| Method | Woodcut |
| Artist | Frisius, Gemma after Apianus, Petrus |
| Published | Antverpiae, ex Officina Ionnis VVithagij. Anno 1584. [Antwerp, 1584] |
| Dimensions | 230 x 155 mm |
| Notes |
A pair of illustrations relating to meridian lines, from the 1584 Latin printing of Gemma Frisius' edition of Peter Apian's landmark Cosmographicus liber. On the recto, a simple diagram shows explains the meridian as the middle point between the extremities of the umbra of the Earth in respect to the moving position of the Sun. On the verso, the scale of altitude of the celestial globe is shown, with the degrees of the meridian shown on the horizon. The constellations that comprise the lower half of the celestial globe are shown pictorially, with the hand of God supporting the Heavens. Jemme Reinerszoon, known under his Latin nom de plume Gemma Frisius (1508-1555), was a Frisian cartographer, astronomer, physician, and mathematical and scientific instrument maker. Among his students were some of the most important scientific minds of the age, including Mercator, John Dee, and Vesalius. Petrus Apianus, born Peter Bienewitz (1495-1552), was a German cartographer, astronomer, and humanist scholar, best known for his two seminal astronomical works, the influential and much reprinted Cosmographicus liber (1524) and the lavishly decorated Astronomicum Caesareum (1540). The former brought its author into the orbit of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, who appointed him Court Mathematician and made him both a Free Imperial Knight and a Count Palatine. Condition: Time toning and minor foxing to sheet, especially along edges. Minor dirt marks to margins. |
| Framing | framed |
| Price | £350.00 |
| Stock ID | 51467 |