1593 ASTROLABIUM by Christopher Clavius ILLUSTRATED ASTROMNOMY scarce ANTIQUE

Christophori Clavii Bambergensis e Societate Iesu

ASTROLABIUM

by  Christopher Clavius


Rome , Tipografia Gabiana for Bartolomeo Grassi ; 1593


4to: 6 1/2 by 8 3/4"

[32]-759 [= 749]-[4] pp.


Original sheep, gilt ornamental spine with raised bands, red sprayed edges

Title inner margin partly repaired. Some dampstaining on few pages, some foxing

FIRST EDITION of Clavius' important work on astrolabes.

Illustrated with many diagrams in-text and some full-page;
woodcut figuring an astrolabe on title.

With tables of the position of the sun in 1600-1603 and of the sinus.

According to Houzeau & Lancaster it is the first work which evokes prosthaphaeresis, i.e. an algorithm used in the late 16th-early 17th c. for approximate multiplication and division using formulas from trigonometry.


The Jesuit mathematician Clavius (1538-1612), translator of Euclides, was part of the Vatican commission and in charge to set the basis of a new calendar: the Gregorian.

As astronomer, Clavius opposed to Copernicus heliocentric model, even though he recognized to have problems with the Ptolemaic model.


- Ref. EDIT16 12681. - DBS II:1217:9. - Adams C-2093. - STC French p. 186. - Houzeau & Lancaster 3291.


-Provenance:  Pierre-François de Roubaix, "mayeur" of city and province of Mechelen (18th-c. manuscript entry).

Text in Latin

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