Details
EGNATIO DANTI (1536-1586)
Trattato dell'uso et della fabbrica dell'astrolabio. Florence: Giunti, 1569. 4° (218 x 136mm). Woodcut Medici arms with globe on title repeated on A3v, woodcut diagrams in text, 7 large historiated woodcut initials. (Occasional slight soiling and staining.) 17th-century calf, spine gilt in compartments, boards with gilt- and blind-ruled borders, gilt arms of Comte de Courson [Olivier 1463, fer 1], yellow edges (rebound, retaining original upper and lower panels and spine). Provenance: Coignet de la Thuilerie, comte de Courson (Gaspard, 1596-1653, French diplomat, ambassador in Venice and the Netherlands; or his son Henri, d.1696; binding).
FIRST EDITION. THE EARLIEST ITALIAN ASTRONOMICAL TREATISE IN THE VERNACULAR. Born to a family of renowned mathematicians, Danti was employed by Cosimo I de' Medici, who was so pleased by his cosmographer's work that he requested him to leave his Dominican monastery to reside in his palace. After having constructed an equinoctial armillary on the façade of Santa Maria Novella, which enabled him to observe the 1574 vernal equinox on 11 March, and a large gnomon in Bologna to observe the equinox, Danti later drew up a topographical map of the papal states and worked intensively in Rome, where he reformed the calendar and built a meridian at the Vatican. In his first publication, Danti -- anticipating Tycho Brahe -- approached very closely the obliquity of the ecliptic: indeed, the Propositione XXX gives an angle of 23° 28 min while modern calculations measure 23° 32 min. Adams D-123; Delfiol-Camerini 412; Houzeau & Lancaster I, 3288 ('Rare'); Riccardi I, 389.1 ('Raro').
Trattato dell'uso et della fabbrica dell'astrolabio. Florence: Giunti, 1569. 4° (218 x 136mm). Woodcut Medici arms with globe on title repeated on A3v, woodcut diagrams in text, 7 large historiated woodcut initials. (Occasional slight soiling and staining.) 17th-century calf, spine gilt in compartments, boards with gilt- and blind-ruled borders, gilt arms of Comte de Courson [Olivier 1463, fer 1], yellow edges (rebound, retaining original upper and lower panels and spine). Provenance: Coignet de la Thuilerie, comte de Courson (Gaspard, 1596-1653, French diplomat, ambassador in Venice and the Netherlands; or his son Henri, d.1696; binding).
FIRST EDITION. THE EARLIEST ITALIAN ASTRONOMICAL TREATISE IN THE VERNACULAR. Born to a family of renowned mathematicians, Danti was employed by Cosimo I de' Medici, who was so pleased by his cosmographer's work that he requested him to leave his Dominican monastery to reside in his palace. After having constructed an equinoctial armillary on the façade of Santa Maria Novella, which enabled him to observe the 1574 vernal equinox on 11 March, and a large gnomon in Bologna to observe the equinox, Danti later drew up a topographical map of the papal states and worked intensively in Rome, where he reformed the calendar and built a meridian at the Vatican. In his first publication, Danti -- anticipating Tycho Brahe -- approached very closely the obliquity of the ecliptic: indeed, the Propositione XXX gives an angle of 23° 28 min while modern calculations measure 23° 32 min. Adams D-123; Delfiol-Camerini 412; Houzeau & Lancaster I, 3288 ('Rare'); Riccardi I, 389.1 ('Raro').
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