STOEFFLER, JOHANN. ELUCIDATIO FABRICAE USUSQUE ASTROLABII... OPPENHEIM: JACOBUS KOEBEL, 1513

Estimate

5,000 - 8,000 USD

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Description

Elucidatio fabricae ususque astrolabii... Oppenheim: Jacobus Koebel, 1513.

Folio (264 x 202mm). Title within woodcut border, woodcut initials, woodcut illustrations, including some full page and some with printed extension slips (B3v, C4v with 3, D3r with 2, D4r); some soiling and staining; minor worming in gutters, occasionally touching images or text; library stamps on front pastedown title. Contemporary stamped calf' rubbed and rebacked.

Provenance

Sotheby's New York, 11 December, 1993, lot 779

Literature

Adams S-1886; Benzing, Köbel, 27; Crone Library 6; Houzeau & Lancaster 3256; Stillwell Science, 892; Tomash & Williams S197; USTC 649878; VD16 S9191; Wellcome 6099; Zinner 991

Catalogue Note

FIRST EDITION OF THE FIRST GERMAN BOOK ON ASTROLABES, AND THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE WORK ON THE SUBJECT AT THAT TIME. Produced on the first press established in Oppenheim, it is thought that Koebel himself may have designed the woodcuts. Stoeffler taught at the University of Tübingen, where Philip Melanchthon and Sebastian Münster were among his students; there is a laudatory verse by Melanchthon printed at the beginning of the book.