Extensively Annotated In A Contemporary Hand
Nice example of the second Latin edition of this work, after the 1559 Paris edition, of this early Greek work on prognostications based on heavenly phenomena. Most notable for the very nice woodcuts of constellations.
As noted by Marc Hoffeld in the online compilation Atlas Coelestis:
The elegantly wrought 48 woodcuts of constellations and astronomical allegories included in this book resemble the figures from the charts of Albrecht Dürer (Imagines coeli Septentrionales and Imagines coeli Meridionales 1515). Although the star figures in the book are anonymous, they are strikingly similar to the illustrations in Theodore Graminaeus book Erklaerung oder Auszlegung eines Cometen (Cologne , 1573). (see Warner, Sky Explored, p. 98).
The stars included are identified by Arabic numerals corresponding with positions in the Ptolemaic catalog. Aratus refrains from giving an explanation of the planetary movements, apparently because of their complicated nature and the difficulty of calculating their conjunction
The date on the colophon of this example is 1570.
Hoffeld describes 48 woodcuts, but the present copy contains 45 woodcuts due to lacking leaf I1 (pp. 65-66) and leaf I4 (pp. 71-72).
Rarity
Quite rare. The last example at auction listed in RBH was offered at Anderson Galleries in 1922.
OCLC locates copies at the Victoria & Albert Museum and the National Library of Poland. Hoffeld located examples at British Library, the Wellcome Library and the Biblioteca Guido Horn d’ Arturo.