Milestones of Science Books

SCHÖNER, Johannes.

Tabulae astronomicae, quas vulgo, quia omni difficultate & obscuritate carent, resolutas vocant ... per Ioannem Schonerum ... correctae & locupletatae. Ratio, siue duodecim domorum coeli, authore Ioanne de Monte regio, ... praefatio D. Philippi Melanchthonis.

Nürnberg: Johann Petreius, 1536.

1st Edition. Soft cover. Very Good. Item #003089

4to (207 x 159 mm). 94 unnumbered leaves. Signatures: [*]⁶ A-V⁴ X⁶ [Y]². Contemporary limp vellum with 2 (of 4) ties still present, spine titled in manuscript (covers soiled and spotted, book block rehinged). Pages partially uncut. Text quite crisp and clean with only very minor occasional spotting, annotations in old hand to leaves T4r and V2r, the two final leaves of errata supplied (little frayed at outer margins and somewhat smaller in size). Provenance: D'Auron (faint ink inscription on title page); Erlangen Universitätsbibliothek (small duplicate stamp to title-page). Exceptionally well preserved and wide-margined copy in its original binding. ----

Zinner 1647; VD16 S 3505; Adams p.684. - EXCEPTIONALLY RARE FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE, of Schöner's Astronomical Tables intended for use by astronomers and students; a work well committed to the tradition of the Alphonsine Tables. A commendatory preface, addressed to Schöner, is a famous contribution by the leading Lutheran theologian and scholar Philipp Melanchthon in which he underlines once more the adherence to and importance of astrology and in which he praises the care of mathematics in Nuremberg, ranking it higher than Athens, Miletus and Alexandria and names Johannes Regiomontanus, Johannes Werner, Melchior Pfinzing, Willibald Pirckheimer and Christoph Coler. He also honors Schöner's educational and publishing work for the vital mathematics and thus his services to Nuremberg and the students. The book was published in Nuremberg by the celebrated printer Johannes Petreius, who had collaborated with Schöner as his editor on a number of mathematical works, including Regiomontanus' De triangulis. There are two issues of this work known: the first with large title vignette but without printer and year mentioned on the title-page, 86 numbered leaves and no errata, the second (our copy) with 94 unnumbered leaves including two final leaves of errata. The former issue appears to be of later date since the errors listed in the errata of our issue are corrected in the text and the entire text being completely reset. Our issue has on the title-page the mention of Regiomontanus Ratio, siue Apodeixis duodecim domorum coeli, authore Ioanne de Monte regio, mathematico clarissimo which is completely absent from the other issue's title-page. - Visit our website for additional images and information.

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