TEXTUS DE SPHERA JOHANNIS DE SACROBOSCO DE CUM ADDITIONE (QUANTUM NECESSARIUM EST) ADIECTA: NEUE COMMENTARIO NUPER EDITO AD VTILITATE STUDENTIU PHILOSOPHICE PARIESEN. ACADEMIE ILLUSTRATUS CU COPOSITIONE ANULI ASTROMICI BONI LATENSIS

[Paris: Henrici Stephani, 1507].. [63]pp., including numerous illustrations. Folio. Antique-style paneled calf, elaborately gilt, spine gilt. 18th-century institutional stamp on verso of titlepage. Occasional minor repairs, most prominent in blank margin of last leaf. Contemporary manuscript notes on several leaves. Overall very good. An important edition of Sacrobosco's works on astronomy and the calendar. A 13th-century mathematician and astronomer, Sacrobosco taught at the University of Paris and is believed to have been of British origin. There is, however, very little reliable information about his life. Much of what is "known" is little more than speculation on behalf of historians of the 16th and 17th centuries.

SPHÆRA, as it is most commonly known, is the most famous of Sacrobosco's works. It is a basic account of the spherical geometry underpinning the mathematical astronomy of Ptolemy and his Arabic commentators. It was extraordinarily successful, particularly as a university text book. There are hundreds of extant manuscript copies, and it was first printed in 1472 at Ferrara. There were over thirty further incunabula editions, and more than two hundred in the 16th century; the last early modern edition was printed in Antwerp in 1673. The interest in Sacrobosco's work and computations was no doubt fueled by the mathematical demands of the art of navigation, then a fundamental element of the desperate race for control of the New World. In fact, other editions of Sacrobosco's work were published with fledgling accounts of Spanish discoveries, such as the 1551 Paris printing which included Eliae Vineti's SCHOLIA..., with references to the East and West Indies.

Extremely rare. This edition is not listed in EUROPEAN AMERICANA. OCLC locates only microform copies. OCLC 29088657.