May 10, 2009
The most important 17th century text to popularize the theories of Copernicus
TWO OF THE GREAT CLASSICS OF ASTRONOMY IN 1 VOLUME: 1619 SACROBOSCO AND 1640 BLAEU
The Books:
[I]Sacro Bosco, Joannes de, fl. 1230. Sphaera Joannis de Sacrobosco emendata / Eliae Vineti Santonis Scholia in eandem Sphaeram, ab ipso auctore restituta, et annotationibus Jacobi Martini Pedemontani aucta ; Petri Nonii annotatio in caput de climatibus, eodem Vineto interprete. Compendium in Sphaeram per Pierium Valerianum Belunensem. Parisiis : apud Jacobum Quesnel, 1619. 8vo., 37, 190 p. : ill. (woodcuts), folding charts ; 17 cm x 11 cm., Printer’s device on title page. Another device, a griffin with the motto “Virtutis et gloriae, comes invidia”, appears on verso of p.37. Head-pieces; initials. Text printed in italic type, except for preface. Extensively Illustrated with woodcut diagrams throughout; volvelles present. Some browning, generally very good condition. A Very Rare and handsome edition; No copies at auction in 30 years. WorldCat and Copac cite only 1 copy at King’s College. Other copies located at Bibliothèque Municipale d’Amiens, SA 1939 A Bibliothèque Municipale de Rouen, I 2916, Fonds Cas Universidade de Coimbra (Portugal), UCBG R-16-10 Observatoire de Paris, Bibliothèque Bibliothèque Municipale de Rouen.
BOUND WITH….
[II]Blaeu, Willem Janszoon, 1571-1638.Guilielmi Blaeu Institutio astronomica de usu globorum & sphærarum cælestium ac terrestrium : duabus partibus adornata, una, secundum hypothesin Ptolemæi, per terram quiescentem, altera, juxta mentem N. Copernici, per terram mobilem / Latine reddita a M. Hortensio. Amsterdami : Apud Ioh. & Cornelium Blaeu, 1640. 8vo., [16], 246 p : ill. ; 17 cm x 11 cm., A very rare and early edition . Worldcat cites 8 Institutional copies. Early editions such as this one seldom appear on the market. As cited by the Catalogue Alphabétique des Textes Astrologiques Français (C.A.T.A.F.) this 1640 edition of the Institutio astronomica is the second Latin edition and the first posthumous edition after Blaue’s death in 1638.
Condition: BOTH VOLUMES COMPLETE and internally in very good condition, Blaeu top margin closely shaved, 19th century boards, spine worn, with partial loss., as depicted. [$6500]
Background:
The first work by Sacrobosco is a 1619 edition of his great , Tractatus de Sphaera, in which Sacrobosco discussed the Earth and its place in the Universe.
First written in 1230, it was required reading by students in all Western European universities for the next four centuries. This is a particularly rare and desirable edition, printed for the early 17th century French Universities and an edition contemporary with Galileo. It is complete with the scarce volvelles, a type of slide chart, paper construction, with rotating parts.
The second work is by the pre-eminent Dutch mapmaker Willem Janszoon Blaeu. It is a very rare 2nd Latin edition (the first being almost unattainable in today’s market). It was a classic handbook on the use of celestial and terrestrial globes, aimed in part for use by mariners. As a consequence of that it makes numerous references to Brazil and Latin America, in keeping with extensive Dutch trading interests. It is divided into two parts; the first covering the Ptolemaic system and the second focusing on the Copernican, which at the date of printing were both considering relevant and competing scientific hypothesis. It is the second part of the Institutio Astronomica
that is perhaps the most important text in popularizing the Copernican System and paving the way for its widespread acceptance.
Thorndike appropriately notes his in his great classic, the History of Magic and Experiment Science, that Hotensisus in the preface of the Latin edition states that “if the Coperican theory has been graphically presented sooner, as it had recently by Bleau, it would not have been condemned as absurb before it had been seen how it saved the phenomena, and that more probably than any other system. But because Copernicus himself was ‘too obscure in his writings to be understood by everyone,’… many condemned it as false without understanding it (Ref: “Post Copernican Astronomy” vol. VII, pg, 7.)
It is therefore remarkable that this Sammelband joins two important works of opposing traditions at a critical junction in the popularization and dissemination of the theories of modern astronomy. It combines the Sphere of Sacrobosco, the elementary textbook of its day whose strict adherence to the Ptolemaic system help create the intellectual inertia that
delayed scientific advancement more than religious opposition, with the Institution Astronomica that perhaps did more than any other 17th century work to create new momentum for the acceptance of Copernican theories.
