Hyginus Poeticon Astronomicon book from 1485!

[DirkSteele]

 

I had a business dinner in South Kensington the other night which meant it was an easy walk back to my home in Chelsea.  However, it resulted in me walking past some shops I have not come across before including a “Rare Book” shop.  Not normally my thing, but I have a radar for all things astronomy and despite it being dark, something in the window caught my eye just for a second which stopped me in my tracks and I had to investigate.  I am glad I did.  It was an astronomy book from 1485 (yes not a typo) open showing the constellations of Sagittarius and Capricornus with accompanying text in Latin. 

This is a rather significant book.  From Wikipedia (I have bolded certain parts of the text):

 

The editio princeps of De astronomia was published in 1475 by Augustinus Carnerius. Less than a decade later, in 1482, Erhard Ratdolt published an edition of De astronomia, which carried the full title Clarissimi Viri Hyginii Poeticon Astronomicon Opus Vtilissimum. For this print, Ratdolt commissioned a series of woodcuts depicting the constellations to accompany Hyginus's text.  As with many other star atlases that would follow it, the positions of various stars are indicated overlaid on the image of each constellation. However, the relative positions of the stars in the woodcuts bear little resemblance to the descriptions given by Hyginus in the text or the actual positions of the stars in the sky.

 

As a result of the inaccuracy of the depicted star positions and the fact that the constellations are not shown with any context, the De astronomia is not particularly useful as a guide to the night sky. However, the illustrations commissioned by Ratdolt served as a template for future sky atlas renderings of the constellation figures. The text, by contrast, is an important source, and occasionally the only source, for some of the more obscure Greek myths.

 

So not only is it an important source for some of the Greek myths related to the night sky but the pictures are the first prints of the constellations and have served as the template for classical representation of the constellations for the grand star atlases of the 17th and 18th century (and even Sky Safari! So 21st century is covered too)

 

Oh and if you have to ask, you cannot afford it…..

 

Edited March 1 by DirkSteele
Typo

[DirkSteele]

Oh and I did ask….. £16,500 😉

 

Which is less than I expected given the age but having done some research that seems to be around the going rate for this book.

Edited February 29 by DirkSteele
Typo

[Paz]

That beats anything I've seen in a second hand store!

It costs a lot but I bet for anyone who knows their books these kind of things have got the potential to earn money as an investment.

[Ags]

Those charts do not look very accurate 😀

[JeremyS]

That was the 15th century equivalent of Turn Left at Orion.

I think @Peter Drew bought a copy when it was first published.

[Highburymark]

Fascinating - thanks for posting Matthew. 

[Peter Drew]

5 hours ago, JeremyS said:

That was the 15th century equivalent of Turn Left at Orion.

I think @Peter Drew bought a copy when it was first published.

And I had it signed!         🙂

[Ags]

Pictures or it didn't happen!

[MalcolmP]

27 minutes ago, Ags said:

Pictures or it didn't happen!

I think a woodcut or a gargoyle would have to be acceptable ?