1550 LA SPHERE du MONDE by Alexandre Piccolomini ILLUSTRATED antique ASTRONOMY

La Sphere du Monde

(The Sphere of the World)

by Alexandre Piccolomini

Paris, Guillaume Cavellat; 1550

Limp vellum binding, with a flap and a cord

136 leaves

French Renaissance edition of the famous cosmographic treatise by Alexander Piccolomini, translated by Jacques Goupyl and printed in Paris by Guillaume Cavellat, whose printer's mark appears on the title. A major work of astronomical popularization in the 16th century, expounding the Ptolemaic conception of the cosmos, the structure of the celestial spheres, the terrestrial climes and astronomical phenomena in a language accessible to readers not versed in Latin.

The work is complete with its four books and abundantly illustrated with wood engravings in the text: armillary spheres, diagrams of climatic zones, meridians, zodiacal figures, demonstrations of eclipses and cosmographic diagrams, kept clean and well printed.

Faded dampstains and signs of use.

Eight leaves are missing (25 to 32) , provided in facsimiles;
the last leaf incomplete, partially supplemented in the same way.

Despite these structural defects, the copy remains solid, legible and representative of the humanist scientific dissemination of the mid-16th century.

size: 4.5 by 6.5"

Text in French
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