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Regiomontanus (1436-1476) & Georg von Peurbach (1423-1461) Epitome in Cl. Ptolemaei Magnam Compositionem.
Basel: Heinrich Petri, 1543.
Third printing of Regiomontanus and Peurbach's condensed version of Ptolemy's 2nd century Almagest, the most important astronomical work from its composition until the Renaissance; small folio, woodcut printer's device to title page and repeated on verso of final leaf; bound in full contemporary limp parchment; contemporary ownership inscription to front cover in the hand of Giacomo Antonio Biggi of Parma, "Questo libro é di me Giacomo Antonio Biggi. Hic Liber est meas Giacomus Antonius de Biggis Civis parme[n]sis," repeated on front fly leaf; smudged stamp to title; early English name, Boscok, to verso fly leaf; (some leaves discolored likely by a chemical reaction in the paper's ingredients degrading over time; marginal water stain in bottom corner, slight worming to inner gutter near the end of the text; 11 x 7 1/2 in.
Adams R-283.
In their scholarly re-working of Ptolemy's text, Regiomontanus and Peurbach also revised and corrected. Copernicus learned the Ptolemaic system of the universe, that the earth is stationary at its center, using the Epitome, which was first published in 1496, and re-printed only one other time, in 1534, before this edition. And what comes after learning? Why, questioning, poking holes, and forming new theories, as taught by the scientific method and practiced by Copernicus.
Ex libris Professor, Astronomer, Historian & Bibliophile Owen Gingerich.
