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MÜNSTER, Sebastian (1489-1552). Compositio horologiorum, in plano, muro, truncis, anulo, concavo, cylindro et variis quadrantibus, cum signorum zodiaci et diversarum horarum inscriptionibus. Basel: Henricus Petri, 1531.
4° (195 x 143mm). Title with woodcut illustration of sundials, 56 woodcuts in the text, some full-page, Petrus's device on verso of final leaf. (Lacks the folding plate of a wall sundial, title rehinged and repaired where stamp removed in lower corner, title also waterstained at inner margin and with slight tears, beginning and end quires rehinged, A2 with marginal repair, quire K misbound after L, some light marginal browning.) Modern half vellum and marbled boards. Provenance: annotations in a contemporary hand – Jesuit College Friburg, July 1664 (deleted inscription at head of title).
FIRST EDITION. Münster, best known for his Cosmographia universalis (1544), was not only a geographer but a mathematician and Hebraist. In this work on dialling, he reviewed prestigious literature on this ancient craft, incorporated recent innovations allowing for greater accuracy, and presented the theory, construction, and employment of both sundials and his own invention of the moon dial. The first German edition was published under the same imprint in 1537. As VD16 notes, the woodcuts on pp. 39, 166, 173, 177 (and the folding plate, which is seldom present) are ascribed to Hans Holbein the Younger. Adams M-1916; Brunet III, 1944; Burmeister, Sebastian Munster 49; Houzeau and Lancaster 11349; Zinner 1448.
4° (195 x 143mm). Title with woodcut illustration of sundials, 56 woodcuts in the text, some full-page, Petrus's device on verso of final leaf. (Lacks the folding plate of a wall sundial, title rehinged and repaired where stamp removed in lower corner, title also waterstained at inner margin and with slight tears, beginning and end quires rehinged, A2 with marginal repair, quire K misbound after L, some light marginal browning.) Modern half vellum and marbled boards. Provenance: annotations in a contemporary hand – Jesuit College Friburg, July 1664 (deleted inscription at head of title).
FIRST EDITION. Münster, best known for his Cosmographia universalis (1544), was not only a geographer but a mathematician and Hebraist. In this work on dialling, he reviewed prestigious literature on this ancient craft, incorporated recent innovations allowing for greater accuracy, and presented the theory, construction, and employment of both sundials and his own invention of the moon dial. The first German edition was published under the same imprint in 1537. As VD16 notes, the woodcuts on pp. 39, 166, 173, 177 (and the folding plate, which is seldom present) are ascribed to Hans Holbein the Younger. Adams M-1916; Brunet III, 1944; Burmeister, Sebastian Munster 49; Houzeau and Lancaster 11349; Zinner 1448.
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