Beschreibung:

MANILIUS, Marcus (fl. early 1st century). Astronomicon . Nuremberg: Johannes Müller (Regiomontanus), [1473-1474]. Chancery 4 o (199 x 147 mm). Collation: [1-6 1 2] (1/1r text, 6/12v colophon). 72 leaves. 30 lines. Type: 1:94 AR. Woodcut white-vine initials (BMC set I) opening each book, 2- and 3-line spaces with printed guide letters. (Slight worming in gutters of first 2 quires, a few leaves discreetly rehinged, small nearly imperceptible restorations to surface of last leaf verso, affecting a few letters.) Modern dark brown calf, blind-tooled in the style of a 15th-century Italian binding. Provenance : 18th-century inkstamp on first and last pages (tower above large C enclosing an A). FIRST EDITION OF THE FIRST PRINTED BOOK ON ASTRONOMY. Manilius is known to us only through this poem, intended to instruct students in the science of astrology. Only the first five books survive: Books I and V treat questions of astronomy proper: the sphere, zodiacal and other constellations, comets, and the fixed stars; while Books II-IV relate to purely astrological matters. This edition was one of the earliest printed at Regiomontanus' press at Nuremberg, the first printing press devoted exclusively to the diffusion of works of science. After a decade spent largely in Italy under the patronage of Cardinal Bessarion, Regiomontanus settled in Nuremberg in 1471, choosing it as his permanent home as much for its centrality in the European network of scholarly communication as because of its importance as a center for the manufacture of scientific instruments. He established there the first European observatory, a laboratory for the construction of scientific instruments, and, crucial for his program of systematizing and disseminating astronomical knowledge, a printing press, set up in his own house. During the next three years Regiomontanus published nine works, plus one broadside advertisement, beginning with Peurbach's Theoricae novae planetarum and the Manilius, and including the first printed Ephemerides , a copy of which was used by Columbus on his fourth voyage. Both this edition and the Peurbach (probably printed first) were described as already printed in the broadside advertisement which lists the Ephemerides , dated 1474, as being nearly finished. Regiomontanus' edition was printed from a manuscript exemplar different from that used for Ugo Rugerius' edition, printed at Bologna at 1474. The great modern editor of Manilius, A. E. Housman, considered this Nuremberg edition to be superior, and believed that Regiomontanus must have corrected the text himself, since many of the corrections are not found in any surviving manuscript (Housman V, 1937, p. xvii). Like all of the editions from Regiomontanus' press, this one is extremely rare, so much so that neither of the later great editors, Scaliger and Bentley, knew of its existence, and thus Regiomontanus' corrections were not incorporated into the text until the twentieth century. Only two other copies have come up at auction in the past 50 years. H 10703*; BMC II, 456 (IA. 7874-75); BSB-Ink. M-124; CIBN M-85; Klebs 661.; IGI 6125; Stillwell Science 75; Goff M-202.