Interiors & Decorations

Jewellery & Precious Stones

Watches, Pens & Lighters

Fashion

Coins & Stamps

Comics & Animation

Classic Cars, Motorcycles & Automobilia

Wine, Whisky & Spirits

Asian & Tribal Art

Trading Cards

Toys & Models

Archaeology & Natural History

Sports

Music, Movies & Cameras

Books & Historical Memorabilia

The most carefully appraised rare books brought to you by {name}

Volker Riepenhausen

Planets in their courses, the year set by rising stars—Wittenberg astronomy in elegant dress, a collector’s pleasure and a scholar’s tool.

THE BOOK

Bartholomaeus Schönborn. Computus Astronomicus. Wittebergae: Haeredes Ioannis Cratonis, 1579. Small 8vo. Collation: ⁸ A–S⁸ t⁴ T–Y⁸. Numerous woodcuts. Very rare edition.
Bound with Erasmus Sarcerius, Rhetorica (Wittenberg, 1583).
Both complete.

MOUSEION CURATOR NOTE

“Wittenberg poises the heavens into calm utility: Schönborn’s computus turns seasonal light into ordered hours, lets the planets keep courteous procession, and tunes the year by rising stars. It is Reformation astronomy with manners—astrology trimmed to what reason allows—equally persuasive to scholar and collector. With early use and the Owen Gingerich ex-libris, this copy links a sixteenth-century “science of time” to the modern study of the skies.”

DESCRIPTION 

Elegant, usable, and scarce—a choice addition to science and Reformation shelves.

A quintessential Reformation-era “science of time,” uniting astronomy, calendrics, and 
chastened astrology.

Educated in the Melanchthonian milieu and later a professor at Wittenberg, Bartholomaeus Schönborn (1530–1585) wrote this advanced guide to the structure of time. 

Beginning from the motions of Sun and Moon, he derives equinoctial and temporary (unequal) hours, explains their conversion, and provides hour-wheels that let the reader pass from seasonal day-lengths to the variable “planetary hours” used in medical, devotional, and—cautiously—astrological practice. Schönborn lays out the Chaldean order and the modular rule by which the ruler of the day and the succession of hourly lords are obtained: dividing a day into 24 parts and cycling the seven rulers produces the well-known weekday sequence.

A substantial section treats planetary hours and their computation. The tables enable one to:
determine the day-ruler from sunrise, compute the lengths of diurnal and nocturnal hours from the Sun’s declination (giving longer daytime hours in summer, longer night hours in winter);
And map each hour to a planetary lord for electional purposes (choosing auspicious times) while signaling the limits of such practice.

Schönborn then turns to lunar theory and the calendar. He analyzes the Metonic 19-year cycle, quantifying its residual drift (roughly 1½ hours per 19 years, cumulating to c. one day in ~304 years) and explains the practical consequences for the age of the Moon, new and full moons, and festal reckoning. This sober arithmetic—very much in the Wittenberg spirit—anticipates the technical discussions that, within a few years, would be taken up in the Gregorian reform debates (Wittenberg itself remaining officially Julian).  

The calendar at the end fuses astronomy and liturgy: dominical letters; phases and ages of the Moon; heliacal risings and settings of prominent fixed stars (e.g., Orion’s head, Sirius, the Pleiades, Regulus), expressed in degrees and minutes; and concise verse distichs—useful for agriculture, navigation, and prognosis. It is the Protestant computus at work: astronomical data aligned to church time, and astrological material trimmed to what can be defended mathematically.

PROVENANCE

Early contemporary binding (dated 1585) with initials MWV—very likely the first owner.

Owen Gingerich (1930–2023), astronomer and historian of astronomy (Harvard/Smithsonian): printed armorial bookplate “Coeli enarrant gloriam Dei” on the front pastedown; a resonant association for early modern calendar science.

Early reader’s notes in the calendar (a neat “Index” at December; occasional marks to saints’ days and stellar columns), indicating active computational use.

CONDITION REPORT

Small 8vo in contemporary parchment over boards, sound and honest: some uniform toning and minor use consistent with a working manual; scattered early marginalia; binding rubbed in places yet entirely serviceable. Red-stained, gauffered edges present a handsome survival.

A well-preserved copy in contemporary parchment —an appealing survival.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION 

The Wittenberg interpretation of astronomy—accepting precise computation and instruments while bracketing cosmological commitments—Schönborn’s manual shows how a mixed astronomical–astrological toolkit could be made rigorous: planetary hours built from observed day-lengths; lunar months fitted to solar years; fixed stars used as seasonal markers; and residuals of cycles openly quantified rather than hidden. It is the mathematization of time at pocket scale.  

Bound after the Computus is Erasmus Sarcerius’s Rhetorica, plena ac referta exemplis (Wittenberg: Matthaeus Welack, 1583), a compact Lutheran school manual that furnishes exempla “which can serve as brief declamations,” sharpening invention and arrangement for preaching, teaching, and civic oratory; attributed also to the Wittenberg circle through Reinhard Lorichius’s involvement, it embodies the Melanchthonian program of rhetoric as practical pedagogy and makes an apt humanist counterweight to the astronomical handbook it accompanies.


Book

Bartholomaeus Schönborn - [ASTRONOMY] Computus Astronomicus - 1579

Books

Reserve price

No reserve price

Buy now

Budget

From

Closing date

Saturday

Thursday

Monday

22 April

Friday

23 April

21 April

25 April

Sunday

tomorrow

26 April

Location

France

Italy

The Netherlands

United Kingdom

Belgium

Germany

Spain

Switzerland

Ireland

Greece

Portugal

Austria

Poland

Romania

Israel

Latvia

Czech Republic

Denmark

Estonia

Japan

Luxembourg

Hungary

Sweden

Brand

Citroën

Object

Reference book

Print

Single sheet print

Bible

Novel

Document

Biography

Facsimile

Coffee table book

Manuscript

Ex libris

Booklet

Photo book

Magazine

Tour-book

Newspaper

Autobiography

Painting

Brochure

Photograph

Dictionary

Music memorabilia / merchandise

Memorabilia collection

Bookends

Country of origin

Netherlands

Armenia

Europe

U.S.

Material

Paper

Leather

Caviar leather

Rice paper

Condition

Good

Very good

Fine

Fair

As new

Mixed / Multiple

Good condition

Poor

Excellent

Near mint

Excellent condition

Original State

Good condition - used with small signs of aging & blemishes

Fair condition

Extras

Slipcase

Dust jacket

Fold out maps or plates

Tipped in plates

Signed by author

Hand coloured illustrations

Signed by illustrator

Signed

Inscribed by author

Insert

Numbered edition

Limited edition

unboxed

Period

1910-1920

1920-1930

1930-1940

19th century

18th century

17th century

1900-1910

1850-1900

1981-2000

1961-1980

1921-1950

1461-1480

1400-1420

Late 20th century

Subject

Literature

Illustrated

History

Travels

Religion

Children's books

Poetry

Science

Geography

Medicine

Politics

Philosophy

Reference

Biographies and memoirs

War history

Sociology

Natural History

Cartography

Cookery, food & drink

Military

Regional interest

Erotica

Science fiction and fantasy

Style

Renaissance

Baroque

Realism

Contemporary

Art Nouveau

Expressionism

Antique

Classical

Surrealism

Ancient Egyptian

Medieval

Art Deco

Rococo

Abstract

Abstract Expressionism

Technique

Engraving

Woodcut print

Etching

Mixed media

Photogravure

Signature

Plate signed

Not signed

Binding

Hardback

Half leather

Softback

Vellum

Mix / Multiple

Loose page

Portfolio

Disbound

Books

This object is no longer available, but there’s still lots to explore

Bartholomaeus Schönborn - [ASTRONOMY] Computus Astronomicus - 1579

Popular in Books

2171 objects

Related collections