(ASTROLOGY; ASTRONOMY; ARITHMETICS; ILLUSTRATED) Rutilio BENINCASA (1555-1626 c.); Ottavio BELTRANO (1598-1654) Almanacco perpetuo di Rutilio Benincasa Cosentino, Illustrato, e diviso in cinque parti ... Da Ottavio Beltrano di Terranova di Calabria Citra, Opera molto necessaria, e dilettevole ... In Ancona, appresso Beltrano, 1653 § 4to (207x150); 203 leaves, signature: +6, A4, B-Z8, Aa-Bb8. Portrait of the author on +5v. Profusely illustrated with several cosmological ,esoterical, geometrical and mathematical engravings,Contemporary vellum (recased), a nice and genuine copy, complete under all respects. AN EXTREMELY RARE AND VALUABLE BOOK, THE LAST COPY OF THIS EDITION HAS BEEN SOLD FEW MONTHS AGO HERE ON CATAWIKI FOR 5870 € !!! Benincasa was an Italian astronomer and astrologer, his name is associated with legendary events and he has even been considered an incarnation of the prototype of the sorcerer. Little is known about Benincasa, whose fame is based on his Almanacco Perpetuo. First published in the late 16th century, the work was enormously popular and was reprinted in more than 30 editions. Unlike previously published works on the subject, Bonincasa wanted to give his work a character of perpetuity and a claim to completeness: based on a 19-year cycle, the work deals with cosmology, cosmography, chronology, measurement of the earth, origin of meteorological phenomena, etc. The author considers astronomy as a theoretical basis for astrology and aims to provide a manual of the latter. The Almanac was edited and expanded by Ottavio Beltrano, who also reorganized the text into five parts. The first four are from Benincasa, heavily revised, original work (the first on the moon, eclipses, comets, prophecies and physiognomy, the second on medicine, the third on agriculture and gardening and the fourth on navigation and a treatise on the winds), the fifth, on arithmetic, is Beltrano's original addition. Of Beltrano little is known: he worked as a printer in Cosenza around 1620, continued in Naples and in various cities of the Kingdom and concluded his activity in Ancona around 1660.  RICCARDI, I, 114; MIRA Bibliografia Siciliana p. 43; Minieri Riccio Scrittori napoletani fioriti nel secolo XVII ... Lettera B, P. 23; SALVATORE SPIRITI Memorie degli scrittori cosentini, pp. 122-123; SILVANA MENCHI Benincasa, Rutilio In: Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani; Alfredo Cioni Bleltrando, Ottavio In: Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani; ORESTE PARISE Rutilio Benincasa, astrologo, mago e indovino In: Mezzoeuro Anno XI num. 14 del 7/04/2012, from http://www.oresteparise.it/.