Ptolemaeus, Claudius

Omnia, quae extant, opera, geographia excerpta. Basel: for Heinrich Petrus, March 1541



Folio (12¼ x 7⅞ in.; 311 x 200 mm). Two double-page woodcut star maps by Johannes Honter, numerous column-width woodcut text diagrams, decorative woodcut initials, extensive contemporary marginal annotations to the Quadripartitum;  mended tear in title affecting but not obscuring text, lightly browned, occasional marginal spotting and soiling, two repaired tears in page 389 affecting two letters, a few marginal tears mended, contemporary note in map of southern constellations. Eighteenth-century three-quarter calf, speckled edges; edges and joints rubbed, head and foot of spine chipped, sign of bookplate removed from front pastedown, old shelfmark "Z.Z.b.n.29" on front free endpaper.

Heinrich Oldekop (1601-1661), pastor of Saint Jacob in Hildesheim (Seventeenth-century manuscript exlibris on title)

Adams P-2207; VD16, P-5204; Warner, Sky Explored, p. 123; Zinner 1782

First collected edition of Ptolemy's astronomical works in Latin translation. This edition includes two important double-page celestial maps in the first issue by Johannes Honter (c. 1498-1549). These maps, while based on Dürer's planispheres, introduced two changes, for the first time showing the stars as seen from earth, and, as in the Ratdolt edition of Hyginus, dressing some of the constellation figures in contemporary clothing.  

The Almagest appears in the George Trebizond translation, the Quadripartitum in the Joachim Camerarius translation, and the Pseudo-Ptolemaic Centiloquium in the Pontanus translation. Also included is the Hypotyposes astronomicarum positionum of Proclus forming an elaborate exposition of the Almagest, and the annotations of Luca Gaurico.