Beschreibung:

FARGHANI, Ahmad Ibn Muhammad al- (c.800-870) [ALFRAGANUS]. Brevis ac perutilis compilatio . Nuremberg: Johann Petreius, 1537. Extremely rare second appearance in print (first 1493, full of lacunae and misprints). Al-Farghani's work was enormously influential and largely responsible for spreading knowledge of Ptolemaic astronomy throughout medieval Europe, ‘at least until this role was taken over by Sacrobosco’s Sphere . But even then … [it] continued to be used, and Sacrobosco’s Sphere was clearly indebted to it’ (DSB). Written by Alfraganus about 833, the work was first translated into Latin by John of Seville in 1137 under the title of Differentia scientie astrorum. It had far reaching influence: it was the main source of astronomical knowledge for Dante's cosmology in Il convivio and the Divina Commedia and even Columbus used Alfraganus' value of the measurement of the earth. The Brevis ac perutilis compilatio was published by Petreius as the first part of the collection entitled Continentur in hoc libro Rudimenta …: the 26 leaves of this work were preceded by Melanchthon’s introduction and followed by a 90-leaf second part. Adams A-740; Zenker Bibliotheca orientalis 1050. Small quarto (179 x 139mm). Woodcut white-on-black initial, many woodcut diagrams to text, running titles (short tear in aa3 repaired with near-contemporary paper strip superimposed supplying text in manuscript, upper margin cropped close in the last few leaves, not touching text, very faint waterstaining from the gutter to the upper portion). Wrapped in a sheet of modern paper and preserved in a custom-made portfolio. Provenance : multiple contemporary and near-contemporary inscriptions to the text, cropped.