10

Mohammed ibn Jafir Albategnius (858-929 CE)

De Scientia Stellarum Liber.

Bologna: Victor Benati, 1645.
First separate edition, quarto, with half-title and engraved title; illustrated with text diagrams; each page printed within double rules;  final blank with several notes in at least two early hands regarding the Albatenius text, with a few terms in Arabic; large woodcut printer's device to verso of final leaf; a few leaves in signature B with paper repairs; rare at auction. 

Al-Battani, whose name appears above in its Latinized form, was a Muslim astronomer from modern-day Syria. His work includes the earliest astronomical table [zij] in existence in the ancient Greek Ptolemaic (geocentric) tradition. His use of math in calculating celestial movements is incredibly important as he discerned that the sines and tangents of trigonometry should be used over simple geometry.

[Bound after] Giovanni Magini's (1555-1617) Novae Coelestium Orbium Theoricae Congruentes cum Observationibus N. Copernici, Venice: Ex officina Damiani Zenarij, 1589; first edition, engraved title page (marginal outside corner torn away with loss restored in pen facsimile); illustrated with large, striking text woodcuts; the two quarto volumes bound together; ex libris physician Robert Gray (1648-1701) of the London Medical College with his signature dated 1684 to the Magini title, slightly defaced by later owner, diphtheria specialist and MD Joseph Letherland (1699-1764) whose book this was in 1740; the Society of Writers to the Signet copy, in their binding with shelfmark; rebacked; 9 1/4 x 6 3/4 in. 

  • Condition: Magini: a-b4, c6, A-Z4, Aa-Ff4 (Ff4 blank & present); Albategnius:[-]2, [a]2, b4, A-Z4, Aa-Ee4, Ff-Gg2.

    Ex libris Professor, Astronomer, Historian & Bibliophile Owen Gingerich.

    Please contact us to request a condition report:
    Devon Eastland, Senior Specialist: [email protected]
    Grace Meschery-McCormack, Cataloguer: [email protected]


    Please contact the Specialist for the auction to request a condition report.

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April 23, 2026 10:30 AM EDT
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