Johannes Werner - Canones - 1546

First edition of Johann Werner’s foundational treaty, long regarded as a precursor of modern meteorology and scientific weather forecasting.
THE VOLUME
Johannes (Johann) Werner (1468–1522), Canones sicut brevissimi, ita etiam doctissimi, complectentes praecepta & observationes de mutatione aurae.
Nuremberg: at the workshop of Johann Montani & Ulric Neuber, 1546. First edition. Complete. In 4to.
Collation: A–E4 = [20] leaves, with the last leaf E4 blank. With woodcut initials. Modern quarter-leather binding (half leather) on speckled/mottled laid paper boards. About 197 × 152 mm (7 ¾ × 6 inches).
DESCRIPTION
First edition.
Werner — a Nuremberg priest and humanist mathematician of the early 16th century — left a lasting mark on astronomy, mathematics, and geography: he championed precise observation, wrote on spherical trigonometry and instruments, shaped cartographic practice (the Werner cordiform projection), and, long before it was widely adopted, proposed the lunar distance method to determine longitude.
Werner’s reputation, both among contemporaries and in later centuries, explains why this tract is important. As the Dictionary of Scientific Biography notes, “in meteorology Werner opened the way to a scientific interpretation,” attempting to connect the subject “to physics” and thus presenting himself as “a pioneer of modern meteorology and weather forecasting.” His broader program united practical observation with computational astronomy; as early as 1514 he “suggested using the Moon as an astronomical clock” to determine longitude — an idea that two centuries later would mature into the lunar-distance method. The present first edition is thus prized as the typographic node (the printed junction point) of his work on atmospheric time — rare in trade and not common even at institutional levels.
“In meteorology Werner opened the way to a scientific interpretation. Meteorology and astrology were connected, but he nevertheless sought to explain this science in a rational way. … The guidelines that explain the principles and observations of changes in the atmosphere, published in 1546 by Johann Schöner, contain meteorological notes for the years 1513–1520. The weather observations are mainly based on stellar constellations, and consequently the Moon’s course is of lesser importance… He attempted to incorporate meteorology into physics and to take into account the geographical location of the observation site. Therefore he can be regarded as a pioneer of modern meteorology and weather forecasting.”
— Dictionary of Scientific Biography.
Modern reference works emphasize Werner for prolonged and regular weather observation and for steering meteorology toward “physics” and toward locality. As Deutsche Biographie notes, he deserves “das hohe Lob, consequente… Witterungsbeobachtungen angestellt zu haben,” i.e. “the high praise of having conducted consistent and systematic meteorological observations.”
PROVENANCE
From the library of Owen Gingerich (1930–2023) — Harvard astronomer and historian of science, whose lifelong work on early astronomy (notably The Book Nobody Read) made him a touchstone for stories of “copy for copy” scientific texts.
His ownership confers this exemplar a distinct and prestigious line of modern scholarly lineage.
CONDITION REPORT
Text and content: an interior exceptionally clean; leaves uniformly crisp and bright, with virtually no browning/oxidation.
Binding: modern quarter-brown leather binding on boards covered with tan speckled/mottled paper, flat spine, with the binder’s stamp “ATELIERS LAURENCHET” on the pastedown.
An attractive volume, bright and internally notably fresh.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
The tract opens with an assemblage of general rules — “Catholica aphorismi super aeris mutatione” — in which Werner bases his weather predictions on the four primary qualities (hot, cold, dry, moist) and, crucially, fixes them to a locale: he places Nuremberg in the “seventh climate” and the “fifteenth parallel,” making local latitude an integral part of the interpretation.
Weather changes are read from planetary aspects and the risings/ settings of prominent fixed stars. Werner repeatedly links specific configurations to characteristic outcomes — for example, alignments of the Sun–Saturn tend toward cold or snow (especially in water signs), Venus–Mars to mild warmth and rain/showers, and Jupiter–Mercury to lively winds — and he also urges attention to Ptolemy’s calendar of stellar phenomena.