About this Item
225 x 168 mm. (9 x 6 1/2"). [4] p.l., 155, [1], 56 pp. Contemporary limp vellum made from a 15th century manuscript (see below), flat spine with ink lettering, remnants of leather ties. In a new goatskin-backed clamshell box. Two folding woodcut astronomical charts showing the constellations in each hemisphere. Two late 16th or early 17th century ownership inscriptions on title, one inked out (see below). Brunet I, 375; USTC 152724 (the Greek edition). See also Emma Gee, "Aratus and the Astronomical Tradition," Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. Binding rather soiled, rumpled, and with vellum torn (or eaten?) away at three places at fore edge of front cover, wormtrail to the gutter for approximately half the volume (not affecting text), hardly noticeable dampstains (mostly marginal) affecting about two-thirds of the volume, but still an excellent copy with nothing approaching a fatal defect--the unrestored original binding solidly intact, the text extremely fresh and clean, the margins vast, and the two prized maps at the front in exceptionally fine condition. Featuring two striking woodcut celestial charts, this is an excellent copy of a scarce edition of two ancient works on astronomy and the constellations. The first is "Phaenomena et Prognostica" by the Greek poet Aratus of Soli (ca. 315 - 240 B.C.), which describes in verse the constellations and the use of the heavens in forecasting the weather. It appears here in Latin translations by three Roman authors: the famous orator Cicero (106-43 B.C.); fourth-century A.D. didactic poet Avienius; and general and politician Germanicus Caesar (15 B.C. - 19 A.D.), father of the emperor Caligula. As the stature of its classical translators suggests, this was an enormously popular work in the ancient world, with no fewer than 27 translations being released, and was widely commented on and regularly alluded to, even being quoted in the Bible (Acts 17:28). It remained the authoritative work on the constellations through the Medieval period, treated both as literature and a scientific jumping-off point: classicist Emma Gee writes that its prevalence makes "Phaenomena" "a cardinal point in the scientific tradition of the West." The second work is "De Astronomia," traditionally attributed to Gaius Julius Hyginus (ca. 64 B.C. 17 A.D.), author and superintendent of the Palatine library. "De Astronomia" lists the constellations, describing the stories surrounding them as well as the positions of the stars. It is a rich source of information about the mythology connected to the constellations and stars, in some cases being the only surviving source of the stories. The present edition of these works was edited and assembled by Guillaume Morel (1505-64), a printer and classical scholar who served as Greek printer to the French king from 1555 to his death. The folding plates are largely based on the 1541 celestial hemispheres of Johannes Honter (1498-1549), which were the first to present the heavens in the perspective they appear from earth, as opposed to the mirrored positions depicted on a celestial globe. The figures in the constellations are nicely rendered and surrounded by pleasing details such as the puffy-cheeked wind heads that flank the charts. Early provenance is worth a note here. The title page inscriptions (one scribbled through pretty thoroughly) seem both to be in the hand of a certain "Lebegue," who almost certainly is Claude Le Bègue (spelled various ways, d. 1611), a distinguished legal figure and head of a prominent family who was the royal attorney serving the French king in the district of Bourges. Another volume with his signature can be found in the Bibliothèque Municipale de Lyon (Shelfmark SJ X 432/116), and a third, a copy of Glareanus' "De VI Arithmeticae Practicae Speciebus," is currently advertised by the French dealer Hugues de Latude. Our copy has additional interest in the form of its binding. Just slightly visible through a separation in the front pastedo.
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