Sphera Volgare Novamente Tradotta con Molte Notande Additioni di Geometria, Cosmographia, Arte navicatoria, et Stereometria, Proportioni, et Quantita delli Elementi, Distanze, Grandeze, et Movimenti di Tutti li Corpi Celesti, Cose Certamente Rade et Maravigliose.
4to (20.3 cm x 14.5 cm). [1] leaf (woodcut frontispiece), [1] leaf (woodcut title-page, with additional woodcut frontispiece on verso), [104] pp. including full-page heraldic woodcut, [2] pp. of errata, [1] additional leaf with the faint outlines of a wheel chart, identical to the BnF copy. The [I] gathering in our copy is misbound—a fact that was also noted by an early reader of this book, since he numbered the leaves 1-4 in manuscript in the lower right corner. Bound in 17th century yap-edged vellum with manuscript title to spine. Very occasional contemporary manuscript notations in text, particularly in section on navigation. Extreme lower blank margin of first leaf cropped to obscure ownership inscription.
Scarce first edition of the first Italian-language Sacrobosco, composed by the Servite monk Mauro and containing an unusually rich program of illustrations. The work is further augmented by Mauro’s “additioni” to the basic text of Sacrobosco and several appendices for the benefit of his vernacular reader, including the “secrets of the art of navigation”. The edition at hand is presented in a clear pedagogical manner, providing the reader first with a chart of the contents of Sacrobosco’s treatise and a graphic legend explaining the use of symbols within the text. The work itself is illustrated with some 90 woodcuts, many full-page, including the rarely found final leaf containing a pointer-figure which Mortimer rightly believes to be a volvelle. Graphically the present work has drawn numerous comments from scholars of the period: the full-page arms of Charles V on the first leaf, for example, intrigues Mortimer (“this printing of a frontispiece is unusual at this time”). The globe displayed on the title page, adapted from a design of 1517, is notable for its depiction of South America (“Ametrica”), while the globe on H3r also shows a large but unidentified landmass to the north of this continent. Both early depictions of America are duly noted by Harisse (BAV 219). Mauro’s Sphera volgare was dedicated to the Spanish mathematician Juan de Ortega (1480-1568), who by the preface appears to have been residing in Florence at the time. Curiously, the full-page woodcut with Ortega’s coat of arms has been relegated to the rear of the book, while the arms of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V occupy the first leaf—an interesting problem of patronage for a book which appears otherwise unconnected to Charles. Another issue of Mauro’s work in the same year is noted by Mortimer under the imprint of Stefano de’ Niciolini da Sabbio. The present copy is bound with the first edition of Dialogo del flusso et reflusso del mare d’Alseforo Talascopio (1561) of Girolamo Borro (1512-1592), one of the earliest works on tides, rare but incomplete; and with Dialoghi di Pietro Messia (1557), a translation from Spanish into Italian of the dialogues of Pedro Mexía (1497-1551) and the first Italian reference to Magellan’s circumnavigation of the globe. * Adams I, H738; Alden/Landis 537/18; Brunet V.22; Church 75; Mortimer 452. See also Sybille Paulus, Wissenschaftliche Textsorten in der italienischen Renaissance (Tübingen, 2005); and Lynn Thorndike, The Sphere of Sacrobosco and its Commentators (Chicago, 1949).
[BOUND WITH:] BORRO, Girolamo. Dialogo del flusso et reflusso del mare d'Alseforo Talascopio. Lucca, per il Busdrago, 1561. [4], 83, [1] pp.
[AND WITH:] MEXÍA, Pedro. Dialoghi di Pietro Messia tradotti novamente di spagnolo in volgare da Alfonso d'Ulloa. Venice, Plinio Pietrasanta, 1557. [8], 125, [11] pp.
Price: $6,850.00