This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 10/20/2022
PICCOLOMINI, Alessandro (1508–1578). Della sfera del mondo. Delle stelle fisse libro uno. Venice: Appresso Bartholomeo Cesano, 1553 [but actually 1552]. 2 parts in one volume, 8vo (205 x 145 mm). Woodcut vignettes on both titles, woodcut diagrams and historiated initials, 47 woodcut star maps (misnumbered 48). Modern half calf antique, marbled sides, all edges dyed blue. (Title–page with loss near imprint, also with small loss at corner, reinforced with paper, also with some staining, light staining or discoloration at corners to several leaves, last few leaves repaired at lower corners with loss (Qiiii–Vi), small hole in chart XXXiii). Provenance: Biblioteca Giovannini (stamp on first title–page), early ownership signature also on first title–page. THIRD EDITION, first published in 1540. The first part is a traditional Ptolemaic–Aristotelian geocentric cosmography, but the appendix, entitled De le stelle fisse, CONTAINS THE FIRST STAR ATLAS TO BE PUBLISHED. It also introduces the practice of identification of stars by letter, which would later be adopted and expanded by Bayer. Adams P-1108; Houzeau and Lancaster 2491; Riccardi I(ii) 269.