Maurolicus, Franciscus.
[MAUROLICO, Francesco (1494-1575).]
Cosmographia in three dialogues distincta: in quibus de forma, situ, numeroque tam coelorum quam elementorum, alijsque rebus ad astronomica rudimenta spectantibus satis disseritur.
Venice, heirs of Lucantonio Giunta, [January] 1543
4 lvs, 103 lvs, 4 lvs
With 2 Giunta woodcut printer's devices and 55 schematic text woodcuts.
Size 6 1/4 by 8" (20x15cm.)
Vellum bound
Title and three front leaves with repaired margins. Renewed endpapers
Otherwise good condition.
FIRST EDITION
Extremely rare first printing of the astronomical treatise written in dialogue form by the Sicilian polymath Franciscus Maurolicus (1494-1575), probably his most important work.
Deals with, among other things, critical questions about the rotation of the earth and Copernicus' heliocentric world view, as well as about the voyages of discovery to America by Columbus and Amerigo Vespucci, about the handling of astronomical instruments, calculating time, etc.
A second edition was published in Paris in 1558.
Text in Latin

Maurolico, a Greek, spent most of his life in Sicily, having fled there to escape the Turks. While he edited many ancient Greek texts, the Cosmographia was among the most important of his own books.
According to the colophon he completed it on Thursday 21 October 1535, the day that the Emperor Charles V came to Messina on return from his expedition to Africa.
Although dismissive of Copernican ideas, it describes a methodology for measuring the earth, employed by Jean Picard in 1670 to measure the length of a meridian arc.
It is also an important Americanum with passages relating to America, Columbus and Vespucci.



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