Friday, February 25, 2011

Highlights from our 2010 Sales: Sacrobosco, Vienna 1518




Sacrobosco, Johannes de.
Opusculũ de Sphaera clarissimi philosophi Ioannis de Sacro busto. Theoricae planetarũexcellentissimi Astronomi Georgii Purbachii Magistri Viennensis, quo Ionnes de Monte regio olim usus est præceptore. Figuræ item summa diligentia suis ubiq locis appositæ, ex quibus perfacile autoris sensus utrobiq intelligi porest.

Colophon on n5 verso: Impressum Viennæ Pannoniæ per IOannē Singrenium. Expensis uero LVCæ Alantsæ Bibliop. Vienneñ. Anno domini M.D.XVIII. pridie Idus Augusti. with device of Lucas Alantse on n6 recto.

74 non numbered leaves: ab6 c4 de6 f4 g-n6.

Not the earliest edition of Sacrobosco's astronomical text that we have sold, but so far the rarest. Shown here in its original binding of a late 15th-century vellum leaf from a religious manuscript.