Lot 595: DANTI, EGNAZIO (1536-1586).

Primo volume dell'uso et fabbrica dell' astrolabio et del planisferio di Maestro Egnatio Danti... nuovamente ristampato, & accrescuito in molti luoghi... Florence: Giunti, 1578

Condition Note:

4to (203 x 138mm.), [16], 325, [3]pp., illustration : woodcut printer's devices on title-page and final recto, woodcut initials, head- and tailpieces, woodcut illustrations, binding : eighteenth-century mottled calf, spine gilt in compartments, red morocco lettering-piece, red edges, small tear in Gg2 (not affecting text)

Censimento 16 CNCE 16001; Houzeau & Lancaster 3288; IA 149.990; Riccardi i, 389

Originally published by the Giunti in 1569. The astrolabe is an astronomical calculator devised by the ancients, and it is particuarly associated with Ptolemy and Theon of Alexandria. This work of Danti's, along with his edition of Proclus' Sphere of 1573, "were the earliest astronomical treatises in Italian" (DSB III, p.558).

Danti was able to pursue his research into cosmography and the calendar thanks to the patronage of Cosimo I de' Medici. Following Cosimo's death in 1574 Danti moved from Florence to Bologna to take up the post of professor of mathematics. He was called to Rome in 1580 by Gregory XIII where he was involved in the reform of the calendar, and was appointed bishop of Alatri in 1583.