Ptolemaeus, de analemmate, Rome, Paolo Manuzio, 1562, nineteenth-century tan morocco

Ptolemaeus, Claudius. Claudii Ptolemaei Liber de analemmate, a Federico Commandino Vrbinate instauratus & commentariis illustratus, qui nunc primum eius opera e tenebris in lucem prodit. Eiusdem Federici Commandini liber De horologiorum descriptione. Rome: Paolo Manuzio, 1562

First and only edition. Untrimmed copy, with 48 woodcut diagrams.

This work, edited by Federico Commandino, presents Ptolemy's Liber de analemmate, an essential treatise on astronomical and time-keeping instruments. The woodcut diagrams illustrate the complex mechanisms of Ptolemaic theory, as well as the description of horology. Commandino's edition was one of the first to bring Ptolemy’s writings out of obscurity.

"Because of its excellent commentary (by Commandino), the editio princeps of the Analemma is still worth consulting." (DSB).

4to (228 x 158 mm). Roman type, 24 lines plus headline. collation: *⁴ A-Z⁴ &⁴: 100 leaves. Woodcut Aldine device to title- page, 48 woodcut illustrations. (Upper margin of a few early leaves repaired, last leaf and two endleaves detached, intermittent light spotting.)

binding: Nineteenth-century calf (234 x 171 mm), covers framed in multiple gilt and blind fillets, central gold-blocked Aldine device, lettered Aldus, gilt title, marbled endpapers, deckle edges. (Joints repaired, covers scratched with some light shelfwear, lower corners exposed.)

provenance: Librairie François Chamonal, Paris. acquisition: Purchased from Chamonal, Paris, 1962. references: UCLA 681; Renouard 187/13; Edit16 27783; USTC 851491; Barberi pp. 118-119