Lot 396

APIAN, PETRUS

ASTRONOMICUM CESAREUM

Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photography

Auction: 31 January 2019 at 11:00 GMT

£600

Description

[Ingolstadt]: Edition Leipzig, 1967. Folio, first facsimile edition taken from the copy in the Gotha State Library, dated 1540, publisher's brown morocco gilt; with Diedrich Wattenberg's accompanying volume, both contained in slipcase

Footnote

Note: This is an unusual, if not unique, facsimile copy of the Astronomicum Caesareum. About the facsimile of the work, Owen Gingerich writes: "Although their facsimile is a triumph of modern printing technology, the reproduction as issued is by no means a precision instrument. The reason is simple: the volvelles have been put down without insight into the subtlety of Apianus's original design...there are even more conspicuous errors in the facsimile. The assembly of disks found in folio C of the facsimile belongs on F11..." [Owen Gingerich. Apianus's Astronomicum Caesareum and its Leipzig Facsimile in Journal for the History of Astronomy, 1971]. With this in mind, this copy of the facsimile has been somewhat 'corrected' in order to properly situate the volvelles.