Sacrobosco, J. de

Sphaera mundi

      Venice, J.B. Sessa, 1501In quarto, XIXth century half calf binding. Excellent on strong paper, cut short at the upper margin by the binder, affecting some of the pagenumbers.Richly illustrated throughout with woodcuts.*The fundamental astronomy text of the Middle Ages, and one of the earliest printed books on astronomy, the first edition appearing at Ferrara in 1472. Sacrobosco's origins are obscure but it is known that he was a canon regular of the order of St. Augustine at the monastery of Holywood, Nithsdale, Scotland, in the early part of the thirteenth century. He spent most of his later life as a professor of mathematics and astronomy at the university of Paris. (Honeyman Collection, part VI, 2718)