Hand-Drawn Horoscope
SACROBOSCO, Johannes de; Francesco GIUNTINI, editor.
Sphaera Ioannis de Sacro Bosco emendata. Cum additionibus in margine … collectis a Francisco Iunctino … Interserta etiam sunt Eliae Vineti Santonis egregia Scholia in eandem Sphaeram. Adiunximus eiusdem auctoris Computum Ecclesiasticum. Et Petri Noni Salaciensis demonstratione[m] eorum … eode[m] Vineto interprete. Antwerp, heirs of Arnold Birckmann, 1566.
8vo, pp. [xvi], 144, [64], last leaf blank; woodcut printer’s device to main title, woodcut vignette depicting an ouroboros to section title for De anni ratione, woodcut initials and numerous diagrams and illustrations; lacking volvelles for four diagrams, but a very good copy; bound in contemporary limp vellum, stubs from two pairs of alum-tawed ties; upper and rear covers with a contemporary manuscript horoscope and other astrological markings in manuscript, somewhat faded, contemporary manuscript annotations in Latin in a French hand to c. 75 pp., on front and rear flyleaves, and on inside lower cover, contemporary ownership inscription to verso of rear flyleaf ‘Hic liber est emptus ex pecunia Ludi. Andrieux’ (this book was bought with the money of Louis Andrieux) partially obscured.
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Sphaera Ioannis de Sacro Bosco emendata. Cum additionibus in margine … collectis a Francisco Iunctino … Interserta etiam sunt Eliae Vineti Santonis egregia Scholia in eandem Sphaeram. Adiunximus eiusdem auctoris Computum Ecclesiasticum. Et Petri Noni Salaciensis demonstratione[m] eorum … eode[m] Vineto interprete.
A richly annotated and illustrated copy of Sacrobosco’s textbook of astronomy, with additions by Élie Vinet and Pedro Nuñes, edited by Francesco Giuntini.
Joannes de Sacrobosco (died c. 1256) compiled his textbook on astronomy, explaining the use of the armillary sphere, for students at the University of Paris. It stayed in use, subjected to numerous commentaries and adaptations, until the mid-seventeenth century; it has been calculated that more than 350 editions were printed from 1472 onwards.
Pedro Nuñes (1502–1578) translated parts of De sphaera along with other astronomical texts into Portuguese; his Tratado da sphera was printed in 1537. His notes were translated and incorporated by Élie Vinet (1509–1587) into his Sphaera emendata (Paris, 1556); it is likely that Nuñes and Vinet were acquainted. Francesco Giuntini (1523–?1590) entered the fray in 1564 with an edition printed in Lyon, incorporating the work of Vinet and Nuñes, which is reprinted here. This 1566 Antwerp edition was also issued with Jean Richard’s name in the imprint.
This copy shows close engagement and expansion of the text by a contemporary scholar, with lengthy annotations across numerous pages. The annotations are in a small contemporary, seemingly French, hand, and while some of the notes reference words or phrases in the text, with some underlining of significant passages, many show a much more detailed engagement with the text, including calculations and annotations to diagrams, with the use of astrological symbols. The horoscope drawn on the upper cover of the binding, now somewhat faded, indicates a reader very much familiar with astrological practice.
USTC 404499; STCV 12926187; Cantamessa 7026; not in Adams, though there is a copy in the Whipple Museum.