- 42
Hyginus, Caius Julius
Description
4to (7⅞ x 5¾ in.; 200 x 146 mm). Types 3:91G (text), 7:92G (heading on a2r), 91Gk, 31 lines, 47 half-page woodcuts a few of which partially colored by an early hand, many white-on-black floriated woodcut initials, title printed in red, collation: a-f8, g10=58 leaves including the initial blank; two rust spots in lower margin of title offset on blank leaf, some spots in lower margin of four leaves, some marginal soiling especially in the latter half, bifolia e1.8 and e2.7 lightly browned, g1 rehinged, g9-10 and initial blank adhered in gutter, trace of removed bookplate on g10 verso. Nineteenth-century boards covered in vellum from a Fourteenth-century medical manuscript.
Provenance
Thomas Ebersarg (15th-century inscription on initial blank) — Biblioth. Coll. Widens. (Wied?, manuscript exlibris on title page dated 1854) — Richard Priest (20th-century manuscript exlibris in pencil) — Grolier Club (sale, Christie's NY, 29 May 1998, lot 33)
Literature
BMC V, 286; CIBN H-334; Essling 285; Goff H-560; HC 9062; Pol 2039; Sander 3472
Catalogue Note
First illustrated edition and the first depictions of the constellations in a printed book, the beginning of celestial cartography.
The woodcuts were probably designed by Johannes Lucilius Santritter, as is implied in verses by Jacobus Sentinus at the end. Santritter is known to have illustrated the Sacrobosco of 1488 and stylistic comparison corroborates this. Ratdolt reused the blocks for his 1485 edition, and they served as a model for many of the later pictorial representations of the constellations. The first edition of 1475 was not illustrated.