PICCOLOMINI, ALESSANDRO. Della Sfera del Mondo . . . divisa in LibriQuattro . . . De le Stelle Fisse. Libro Uno. Woodcut illustrations, including 47 full-page star maps. 58, 122, [4] leaves. 4to, contemporary limp vellum, worn; contents dampstained,

PICCOLOMINI, ALESSANDRO. Della Sfera del Mondo . . . divisa in LibriQuattro . . . De le Stelle Fisse. Libro Uno. Woodcut illustrations, including 47 full-page star maps. 58, 122, [4] leaves. 4to, contemporary limp vellum, worn; contents dampstained, lacks rear endpapers. Venice: (Nicolo Bascarini), 1552 E1000-2000 "De la sfera del mondo, first published in 1540, is an unremarkable exposition of the traditional Ptolemaic-Aristotelian geocentric cosmography, but its appendix, De le stelle fisse, represents the first printed star atlas, containing maps of the stars as opposed to simple pictures of constellations, and introducing the practice of identifying stars by letter, a method later adopted and expanded by Bayer"- Norman 1696 ( 1559 edition). Riccardi II, 269 (this edition).