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PICCOLOMINI, Alessandro (1508-1578). Della sfera del mondo. – delle stelle fisse libro uno. Venice: Nicolò de Bascarini, 1552.
Third edition of Piccolomini's De la sfera del mondo, which was originally published in 1540. The first part is a traditional Ptolemaic-Aristotelian geocentric cosmography, but the appendix, entitled De le stelle fisse, contains the first star atlas to be published. It also introduces the practice of identification of stars by letter, which would later be adopted and expanded by Bayer. Adams P-1108; Houzeau and Lancaster 2491; Riccardi I(ii) 269.
2 parts in one, quarto (210 x 151mm). Woodcut printer's device on both titles, 47 full-page woodcut star maps (numbered I-XLVIII, no number XXIV), numerous diagrams, historiated initials (occasional wormhole/track mostly marginal, occasional marginal repairs, light stain or spots). 17/18th-century flexible vellum (spine repaired). Provenance: Giovanni Andrea Fasano, priest at Sant' Angelo dei Lombardi, convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie (17th-century title inscription) and another priest of the same convent (inscription on title verso, presumably his extensive notes on saying mass on endpapers) – some contemporary and later annotations.
Third edition of Piccolomini's De la sfera del mondo, which was originally published in 1540. The first part is a traditional Ptolemaic-Aristotelian geocentric cosmography, but the appendix, entitled De le stelle fisse, contains the first star atlas to be published. It also introduces the practice of identification of stars by letter, which would later be adopted and expanded by Bayer. Adams P-1108; Houzeau and Lancaster 2491; Riccardi I(ii) 269.
2 parts in one, quarto (210 x 151mm). Woodcut printer's device on both titles, 47 full-page woodcut star maps (numbered I-XLVIII, no number XXIV), numerous diagrams, historiated initials (occasional wormhole/track mostly marginal, occasional marginal repairs, light stain or spots). 17/18th-century flexible vellum (spine repaired). Provenance: Giovanni Andrea Fasano, priest at Sant' Angelo dei Lombardi, convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie (17th-century title inscription) and another priest of the same convent (inscription on title verso, presumably his extensive notes on saying mass on endpapers) – some contemporary and later annotations.
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