La Sfera Del Mondo [And: Delle Stelle Fisse] Astronomy. Piccolomini, Alessandro (1508-1578)

A fine, attractive, and unsophisticated copy, bound in contemporary limp vellum (binding a bit rumpled, with small defects to the spine and nibbling to the upper edge -charming evidence of a hungry mouse.) The text is in excellent condition, very fresh, with trivial blemishes as follows: Leaf i1 with a clean tear in the text (no loss), lvs. k1-2 with contemporary marginal notes; small stain in lower margin of gathering O, a damp-stain in the lower margin of gathering P; leaf P2 with a small paper flaw affecting a few letters, trivial light foxing to the upper margin of a few gatherings, very light stain in lower margin of final 2 lvs. The book is illustrated with woodcut diagrams, illustrations of instruments, and 47 full-page woodcut star maps. Alessandro Piccolomini was professor of philosophy at the University of Padua from 1539 to 1543. In 1541, in a famous letter written to Pietro Aretino, he expounded his proposition that scientific works should be written in the vernacular. In 1540, Piccolomini popularized astronomy through the publication of two influential works, both written in Italian, "La Sfera del Mondo" (The Sphere of the World) and "Delle stelle fisse"(On the Fixed Stars). The latter work holds the distinction of being the first published star atlas. The beautiful, minimalist star charts depict 47 of the 48 Ptolemaic constellations without the fanciful imagery of the mythological zodiac figures. Piccolomini devised a novel system of varying the size and shape of the woodcut stars to show their magnitude, and of identifying the brightest stars by marking them with letters of the Latin alphabet. These innovations would be used by succeeding generations of atlas-makers, notably, in 1603, Johann Bayer (who would substitute Greek letters for Latin). The star maps include words indicating the position of the celestial pole (ex. "parte verso il polo") and the direction in which the constellations turns with the rotation of the celestial sphere. "Piccolomini's constellations were drawn face-on as they appear in the sky, rather than the mirror-image globe view of Dürer's [two single-sheet celestial hemispheres]. This made the atlas more readily usable by observers. In all, [Piccolomini's] charts plotted 621 stars. In the handbook he provided descriptions of each constellation and a mini-catalogue of the 455 brightest stars."(Ian Ridpath) Piccolomini's two works, especially the star atlas, with its clear depictions of the constellations and the easily-accessible vernacular text, had an enormous impact, serving to popularize astronomical knowledge that had previously been understood primarily by the highly-educated and Latin-literate. "It is no exaggeration to suggest that Piccolomini's 'Delle stelle fisse' qualifies to be called the first true star atlas. The treatise was certainly informative, with its detailed accounts of the stars and constellations. More to the point, though, are Piccolomini's systematic approach, his consistency in presenting the different elements of his text (a catalogue, the illustrations, the tables and the written descriptions) and, not least, the accuracy of his representation of the major constellations as these are seen from the Earth. In a sense, he anticipated the star atlases used today, which like Piccolomini emphasize stellar patterns (rather than surrounding images) realistically and use different symbols and letters to categorize stars according to their magnitudes. "Piccolomini organized the star catalogue in 'Delle stelle fisse according to the forty-eight Ptolemaic constellations (though in the finished work the constellation Equuleus is missing), discussing each constellation in turn. Below a heading giving the name for the constellation, he explained why the Greeks chose that particular name and the origins of its mythical associations. Then followed a list of the bright stars in the constellation, each with a lower-case Roman letter keyed to the star in the illustration, startin