Oronce Fine - Le Sphere du Monde .. - 1551

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1551, first printed edition of Oronce Fine's 'Le Sphere du Monde..', after a manuscript edition presented to King Henry II of France in 1549. The book contains 46 woodcut illustrations by the Author, among them one printed in red and black , a World map [with Antarctic Continent] and a map of southern France, woodcut capital letters. The last 6 leaves with a poem
6 unnumbered+ 64 numbered leaves = 140 pages
an auction result i found priced the book in the 2nd 1552 edition at 1800 euros

In original vellum binding [with defect at the backside], another book was originally bound before - this has been taken out some time in the past]

generally clean , but some waterstaining in the middle and the last pages , wormholes in lower margins, occasional tears , some browning and old repairs in last pages, otherwise no foxing or significant browning by age.

Low reserve for this first edition ! no other copy of this or the 2nd edition on the market right now !

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Oronce Fine (1492-1555).
Editor and illustrator of two editions of De sphaera of Johannes Sacrobosco (1517 and 1527), author of De sphaera mundi (1542), Fine composed treatises of cosmography and mathematics in French. Affiliating with typographer-publisher Michel de Vasconsan, he published a vernacular edition titled L’esphere du monde. Headed by a poem celebrating the virtue of mathematics, the work is a point of reference in both the history of treatises on cosmography and the history of the illustrated book. The 1551 edition of L’esphere du monde transcribes an ornate manuscript of the same title that Fine presented to Henri II in 1549. Close reading of the two documents reveals that in their progression they tilt away from cosmography to geography, and that the French nation and its provinces become increasingly manifest. In the manuscript the monarch is reminded of the extent of his kingdom, while in the printed text L’esphere is addressed to a broader readership. Stock is taken of the status of cosmography in French circles in the middle of the sixteenth century, the very moment Münster’s Cosmographia became a major and longstanding project on the European horizon at large.

Currently no copy in the international antiquarian book trade. Fine (1494-1555) was a French mathematician and astronomer who held the chair of mathematics at the Collége Royal from 1531 until his death. He revised the classical works of great masters such as Ptolemy, Aristotle and Sacrobosco, wrote encyclopaedic texts on mathematics and developed astronomical measuring instruments. Leaf 2 shows the interaction between the four elements and the four moods. Leaf 45 shows the division of the earth into its different zones including the Tropic of Cancer, the Tropic of Capricorn, and the Arctic and Antarctic Circle. Bll. 56/57. The printed edition was preceded by a royal manuscript edition in 1549.

you can find an eighteen page document on Oronce Fine and the book at www.researchgate.net