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Description

Regiomontanus (d.I. Johannes Müller von Königsberg).

[Calendarium latinum. Nuremberg,] Johannes Regiomontanus, [1474]. 4°. Roman type, 32 lines. Printed in red and black. 30 unnum. Leaves (instead of 32; leaves 19 and 20 with the depiction of the astronomical apparatus are missing; without numbering of quires). With 60 woodcuts, partly colored yellow, for the phases of the moon on five leaves and 22 woodcut initials on black ground. Modern, light brown half pigskin binding (signed Hedberg, Stockholm). ISTC ir00092000. Proctor 2210. BMC II, 456 (IA 7877). Goff R-92. Schreiber 4376 (only eight copies recorded, including this one). Klebs 836.1, Rosenwald 43, Zinner 46, first Latin edition of the first typographically printed calendar, probably printed by Regiomontan in his private printing house in Nuremberg towards the end of 1474, at the same time as a German edition. The work contains astronomical data for the years 1475 to 1513. In the present copy, the first unprinted page is densely inscribed by a contemporary (Italian) hand with detailed astronomical notes. The first twelve verso pages contain the tables for the conjunction and opposition of the moon; the calendar is arranged on the corresponding twelve recto pages. Some saints' feast days are printed in red ink in the calendar, and numerous dates are inscribed by hand in red ink in the conjunction and opposition tables. The December calendar is followed by a "Tabula Regionum", on which there are five leaves with depictions of the eclipses. There is also information on calculating the calendar, the course of the sun and moon, the length of the day with a table, instructions for making a sundial, the equinoxes, the number of hours in the day, an Easter table and bloodletting. As in the British Museum copy, a note is pasted in front of the table of movable feasts, listing additions to the calculation of movable feasts in leap years. Johannes Müller (1436-1476), who called himself Regiomontanus after his home town of Königsberg, studied mathematics and astronomy at the University of Vienna. At the invitation of Cardinal Bessarion, he went to Italy in 1460 to perfect his knowledge of Greek and to teach astronomy in Ferrara, Padua and Venice. He returned to Vienna in 1468 and was soon called to Buda by Mathias Corvinus as his librarian. In 1471 he settled in Nuremberg, where he found a wealthy patron in Bernhard Walther, with whose help he set up his printing press in 1473, from which a total of eleven prints came to light by 1475, six of which were his calendars and ephemerides. In 1475, Pope Sixtus IV summoned Regiomontan to Rome for his planned calendar reform; he died there shortly after his arrival. Our copy is missing the two leaves depicting the astronomical instruments. The existing leaves are somewhat finger-stained or soiled throughout. The wide-margined copy has a few insignificant marginal tears and tiny traces of worming in the margins. The twelfth leaf has been repaired with an old strip of paper (without loss of text). The twentieth leaf has also been glued (presumably at the time of printing). - Of great interest are the handwritten marginalia that can be found on all sheets of the calendar. These entries - probably dating from the 16th century - are by an expert on the subject and are additions to the tables of conjunctions and oppositions (each in the upper white margin); at the foot are references to the signs of the zodiac. On the December leaf and the opposite leaf two pretty drawings of the full and new moon. Some marginalia in a later hand. - It is tempting to speculate whether the dates entered by hand in red on the tables of conjunctions and oppositions as well as in the table of movable feasts could originate from Regiomontan's hand. - Like all prints from Regiomontan's private printshop, this is a very rare edition.

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Regiomontanus (d.i. Johannes Müller von Königsberg).

Estimate 10 000 - 15 000 EUR
Starting price 10 000 EUR

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For sale on Wednesday 03 Jul : 10:00 (CEST)
pforzheim, Germany
Kiefer
+49723192320
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