astronomy textbook, which includes a critique of the then-used Julian calendar as well as a recommended solution remarkably similar to today s Gregorian calendar. Johannes de Sacrobosco (c. 1195-1256) was a scholar, monk and astronomer who in this publication gives a readable account of the Ptolemaic universe. His Anglicised name is John Hollywood; he was an exceptional early English forerunner in the sciences prior to the likes of Bacon and Newton. Ptolemy s (updated) Almagest had been translated into Latin in 1175 by Gerard of Cremona from the Arabic translation held in Toledo and copies quickly found their way to Paris. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Sacrobosco s sphere was the imaginary backdrop of the stars in the sky, which was the meaning of the word  world  at that time, not the earth as we know it. Sacrobosco quotes the Greek astronomer Theodosius when stating it is a solid body. Through principally about the heavens it also contains a clear description of the Earth as a sphere. In fact, the Earth was perceived as a sphere widely during the higher Middle Ages. Sacrobosco s Sphaera went on to become required reading by students in all Western European universities for the next four centuries. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The text is divided into four chapters. The first discusses the general structure of the universe, and second the circles of the celestial sphere, the third the daily rotation of the heavens and the climates of the Earth, and the fourth planetary movements and eclipses. The universe is divided into nine parts: the  first moved , the sphere of the fixed stars, and then the seven planets; Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the sun, Venus, Mercury and the moon. There are two movements of the sphere: one of the heavens from east to west on its axis, and the other of the inferior spheres at 23 degrees in the opposite direction of their own axes. The world is then divided into two parts; the elementary and the ethereal. The elementary is made up of the four elements; earth, water, air and fire. The ethereal is immutable and named the  fifth essence . Sacrobosco calls the universe the machina mundi, machine of the world, likening the movement to clockwork. This analogy became popular during the Enlightenment. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n  Pedro Ciruelo was following Lef√®vre d Étaples s example when he printed his commentary to the Tractatus de sphaera only 3 years after the Parisian professor had published his own in 1495. Ciruelo seems to confirm that this was the case in his own words in the new version of the preface to the Sphaera of Sacrobosco that he prepared for publication in Alcal‚àö¬∞ de Henares in 1526 (Ciruelo 1526). It has been pointed out that Ciruelo seems to have shared some of the ideas expressed by Lef√®vre concerning, for instance, the reality of the celestial orbs (in this case, an idea also held by Pierre d Ailly) (Barker 2011, 15 16). The extent to which both shared mathematical notions and natural philosophical ideas on the heavens is a subject still waiting to be explored in depth.  (Valleriani, Matteo. De sphaera of Johannes de Sacrobosco in the Early Modern Period, 2020). \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n 16th century Spanish scientific imprints are rare.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"DE SACROBOSCO, Johannes.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859635020111,"sku":"L3590","price":5250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L3590-1.jpg?v=1781793781"},{"product_id":"hyginus-1","title":"HYGINUS","description":"\u003cp\u003eHandsome and splendidly illustrated copy of the third edition of Hyginus  Poeticon Astronomicon, in a fine contemporary Italian binding. In particular, the same small circular tools and elegant knotwork centrepieces appear on bindings made in Venice between the end of the 15th and beginning of the 16th century (see: De Marinis I, n. 370 and II, n. 1716). Another interesting connection between this copy and Venice is represented by the two ms. notes at the very end: the two operas quoted were written and first presented in this city. Interestingly, the first two verses read:  pupille amate \/ vezzose stelle , which translates into 'beloved eyes \/ charming stars ; it is possible that the writer was inspired to copy these words by the astronomical topic of this book. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The Poeticon Astronomicon is an extremely fascinating combination of a manual of astronomy and a book on Roman and Greek mythology. In the preface, Hyginus states that he wants to explore constellations and planets more deeply than his predecessor Aratus. The first book describes the celestial sphere and its circles, the second tells the myths connected to 42 constellations, 5 planets and the milky way, the third presents the shapes of each constellation and the fourth is concerned with their position and connections with the zodiac signs. Identified with the Roman historian Gaius Julius Hyginus (1st century BC) during the Reinassance, the author follows Ptolemy's Almagest (II century BC) so closely   listing stars in the same order   that modern scholars tend to attribute the Poeticon Astronomicon to a more recent homonymous writer (c. II century BC).    \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The splendid woodcuts were commissioned by the printer Erhard Ratdolt to the Italian engraver Hyeronimus De Sanctis (15th century) and to the German artist Johannes Santritter (15th century) for the first illustrated edition of 1482. They are the first printed illustrations of the Greek constellations. There are dynamic pictures of all constellations, each overlaid with images from the Greek mythological tradition, as well as personifications of the Sun, Moon, Venus, Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars, all equipped with chariots pulled by animals of allegorical significance. Some of them resemble the iconography found in manuscripts, while others are quite unique: for instance, Orion is unusually depicted as a knight in medieval armour. Although the positions of the stars in these images have little to do with those described by Hyginus or with their actual location, these woodcuts served as fundamental templates for the grand star atlases of the 17th and 18th century. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n This copy is from the important library of Philippe Milon, a French colonial officer, ornithologist, traveller and bibliophile.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"HYGINUS","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859635446095,"sku":"L3705","price":16500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/1-1_acfb3904-f449-4bf0-a876-ee79a924e995.jpg?v=1781793780"},{"product_id":"manilius-marcus-with-scaliger-joseph","title":"MANILIUS, Marcus [with] SCALIGER, Joseph.","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst edition published by Joseph Scaliger of this very early didactic poem on astrology by Roman poet Marcus Manilius (1st c. AD). Joseph Scaliger (1540-1609), a French Calvinist and humanist was the first to critically edit Manilius s enigmatic work since the editio princeps published in Nuremberg in 1473 by the astronomer Regiomontanus. The poem is divided into five books and is accompanied by a second part containing Scaliger s extensive commentary as well as astrological diagrams to seven pages. The poem itself demonstrates influence from Lucretius s De rerum natura and describes the zodiac and Roman astrology. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Manilius s identity is shrouded in mystery, as is when he wrote the work. The only historical event explicitly mentioned is the Battle of the Teutoberg Forest, leading scholars to suggest a date in the early-mid 1st century AD. Volk (2009) states that the poem is the earliest surviving extensive and comprehensible work on astronomy and astrology. The five books commence with the origin of the universe and the nature and composition of earth and space. The orbit of planets is discussed in depth as well as each zodiacal sign and birth charts, horoscopes and ascendants. Following this classical myths are used as vehicles for considering celestial phenomena. Stoic, Platonic, Pythagorean and Epicurean views are all present and modern scholars consistently praise the complex and elegant writing style of the poem. Housman (1916) exclaimed that Manilius was  the one Latin poet who excelled even Ovid in verbal point and smartness . \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Scaliger established himself as the preeminent Latin scholar and critic of his day through the publication of this 1579 critical edition. His commentary is essentially a treatise on ancient astronomy and it forms an introduction to his later publication  De emendation temporum  (1583) which sought to expand the contemporary perception of ancient history from just Greeks and Romans to Persians, Babylonians and Egyptians. Indeed, Manilius s identity as a Roman was much debated and questioned; he has been suggested to be an African or Asiatic Greek. Scaliger s edition reintroduced Manilius to the scholarly world and led to many later editions including Boeckler s, Bentley s and Housman s.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MANILIUS, Marcus [with] SCALIGER, Joseph.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859642786127,"sku":"L3661","price":1950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/IMG_2803.jpg?v=1781793748"},{"product_id":"albertus-magnus-pseudo","title":"ALBERTUS MAGNUS, Pseudo.","description":"\u003cp\u003eA remarkable copy of this treatise on human reproduction by Pseudo Albertus Magnus, bound with a 17-page manuscript containing a astronomical text on the principles of chronological computation, apparently for astrological purposes, doubtless inspired by the printed text and an intriguing example of manuscript and print at the time of their transition. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n  Secreta Mulierum  (On women s secrets) was composed in the late 13th or early 14th century by an unknown disciple of Albertus Magnus, the most learned and prolific writer of the Middle Ages. Although scholars proposed the names of Thomas of Brabant or Henry of Saxony, the problem of authorship remains unsolved. The main text is accompanied by, and at times mixed with, a commentary, whose attribution is also debated. Relying on ancient and medieval writings, Pseudo-Albert discusses various aspects of reproduction, including the generation of the embryo, the formation and development of the fetus, the signs of conception, virginity, chastity, defects of the womb, impediments to conception and others. In the introduction, he states that his style will be  partly philosophical, partly medical, just as seems to fit the material . By \"philosophical\" he refers to natural philosophy, or natural science, concerned with the study of the world and cosmos. Although Pseudo-Albert raises a number of medical topics   nature of the menses, birth complications, gestation   his knowledge of medicine is limited. On the other hand, the discussion on natural philosophy is complex and it explores in detail the relationship between human nature, reproduction and celestial bodies. Crucially, the author describes the effects of astrological influence on the developing fetus, also showing how the sphere of the fixed stars confers different virtues: Saturn gives the ability to reason, the Sun to remember, Jupiter grants generosity, Venus causes the separation of hands and feet, the Moon completes the skin.  Vincent of Beauvais and Michael Scot may note some of the celestial effects, but pseudo_Albert addresses himself seriously to the problem of how they come about, and this effort forms the major thrust of his writing. Although the De secretis mulierum names women's secrets as its subject matter, if we weigh the length and the level of discourse we can almost consider this to be an astrological treatise.  (Lemay) \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Renaissance scholars commonly practiced astrology, and the manuscript pages at the end suggest that the early owner of this volume was particularly involved. The text is a  Computus Ecclesiasticus , which discusses solar and lunar cycles in relation to religious festivities and mobile feasts of the ecclesiastical calendar (Julian). In addition to basic knowledge (e.g. what is a lunar cicle), it provides precise instructions on how to calculate ( computare ) dates of feast days, such as  dies dominicales (Sundays). Interestingly, it is arranged around metric formulas that were traditionally used to memorise calculations: here these are underlined in red, and each word corresponds to a number or provides a letter which will be used in the computations. For example, we find  Sed, Quinque, Tred, Ambo, Decem, Doc, Septem, Quind, Quater, Dud, Jota, Novem, Sept VI, Quard , used to calculate the  Golden number  (a number from 1 to 19 which designate the year within the Metonic cycle of the moon phases). We also find:  Bonus erat homo Katho, nobilis quoque Seno , which was employed to calculate the insertion of a leap day, week or year into a calendar and the second part of the manuscript is mostly concerned with this. Learning  computus , the science of calculating times and dates, was fundamental for astrologers. This discipline, used in conjunction with astrolabes to predict the position of the planets (mentioned in the manuscript) and astronomical tables, was used to cast horoscopes, exactly like the one that we find at the beginning of the manuscript. The text was composed by two writers between the end of the 15th and beginning of the 16th century: in a few places, the second updates and annotates the first, including adding  ab anno 1500  and  1501  to his comments.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ALBERTUS MAGNUS, Pseudo.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859643801935,"sku":"L3672","price":22500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L3672-5.jpg?v=1781793743"},{"product_id":"fine-oronce-5","title":"FINE, Oronce","description":"\u003cp\u003eBeautifully printed first edition, of this rare treatise on astrology by one of the most influential mathematical teachers of his time. The work is essentially concerned with the twelve houses of the zodiac and their interpretation for judicial astrology. “Oronce Fine (1494–1555), a French mathematician from the Dauphiné, is chiefly known to historians of science for having been the first to teach mathematics as a royal lecturer within the institution founded by François I in March 1530, but also for his work as a cartographer, as a designer and maker of mathematical instruments, as well as an engraver and an editor of scientific books. .. A central role was attributed to astronomy within Fine’s mathematical teaching program, since the Cosmographia, sive mundi sphaera.  (However) .. it would be reasonable to think that Fine also viewed his editorial work on Sacrobosco’s Sphaera as a contribution to the training of astrologers, to help them learn how to calculate the positions of planets in relation to the zodiacal signs and the celestial houses, an activity in which he himself engaged as a court astrologer and which he later promoted through the publication of the ‘Canons des ephemerides’ 1543 and the De duodecim caeli domiciliis 1553. These works respectively deal with the art of producing almanacs (including their astrological features) and with the division of the celestial houses and of the planetary hours necessary to the casting of horoscopes. Fine also published in 1529 an Almanach novum aimed to help produce elections in the context of medicine, church duties, banking, and many other important functions. ..(the second part of the present work) considers the distinction between the equal and the unequal hours that divide artificial days and nights according to the latitude of the viewer and shows how to calculate the length of unequal hours for the latitude of Paris, as well as how to reduce unequal hours to equal hours and vice versa. Fine also explained at this occasion the correspondence between the planets (and their rising in the first hour of the artificial day) and the names of the days of the week (Saturn on Saturday, the sun on Sunday, etc.), which he represented through a little table also indicating the planets ruling the first hour of the night, as well as the means to determine the planets ruling the other planetary hours for any day of the week.” Angela Axworthy. “Oronce Fine and Sacrobosco: From the Edition of the Tractatus de sphaera (1516) to theCosmographia (1532).”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eA handsome copy of this rare astrological work.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"FINE, Oronce","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859650650447,"sku":"L3914","price":2950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L3914-1.jpg?v=1781793722"},{"product_id":"pliny-2","title":"PLINY","description":"\u003cp\u003eHandsome second edition of Philemon Holland s immensely popular English translation of Pliny s Natural History. .Pliny the Elder (23-79AD) was an administrator for Emperor Vespasian and a prolific author. The  Historia  is a masterful encyclopaedia of theoretical and applied natural sciences detailing all that was known in these fields in the first century AD. Based on hundreds of Greek and Latin sources, its ten books introduce the reader to astronomical questions like the nature of the moon and its distance from the earth; pharmacopoeia, ointments and herbal remedies; natural phenomena including rains of stones; world geography and the ethnographic study of remote  gentes mirabiles ;  extraordinary peoples , descriptions of all animal and tree species, wild and domesticated; horticulture from cultivation to the treatment of plant mutations and illnesses; metals and gold mining; mineralogy and pigments for painting. \u003cbr\u003e\n \u003cbr\u003e\nPhilemon Holland was an English schoolmaster and one of the most famed Elizabethan translators of the classics. He brought the works of Livy, Suetonius and Plutarch as well as Pliny the Elder to a wider, English speaking audience. The present was first published in 1601 and was dedicated to Sir Robert Cecil, the prominent statesman and favourite of Elizabeth I. The most popular of Holland's translations, it was published again in this 1634 edition. Prior to Holland s translation, it had never been printed in English, and would not be again for another 250 years. Indeed, even after four centuries,  Holland is still the only translator of this work to attempt to evoke its literary richness and beauty\" (ODNB).\u003cbr\u003e\n \u003cbr\u003e\n The importance of Pliny lay not so much that he was an inexhaustible source for monsters, eclipses, and the stranger habits of all created things, but that in the pages of Philemon Holland s translation Shakespeare found that emphasis on Nature which he employed and re-interpreted in the tragedy  (Evans, The Language of Shakespeare s Plays).\u003cbr\u003e\n \u003cbr\u003e\n Over and over again it will be found that the source of some ancient piece of wisdom is Pliny.  (Printing and the Mind of Man, 5).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"PLINY","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859652288847,"sku":"L3588","price":9500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L3588-2.jpg?v=1781793722"},{"product_id":"rosaccio-giuseppe","title":"ROSACCIO, Giuseppe","description":"\u003cp\u003eA lovely collection of three fascinating treatises on chronology, geography, geology and astronomy, with charming naïf illustrations. In the first work, the author records: “1492: in this year, Cristoforo Colombo of Genova discovered the New World”. These Venetian editions of 1597 are extremely rare.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eGiuseppe Rosaccio (c. 1520\/50-1620) was an Italian physician, astronomer, cosmographer, geographer and traveller. Details of his early life and education are debated; traditionally, he was born in Pordenone (Friuli) and graduated in medicine and philosophy in Padua. He frequented the courts of northern Italy and eventually settled in Florence. An extremely prolific author, Rosaccio wrote some 40 works on a variety of subjects, including medicine, human physiognomy, history, travel and especially the natural sciences. He also published some free-standing planispheres and maps.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n \u003cp\u003e‘The six ages of the world’ is a treatise which summarises the history of the world according to the ‘six ages’ of the traditional Christian chronology. It is divided into six section, each dedicated to one age: the creation of the sky and the earth by God (first), Adam and his descendants (second), the Flood (third), the monarchies (fourth), the life of Christ (fifth), the lives of the Popes and Princes up until year 1596 (sixth). Within each section, Rosaccio lists the most remarkable events year by year: e.g. the accession and death of popes and emperors, plagues and faminse, and countless bizarre and prodigious events (in year 600, in Rhodes it rained blood, in Italy milk; in 1165, in Sicily a river was flowing upwards, in the Flanders a woman gave birth to snakes).\u003c\/p\u003e \n\n \u003cp\u003e‘Theatre of the sky and the earth’ is concerned with the structure universe and everything in it. Rosaccio describes the celestial spheres – illustrated in a large woodcut – their position and movement, and mentions the dimensions of Hell and Purgatory. The Earth is illustrated in a charming planisphere, and four double-page plates are dedicated to the known continents: Europe, Africa, Asia and America. Each continent is also described (a note about Africa reads: “Africa is named from the word ‘Afros’, which signifies ‘scare’, because of the quantity of venomous animals born in Libya and Numidia”). Rosaccio also talks about rivers, earthquakes and their causes, the properties of metals, water and air. A final section on astronomy describes comets, the sun and the moon, planets and constellations.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n \u003cp\u003e‘Discourses on eternity, age and time’ deals with time and how to measure it. The author describes the century, year, week, month and day, the four seasons and the ages of men, and provides a simple guide on how to use dominical letters and the ‘golden number’ to determine the day of the week for particular dates. Also included are a lunar calendar for the years 1594-1612, a solar calendar indicating the hour and minute of sunrise and midday for every day of every month, and a ‘Table of Planets’ showing which planet will be ‘the dominant planet’ for the years between 1494 and 1670.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ROSACCIO, Giuseppe","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859652682063,"sku":"L3956","price":4750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/IMG_4206-copy.jpg?v=1781793720"},{"product_id":"sacrobosco-johannes-de-with-regiomontanus-johannes-and-purbach-georg","title":"SACROBOSCO, Johannes de. [with] REGIOMONTANUS, Johannes. [and] PURBACH, Georg.","description":"\u003cp\u003eVery good, well-margined and handsomely illustrated copy of the first edition of this important collection on Ptolemaic astronomy intended for students, and the most widely used of the early modern period. Johannes de Sacrobosco (or Holywood, 1195-1256) was a monk and astronomer who taught at Paris. His ground-breaking works were extremely influential in the medieval period; they focused on astronomy and mathematics including the Hindu-Arabic numeral system, a study of the shortcomings of the Julian calendar (anticipating C16 debates) and his treatise ‘Sphaera mundi’. First published in 1472, it was reprinted dozens of times in Europe throughout the C15. It discusses the earth in relation to the geocentric Ptolemaic universe, touching on subjects including its physical composition, geometrical realization, its (as it were) sphericity, the revolution of the heavens and the zodiac in relation to sunrise and sunset, the meaning of zenith and climate zones. Johannes Regiomontanus (Müller von Königsberg, 1436-76) studied at Leipzig and Vienna, devoting himself to commentaries on ancient texts on arithmetic and astronomy. He established the first astronomical observatory in Nuremberg. His work argues against the ‘deliramenta’ of Gherardus Cremonensis’s Ptolemaic ‘Theorica Planetarum’, written in the C12 and the most important manual of astronomy used in Faculties of Arts. Structured as a dialogue between two scholars, it concerns calculations relating to very specific points of the Ptolemaic system, e.g., epicycles and longitude, with the help of geometrical diagrams. The last work—‘Theoricae novae planetarum’—was written by Georgius Purbach (von Peuerbach, 1423-61), an Austrian astronomer and mathematician, acquainted with Regiomontanus. It is a clear introduction to the Ptolemaic universe which discusses the sun and moon, theories of the polar axis and astronomical connections between the moon and the motions of other planets. The early C16 annotator of ‘Sphaera mundi’ was probably one of the ‘novicii adolescentes’ (young students) to whom the works were addressed. He applied sundry learning techniques, which shed light on the teaching of astronomy: the typically medieval and early modern interlinear paraphrasis (the rewriting of a concept using synonyms, e.g., ‘ascensu’ for ‘ortu’); marginal glosses (e.g., the astronomical concept of ‘annus bisextilis’, a clarification of the meaning of ‘opposition’ for the zodiac); and the clarification of sources (e.g., the specific book in which Euclid discusses the geometrical ‘sphaera’). A most interesting copy.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"SACROBOSCO, Johannes de. [with] REGIOMONTANUS, Johannes. [and] PURBACH, Georg.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859658613071,"sku":"L4008","price":19500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/IMG_5331-copy.jpg?v=1781793705"},{"product_id":"apianus-petrus-2","title":"APIANUS, Petrus.","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe scarce first edition of this lavishly illustrated work on cosmography, astronomy, cartography and navigation   a most famous Americanum and a ground-breaking landmark in the history of scientific illustration.  One of the first European books to depict and discuss North America, [equipped with] movable volvelles allowing the readers to interact with and use some of the charts and instrument layouts presented  .(MAA). \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n A pioneer in the popularization of astronomy and cartography, Apianus (1495-1552) studied mathematics at Leipzig and Vienna. His first printed work was a world map (1520), based on Waldseem.√º.ller. s famous gores   the second in print to use the name  America .  Cosmographicus Liber , which earned Apianus a professorship, was a very successful textbook, translated into most European languages throughout the C16 and later expanded by the mathematician Gemma Frisius. Largely based on Ptolemy, it begins with the definition of cosmography    a broad science of the Renaissance which set out to explain everything in the universe within a mathematical framework  (Barentine, p.147). In fact,  cosmography was fundamentally concerned with using projective geometry to connect the heavens and the Earth, and, frequently, to relate solar motion, terrestrial location and time  (Whipple, p.58). Part I discusses the movements of the spheres, the 5 climatic zones, the elevation of the poles, how to calculate latitude and longitude, as well as the distance between places, using instruments, eclipses and the winds. Part II deals with the four continents (with a chapter on America), providing the latitude and longitude of major locations, including Guadalupe, Brazil, Cuba, Cabo de Buenaventura and Rio de Santiago, how to calculate the hours of day and night, as well as heights, etc. A great part is devoted to the use of contemporary astronomical instruments, e.g., the armillary sphere and the  .scala geometrica. . The C16 annotator of this copy noted down the dates of the winter and summer solstice,  8 days before the Kalendae of January  (December 25) and  8 days before the Kalendae of July  (June 24), with reference to the Julian calendar.  \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Appearing for the first time, the book .s volvelles.   revolving paper instruments printed onto separate sheets, cut and assembled either at the press or by the binder or the reader   were  its main selling point and principal innovation . Whereas earlier books of similar content were largely constructed around sets of tabular information, Apianus s volvelles turned the pages of  Cosmographicus Liber  into functional computers, enabling skilled users to make calculations involving navigation, distances and time  (Barentine, p.152). They were often, as the 4 in this copy, printed or mounted on scrap paper from other books (Drennan, p.320). The 2 movable parts glued to the last verso were intended to be detached and used to build a small nocturnal clock, the model for one of several instruments Apianus was selling at his workshop.  The symbiosis between cosmography and instrument-design not only made cosmographical treatises depict actual instruments, but also led to occasional brass implementation of paper instruments contained in these treatises  (.Vanden Broecke,. p.141). \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Published 31 years after the first announcement in print of Columbus s discovery,  Cosmographicus Liber   illustrates America in a woodcut globe (p.2) and famously, for the first time, on a volvelle (p.63). It also includes .a chapter .about America   discovered in 1497 , a date shared by other German sources, with no mention of Columbus - which begins:  America, now the Fourth part of the Earth, is so called after its discoverer, Americo Vespucci.   it is referred to as an Island as it is surrounded by the sea.  The 1-page account describes the native inhabitants as  anthropophagi , mentions their traditional clothing, customs, cults and rites, as well as the names of surrounding islands (e.g., Cuba).  \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n This is one of two recorded variants of the first edition. All copies of this variant we have seen bear the same editorial revisions on p.23, in this copy in the same hand as the BL copy. A total of 4 volvelles plus the (very uncommon) 2 movable parts are called for by Borba de Moraes and found in the BL copy and in the present. Alden cites 4 volvelles, and no movable parts; the Whipple, Harrisse and Ortroy only call for 3 volvelles.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"APIANUS, Petrus.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859660775759,"sku":"L3234","price":64500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L3234-7.jpg?v=1781793701"},{"product_id":"aleandro-hieronymus","title":"ALEANDRO, Hieronymus.","description":"\u003cp\u003e.A very good, unsophisticated copy, in contemporary binding, of the first edition of this most interesting, beautifully illustrated work on the interpretation of the Tabula Heliaca and ancient solar cults. Nephew of his namesake the Vatican librarian under Leo X and secretary to Cardinal Barberini, the antiquarian Girolamo Aleandro the Younger (1574-1629) was inspired to write this commentary on the symbolism of the Tabula Heliaca after seeing the marble tablet, with a symbolic depiction of the sun god Mithras, at the Roman house of Asdrubale Mattei. His interest in Mithraic cults led him to correspond with Peiresc. Aleandro studied the tablet s  symbolic theology  in relation to  the original unity of god under the image of the sun  ( sol invictus ), which he linked to the four original elements and the origin of the world (Hafner, p.112). The sundry sections of the work discuss solar deities   the Sun with rays around his head, Apollo, Bacchus, Hercules, Mercurius, Encarpus and Lyra   using dozens of famous and obscure ancient Greek and Latin sources. Aleandro mentions that such tablets were found in stacks at ancient crossroads, compares the sun iconography of the Tabula to that of ancient coins and gemstone signets (illustrated), and connects its interpretation to the four Apollinean arts, the four elements, the four ages of the world and the four seasons. The handsome larger illustrations show the Tabula Heliaca, as well as a marble tablet preserved in Rome with Apollo, Mercurius and a young Bacchus astride a goat, and another (to which the appendix is dedicated) showing 5 ancient figures with zodiac signs, which Aleandro saw at the Padua house of Paolo Gualdo. A learned, elegantly printed work.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ALEANDRO, Hieronymus.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859667886415,"sku":"L3837a","price":2250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L3837a-1.jpg?v=1781793686"},{"product_id":"gassendi-pierre","title":"GASSENDI, Pierre.","description":"\u003cp\u003e.A very good copy, of illustrious English provenance, of the second edition of this most successful biography of great early modern astronomers, first published in 1654   an early example of science presented to a popular audience. Pierre Gassendi (1592-1655) was a French Jesuit, philosopher and mathematician, an opponent of Descartes s rationalism, and a follower of empiricism against Aristotelianism. His important experiments spanned astronomy (he was the first to observe the transit of Mercury across the Sun), the measurement of the speed of sound, and the use of camera obscura to measure the diameter of the moon.  Privately he was in favour of Copernicanism, but as a Jesuit priest in Catholic France, he found it unwise to make his sympathy publicly known. He therefore supported the Tychonian world system as a compromise approved by the Church, if only as a substitute of the heliocentric system he believed in  (Kragh, p.124).  \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n .The present work is mostly devoted to the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe (1546-1601), handsomely portrayed on the engraved frontispiece; to his biography, in six parts, are appended those of Copernicus, Peuerbach and Regiomontanus, added at the publisher s request. Gassendi focused, in non-judgemental manner, mainly on his life and work, including excursions into his side-interests in alchemy, astrology and Neo-Latin poetry, and his family history. Brahe theorized the  geo-heliocentric' system - here illustrated with a woodcut diagram - in which the Sun and Moon orbited the Earth, whilst the other planets orbited the Sun. However, Gassendi s biography discussed mostly Brahe s talent for empirical astronomical observations, organized chronologically and described in detail, from the instruments he used. Anecdotes revealing Brahe s known eccentricities include how he lost his nose in an argument in 1566, often wearing a prosthesis in later years, and how he owned a trained pet elk who died falling from the stairs, after drinking beer. The last three, much shorter biographies discuss in similar fashion the life and observations of Copernicus (1473-1543), with a diagram illustrating his heliocentric theory (with a woodcut); the Austrian astronomer Georg von Peuerbach (1423-61), a supporter of the Ptolemaic model and author of  Theoricae Novae Planetarum  (1472), the standard astronomy text for several decades; and the German astronomer Regiomontanus (1436-76), whose discoveries provided the basis for Copernicanism. Lord Macclesfield's was the great English scientific library of his day. He was a pall-bearer at Newton's funeral.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"GASSENDI, Pierre.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57859668410703,"sku":"L4093","price":3250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L4093-2.jpg?v=1781793683"},{"product_id":"kepler-johannes-5","title":"KEPLER, Johannes.","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst collected edition - a comprehensive version of Johannes Kepler s theory of comets. It gathers three astronomical works, revised, translated or enlarged from the original, based on his research for the comets of 1607 (i.e., later Halley s, very bright and with a double tail) and 1618 (which he was the first to see through a telescope). The German astronomer Kepler (1571-1630) was assistant of Tycho Brahe at Prague and the mathematician to three Holy Roman Emperors. He famously adapted the Copernican theory by suggesting planets had orbits that were elliptical, nor circular, with the Sun, and he explained the speed by which planets move around the ellipsis. In  De cometis , Kepler sought, following Brahe, to overcome the Aristotelian theory by which comets were not considered  heavenly bodies  but phenomena caused by changes in the weather (Cantamessa).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eKepler and Galileo were united in continuing the work of Copernicus, Galileo by astronomical observation and Kepler by development of Copernican ideas. In 1610 their connection was close as Kepler helped Galileo in his struggle for  Sidereus Nuncius . Eight years later they famously differed on the origin of comets‚Äö the case of the three comets discussed here. Galileo defended their earthly origin, Kepler maintained their origin as cosmic and of course was right. In fact, he thought comets as  spherical transparent objects refracting the sun s rays  (Heidarzadeh, p.65). The collection begins with  Astronomicus , on theorems of the movement and trajectory of comets, and a discussion on their aspect (including tails) and height. The folding diagram detailing the trajectory of the Halley comet shows how he sought to map its route through the heavens, making its trajectory a straight line. Part II,  Physicus , focuses on the physiology of comets, i.e., their nature and formation, and the composition of their tails. Part III,  Astrologicus , discusses the interpretation or meaning of the 1607 comet, originally published in German, with an added section on the comet of 1618. By applying the rules of judicial astrology, which he criticised without rejecting completely, Kepler examined the influence of comets from the present and the past, connecting, for instance, the 1607 comet to the fatal illness of Empress Anne. A most important work.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"KEPLER, Johannes.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868670337359,"sku":"L4066","price":45000.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/kepler-4.jpg?v=1781793665"},{"product_id":"bonatus-guidus","title":"BONATUS, Guidus.","description":"\u003cp\u003e.Remarkably good, crisp copy, in two vols, of the first edition of this very handsome, illustrated work on astronomy, and much easier to read and use in this unusual two-volume format. The early provenance, and probably the binding, can be traced to the wealthy Austrian monasteries of Lilienfeld and Melk. The most famous astrologer of the C13, the Friar Minor Guido Bonatti, from Forl‚àö¬®, worked for major figures like Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, and Guido da Montefeltro, and for several civic governments including Florence. He famously features in Dante s  Divine Comedy , residing in hell as a punishment for his astrological practices. Written in 1277,  Liber Astronomiae  - his most famous work   was a standard textbook until the early C16. This first edition is illustrated with nearly 200 handsome woodcuts of planets and constellations. Divided in 6 parts, it begins with a defence of astrology and the principle that astrologers need not be expert astronomers, as well as an introduction to judicial astrology, the properties and aspects of the stars, planets and the zodiac, and the 12 Houses. Part II introduces the theory of the positions, attractions and movements of the planets for devising horoscopes. Part III goes into the detail of horoscope calculations, focusing on each of the 12 Houses and providing  judicia  for a variety of events such as breastfeeding, conception, the building of churches, buying and selling, theft, hunting, etc. Part IV discusses the Revolutions of the planets and astrological predictions of future events, with chapters on comets and the significance of their tail. Part V focuses on nativities, and how the planets influence the body and mind of individuals, as shown in their horoscope, as well as their lives (e.g., number of children, time of marriage or death, etc.). Part VI discusses weather forecasts, especially rains, through astrological predictions, as  astrology was as close as it got to science concerning weather forecast, well into the C18  (Cantamessa). A very attractive copy.. \u003cbr\u003e\n. \u003cbr\u003e\n..A 14-leaf Registrum, with a separate title and prefatory letter, here not present, was produced during printing and is frequently absent (e.g., two of the three BL copies). Its presence is now commonly taken as indicating a later issue..\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BONATUS, Guidus.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868679119183,"sku":"L4202\/1-2","price":45000.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/IMG_4286-copy.jpg?v=1781793643"},{"product_id":"delmedigo-joseph-solomon-2","title":"DELMEDIGO, Joseph Solomon.","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst edition of this extensively illustrated, most important Hebrew work on astronomy, mathematics, natural philosophy, music and geometry, written by ‘the first Jewish Copernican’, student of Galileo and a major influence on Spinoza. Joseph Solomon Delmedigo (1591-1655) was a rabbi, physician and polymath from Crete. At Padua, he studied medicine and attended Galileo’s astronomy lectures 1609-10. After a brief stay in Venice, he journeyed the Middle East, eventually settling in Amsterdam in 1623, where he wrote ‘Sefer Elim’, his only known work. It is divided into two separately titled parts—‘Sefer Elim’ and ‘Ma’ayan Ganim’—the latter subdivided into four essays on astronomy, mathematics, the consonance of music and biblical passages in relation to the scientific method. ‘Sefer Elim’ is a reply to 12 broad and 70 specific questions posed in letters, reproduced at the beginning, by the Karite scholar Zerah. Delmedigo’s answer discusses Aristotelian natural philosophy, spherical trigonometry, celestial bodies, comets and the workings of the lever, illustrated with diagrams and illustrations. Whilst Delmedigo’s in-depth analysis of Copernican theories was left unpublished and is now lost, his circumscribed references in ‘Sefer Elim’ are nevertheless revealing. ‘Part of Delmedigo’s support for the Copernican model is to be found in his criticism of the Aristotelian conception of the universe […] By rejecting this idea, Delmedigo not only took on the accepted scientific views of the past, but also challenged the Jewish model of the universe, which was based on Aristotle’; he also stated that the universe was possibly infinite and included other solar systems (Brown, ‘New Heavens’, 70). He mentions studying with ‘his teacher Galileo’, as he describes their observation of the sky and planets through the famous telescope; however, scholars believe Delmedigo became familiar with Copernicanism elsewhere, as until 1610 Galileo was not publicly or privately endorsing this theory (Brown, ‘New Heavens’, 74). The epistemological inconsistencies of ‘Sefer Elim’ derive from Delmedigo’s complex relationship to the Scientific Revolution and Cabala-informed Jewish culture, resistant to the new method. As proved by the very title—a reference to the fountains of wisdom—he linked ‘Jewish-hermetic revelation with Copernican cosmology and sought material objects such as ancient Hebrew mss that, purportedly, maintained a stronger connection to the revelation’, seeking to connect Jewish theology and Copernicanism (Ben-Zaken, ‘Cross-Cultural’, 78). The work ‘became suspect in the eyes of the elders of the Sephardic community, and a committee was formed to investigate the matter. The book had to be translated orally into Portuguese’; the printer had to declare officially that certain portions would not be published, though by then Delmedigo had moved elsewhere (Heller, ‘C17 Hebrew Book’, 471).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis copy preserves the Latin dedication to the reader, often absent.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"DELMEDIGO, Joseph Solomon.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868705038671,"sku":"L4443","price":19500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/IMG_6368.webp?v=1781793436"},{"product_id":"hildebrand-wolfgang","title":"HILDEBRAND, Wolfgang","description":"\u003cp\u003e.An early edition of this curious and wide-ranging work on  natural magic , by the obscure Hildebrand (ca.1571-1635), a near contemporary of Paracelsus, Cardanus and Comenius. His most successful work, it is arranged thematically and divided in four books. Taking  magia  as a general term for scientific pursuits such as alchemy, astronomy and even theology, it explores  recipes for colouring the hair, improving the memory, making a man merry or melancholy. To see by night, one rubs one s eyes with the blood of a bat   other secrets are to see marvels in one s dreams, not to get too intoxicated to quickly, to make men seem headless or with the heads of animals . The fourth book specialises in artificial magic and contains chapters on making steel pliant, on glass, fireworks, waters, artificial gems and an artificial flying dragon. . \u003cbr\u003e\n. \u003cbr\u003e\n..Telle considered Hildebrand  a cunning robber who compiled foreign texts and thereby achieved a literary achievement that was considered valid at the time . Much of the text comprises passages from other works, often quoted in the original language, including an extensive section of the Quaestiones from Kramer s  Malleus Maleficarum . Other authors of note include Gesner, Albertus Magnus, Jan Baptists von Helmont. Although the majority of scientific, medical and alchemical literature at the time was in Latin, a large portion of the present work, remarkably, is written in German. This made the work more accessible and followed the popular humanist philosophy of the Renaissance, which placed emphasis on human autonomy and progress and instigated a large-scale move towards printing in the vernacular. Its popularity was enduring, going through 10 editions during the 17.th. century alone..\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"HILDEBRAND, Wolfgang","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868705694031,"sku":"L4455","price":2250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/IMG_5371-rotated.jpg?v=1781793434"},{"product_id":"fulke-william-1","title":"FULKE, William","description":"\u003cp\u003eScarce edition of this most interesting work on meteorological phenomena. Fulke (1536\/7-1589) began his career studying law, later entered Clifford s Inn and was admitted to the Inner Temple in 1560. He later embraced radical puritan views and became preacher at St John s, Cambridge, before being named Master of Pembroke College in 1578. Besides his academic interests in theology and oriental languages, he also wrote two scientific works. In his  Antiprognosticon  (1560), he made a clear-cut distinction between astronomy and astrology.  In denying that astrology had any truly scientific basis, Fulke's was one of the most radical attacks on astrology in this period. In his work on meteorology, he entered another field in which superstition and appeal to supernatural forces were common. As a neo-Aristotelian scientist, Fulke explained even the most unusual physical phenomena in terms of natural causation, while, as a theologian, he saw this as entirely compatible with belief in divine providence. These scientific works were important in promoting a strictly rational approach to the physical world, while denying any conflict between true science and true religion.  (DNB).  \u003cbr\u003e\n The present work is divided into 5 books, the first is dedicated to exploring the causes of meteors, with the next four categorising them according to the four elements: fire, water, earth and air. According to Aristotle, everything below the Moon s sphere is created from these 4 substances, including meteors, which were believed to originate from this sublunary space. With reference to the ancient writers, Fulke explores the causes of various types of weather, including rain and why it is not salty, as well thunder, lighting and rainbows.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"FULKE, William","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868705759567,"sku":"L4315","price":5750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/IMG_6264.webp?v=1781793434"},{"product_id":"rosselli-cosimo","title":"ROSSELLI, Cosimo.","description":"\u003cp\u003e.First edition of this fascinating and wonderfully illustrated treatise on memory, utilising visual aids including Heaven, Hell, and the celestial spheres   illustrating a memory system inspired by Dante s Divine Comedy   anatomical and zoological illustrations, and tables of contemporary objects and rebuses, as well as Persian and Hebrew alphabets, and an alphabetical sign language employing the hands. The author was a Dominican friar from Florence who died the year before this work, apparently his only output, was published. This copy has been extensively annotated by a contemporary, likely monastic reader, including four alphabetical memory lists, of ecclesiastical dignities, place names, body parts and corporeal qualities, and instruments and apparatuses... . \u003cbr\u003e\n. \u003cbr\u003e\n..The Ars memoriae or art of memory has a history stretching to antiquity; the Greek poet Simonides is supposed to have invented it to memorise poems. Aristotle wrote extensively on memory, which the medieval scholastics understood as necessary for comprehension by the intellect and a useful tool for use in disputations. The Renaissance humanists, similarly, via Cicero and Quintilian, understood memoria as one of the five crucial parts of rhetoric. Rosselli s work precedes the most famous Renaissance works of memory, by the Italian polymath Giordano Bruno (1548-1600), by several years. Bruno s earliest book of memory, De umbris idearum, published in 1582, included a Dantesque vision of Hell, the celestial and terrestrial orders, and Heaven. Both Dominicans, Rosselli and Bruno were participating in a tradition of memory treatises associated with the religious order, the earliest being Johannes Romberch s Congestorium artificiosae memoriae of 1520, which also contained a Dantesque mnemonic system. . \u003cbr\u003e\n. \u003cbr\u003e\n..Rosselli begins with a prose description of Hell, accompanied by mnemonic Latin epigrams and quatrains by a fellow Dominican who was also an Inquisitor,  giving an impressive air of great orthodoxy to the artificial memory  (Frances Yates, The Art of Memory (London: 1966), p. 122). Hell is illustrated with a superb woodcut (C4r) showing Lucifer in the centre surrounded by concentric circles of heretics, Jews, idolators, hypocrites, those guilty of the seven deadly sins, all encompassed by the river Styx, various Limbos, and Purgatory.  As Rosselli cheerfully observes,  the variety of punishments, inflicted in accordance with the diverse nature of the sins, the different situations of the damned, their varying gestures, will much help memory and give many loci  (Yates, p. 122). This is accompanied by descriptions with woodcut illustrations of the celestial and terrestrial spheres, and of Paradise or the Heavenly Jerusalem, the latter illustrated with a woodcut (K1v, duplicated N3r) showing Cherubim and Seraphim, the Tree and Fountain of Life, the Throne of Christ, Seat of the Virgin, and regions inhabited by children, Hebrew saints, martyrs, virgins, angels, princes, etc. The remainder consists of lists and sub-lists, often alphabetised: planets, the zodiac signs and months of the year; precious stones, gems and minerals derived from Albertus Magnus; animals, including those that live underground, quadrupeds, birds and insects, etc.; trees and plants, including fruit, gum, legumes and common names for herbs; the names of artificers and workmen; and ancient philosophers and thinkers, physicians and poets.. \u003cbr\u003e\n. \u003cbr\u003e\n..The contemporary reader (or readers) of this copy employed an elegant script possibly in two iterations, one of which is miniscule and barely legible. Evidently returning to the book on several occasions (see different tones of ink), they frequently corrected the woodcuts, headers and content of the book, and cross-referenced its various sections. The annotator using miniscule script extensively glossed Rosselli s lists of philosophers and gemstones, while the main annotator, in large script, not only added to the author s lists and annotated the woodcut tables, but also created their own alphabetical lists for memorisation. These are of ecclesiastical benefices; learned positions such as orator, jurisconsultus, etc.;  corporeal qualities  such as gibbosus, obesus, splendidus, etc.; and a fascinating and extensive list of hundreds of words, spreading over several pages, of  various instruments,  apparatuses, buildings, materials, tools, body parts, etc., apparently demonstrating some extremely obscure Latin vocabulary, and including baptisterium, candelabrum, enchiridion, forceps, membrana, refrigeratorium, tormentum, vinum album, xystus (colonnade) and zythus (a kind of liquor)..\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ROSSELLI, Cosimo.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868722962767,"sku":"L4299","price":3950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/titlepage-1.png?v=1781793338"},{"product_id":"galilei-galileo-4","title":"GALILEI, Galileo.","description":"\u003cp\u003e.Rare first edition of Galileo's earliest published endorsement of the Copernican theory. Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) was one of the greatest mathematicians and astronomers of all time. His cutting-edge discoveries revolutionised early modern physics and eventually provoked the famous condemnation of the Holy Inquisition. Amongst many other acknowledgements, he was a member of the prestigious Academy of Lincei, a pioneering scientific fellowship established in Rome by Federico Cesi. Galileo wrote the .Istoria e dimostrazione .in the form of three letters to his fellow academician Marcus Welser of Augsburg.. \u003cbr\u003e\n. \u003cbr\u003e\n..Based on telescopic observation of their motion, Galileo concluded that the sun rotated on a fixed axis like the Earth and other planets, thus embracing and somehow overstepping Copernicus's view. He also insisted that the newly observed sunspots appeared on the surface of the sun and were not its satellites, as the traditional Aristotelian interpretation suggested. In his usual combative tone, he maintained: 'this planet also, perhaps no less than horned Venus, agrees admirably with the great Copernican system on which propitious winds now universally are seen to blow...' His further discovery of the Satellites of Jupiter is described and illustrated with 5 plates. The work also includes Galileo's first written account of the phases of Venus and Mercury as well as some considerations on the many puzzling mysteries surrounding Saturn. His circumstantial approval of the Copernican model anticipated many of his later theories and the related political and religious consequences. . \u003cbr\u003e\n. \u003cbr\u003e\n..\"Galileo's letters on sunspots was published at Rome in 1613 under the auspices of the Lincean Academy. In this book Galileo spoke out decisively for the Copernican system for the first time in print. In the same book he found a place for his first published mention of the concept of conservation of angular momentum and an associated inertial concept.\" DSB. . \u003cbr\u003e\n. \u003cbr\u003e\n..This issue, the so-called 'transalpine issue' does not reprint the three letters written to Welser by Christoph Scheiner about 1611. The two issues of the editio princeps of .Istoria e dimostrazioni .were published at the same time; apparently, one was meant to be distributed in Italy (where there would be no copyright dispute on Scheiner's letters), whereas the other was tailored for export. \u003cbr\u003e\n.The edition bears a beautiful, engraved portrait of Galileo within architectural border, drawn by the famous artist Francesco Villamena (1564-1624). Two putti are representations of astronomical science: one is measuring with a compass, the other is observing the sky with a telescope. .\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"GALILEI, Galileo.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868724339023,"sku":"L4898","price":53950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}]}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/collections\/Screenshot_2026-06-12_at_6.06.42_PM.png?v=1781284329","url":"https:\/\/sokol-books-ltd.myshopify.com\/collections\/astronomy.oembed","provider":"Sokol Books Ltd","version":"1.0","type":"link"}