Milestones of Science Books

LEOVITIUS, Cyprianus (LEOWITZ, Cyprian).

Eclipsium omnium Ab anno domini 1554 usque in annum Domini 1606. Accurata descriptio & pictura, ad meridianum Augustanum ita supputata, ut quibusuis alijs facilimè accommodari possit, una cum explicatione effectuum tam generalium quàm particularium pro cuiusque genesi.

Augsburg: Philipp Ulhart the elder, 1556.

1st Edition. Soft cover. Very Good. Item #003440

Two parts in one volume. Folio (316 x 221 mm). 88; 36 unnumbered leaves. Signatures: A-K⁶ L⁸ M-N⁶ O⁸ P-S⁶ T². Including blank leaf L8. Several woodcut illustrations and diagrams in text, woodcut initials. Contemporary limp vellum with yapp edges, spine lettered in manuscript, further ink inscription to upper cover: "Continens des eclipses de soleil et de la lune" (vellum browned, somewhat soiled and shrinked, bands unfixed from upper pastedown, no free endpapers). Little even browning of text, title leaf frayed at fore-edge and with small holes in blank margins well outside text area, ink smudges to leaf G1, minor worming at upper gutter of gathering L. Provenance: unidentified small collectors ink stamp on title verso. A handsome, unsophisticated copy. ----

VERY RARE FIRST EDITION of the main work on celestial mechanics of the court mathematician and astronomer of Count Palatine Ottheinrich Cyprian Leowitz (lat. Cyprianus Leovitius; 1524-1574), who dedicated his work to the great Heidelberg prince. Leowitz came from a noble Bohemian family and devoted himself to the sciences. He only came into the light of history in 1552, when he published 'Tabulae directionum et profectionum clarissimi viri ac praestantissimi Joannis Regiomontani' in Augsburg. Since he had noticed that both the Alphonsin and the Peurbach tables were incorrect by over half an hour, he published in 1557 in Augsburg his 'Ephemeridum novum atque insigne opus from 1556 ad annum 1606. Likewise in Augsburg he published this forecast of all the eclipses falling in the years 1554-1606, with particular reference to the explanation of the first book of Moses. His astrological interpretation of the new star of 1572 is criticized and rejected in Tycho Brahe's Progymnasmata. (see ADB XVIII, 417f).
About half of the woodcuts are decorative depictions of the solar eclipses described with pretty figurative depictions of the sun and moon and stars etc., some with quite characteristic faces. There are also woodcut diagrams, and at the end with its own title "Tabula quantitatis dierum recens a Cypriano Leovitio supputata" with 3 full-page typographical tables. This is followed by the printer's note: "Augustae Vindelicorum, Philippus Ulhardus in plata Templaria Divi Hudrichi, excudebat. Anno domini M.D.LVI. Mense Febrario".
References: VD16 L 1261 (wrong collation: 78 ff). Adams L 519; Houzeau-Lancaster 12019; Poggendorf II, 1429; Zinner 2154 (wrong collation: 116 ff). - Visit our website to see more images!

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