Annulorum trium diversi generis instrumentorum astronomicorum componendi ratio atque usus. De compositione Metheoroscopii Joannis de Regiomonte epistola. Annulus Boneti de Latis. Compositio alterius annuli auctore M.T. by Dryander, Johann, Joannis Regiomontanus, Bonetus de Latis, and M.T - 1537

Marburg: Eucharius Cervicornus, 1537. Quarto (205 x 152 mm). Later limp vellum, double fillets to covers. Large woodcut of an armillary sphere to the title, woodcut illustrations on the other three titles, numerous woodcut illustrations within the text, historiated initials, woodcut printer's device on the verso of the last leaf. Signatures K and I transposed. Partially removed manuscript note in the margin of H2. Two small patches of text on A1 lifted and on facing page due to glue adhesion, paper repair to lower margin of I3, light spotting to contents. A very good copy, the contents fresh. First edition of this assembly of texts on an astronomical instrument, a ring-dial that was a precursor of the equatorial. It was intended as a navigational aid and could be adjusted for different latitudes including, according to the author, the Moluccas and Hispaniola. Dyrander had published his first account a few months earlier in 1536 (Novi annuli astronomici, Marburg 1536), but quickly reprinted it with three other related texts in order to defend himself against the charges of plagiarism. These texts describe other forms of astronomical ring-dials The first is a letter from Regiomontanus to Cardinal Bessarion, the second a short treatise by Bonetus de Latis, Jewish physician to Pope Alexander VI, and the third by an anonymous author "M.T." Johannes Dryander (1500–1560) was a Marburg professor of mathematics and medicine, a noted pre-Vesalian anatomist, and astronomer. In 1536 he published his Anatomia capitis humani, the first major work on the anatomy of the head, based upon his own dissections and illustrated by the German artist Hans Brosamer. This was followed by an expanded anatomy of the whole human body published the following year.