1389 - RICO Y SINOBAS, Manuel. *Libros del Saber de Astronomía del Rey D. Alfonso X de Castilla*. Compiled, annotated, and commented on by …, 4 vols. (of 5), Madrid 1863–66. Large folio

RICO Y SINOBAS, Manuel. *Libros del Saber de Astronomía del Rey D. Alfonso X de Castilla*. Compiled, annotated, and commented on by …, 4 vols. (of 5), Madrid 1863–66. Large folio Volume I: black half-percale and cardboard binding, spine torn, corners and edges of the covers worn. Contains the Introduction and the “IIII Libros de la estrellas de la ochaua espera. And its LVIII figures with their stars.” Pp. xcii + 208 + [viii] with 48 full-page plates. Volume II: brown half-cloth, percaline covers, wear and worn corners. Contains 'Los dos libros Alfonsíes de las armellas', pp. viii + 79 with figures in the text and a full-page chromolithographic plate; 'Libros dell astrolabio redondo', pp. 113–222 with colored drawings in the text; 'Libros dell astrolabio llano', pp. 225–292; 'El libro dell ataçir', pp. 293–310 with colored drawings in the text. Volume III: brown half-cloth, percaline covers, signs of wear and rounded corners. Contains 'Libros de la lamina universal', pp. 1–132, with 3 plates, including one chromolithographic plate; 'Libro del açafeha', pp. 133–238, with illustrations in the text and 2 full-page chromolithographic plates; 'Libros de las laminas de los VII planetas', pp. 239–284, with illustrations in the text; 'Libro del quadrante pora rectificar', pp. 285–316, with illustrations in the text. Volume IV: dark green half-chagrin binding with cloth covers, gilt raised spine, marbled endpapers, gilt edges. Contains 'Los cinco libros de los relogios Alfonsies'. Providing a description of sundials, the water clock, the mercury clock, the candle clock, and the clock of the Palace of Hours, pp. 1–107; “Libro que a por nombre el de las talas Alfonsies,” pp. 109–183 + [lxxix unnumbered pages, tables]. The only known publication of one of the most important collections of texts on astronomical instruments and clocks from the mid-thirteenth century. It contains descriptions of the various known astrolabes, clepsydras, and the renowned mercury clock. A key work in the transmission of knowledge of Arab origin from Castile to Western Europe, thanks to an early 15th-century Italian translation. H & L 1700 Provenance: library of Jean-Nérée RONFORT (1943–2012)