SACROBOSCO (Johannes de). [Sphæra mundi]. Opusculum Johannis de Sacrobusto spericum cum notabili commento atque figuris textum declarantibus utilissimis. S.l.n.d. [Leipzig, Martin Landsberg, c. 1495. In-4 goth. of [58] ff. brown half-chagrin, spine decorated (19th century binding). Very rare incunabula edition of Sacrobosco's Traité de la sphère, composed around 1230 and printed as early as 1472. This German edition, presented in a wide-spaced scholastic layout, is accompanied by a commentary by the astronomer Wenceslaus Faber (1455-1518), from Budweis, Bohemia. Richly illustrated Gothic printing: a full-page figure on the verso of the title (enhanced with watercolour), 27 woodcuts in the text, usually mid-page, including two world maps, and a typographical mark at the end of the work. A table of climates rectified in 1491 is printed on the verso of f. H1. "The astronomy book that was to set the standard for the Middle Ages and the Renaissance was written by John of Holywood or John of Halifax, better known as Sacrobosco. This 13th-century English mathematician and astronomer studied at Oxford and spent most of his life in Paris. The first printed edition of his treatise De sphæra mundi dates from 1472. The work is divided into four chapters. The first deals with the spherical shape of the Earth (for which he provides numerous proofs) and its immovable place within the spherical Universe according to Aristotle's cosmology. The second deals with the various reference circles for the Earth and the Sun (ecliptic, equator, meridian, etc.). The third describes the rising and setting of the stars in various geographical locations. Finally, the last deals with Ptolemy's planetary theory and eclipses" (BnF). A copy rubricated in red ink with numerous handwritten annotations from the time. Soiling and wetness, notably on the title and last leaf; 5 ff. consolidated by mitre or laminated at the beginning of the volume; f. A8 poorly bound after f. A1; 7 ff. folded at the beginning of the volume. ISTC ij00416000 - Goff J416 - H 14122* - Klebs 874.12 - Pr 2974 - BMC III 639 - GW M14582.