First Edition of Münster's Work on Sundials, with Numerous Woodcuts
Compositio Horologiorum. in Plano, Muro, Truncis, Anulo, Concavo, Cylindro, & Varijs Quadrantibus. Cum signorum zodiaci et diversarum horarum inscriptionibus.
Basel: Henricus Petrus, 1531.
First edition. Small quarto (7 1/8 x 5 1/2 inches; 180 x 140 mm). [8], 198, [1, colophon], [1, printer's device] pp. With title-page woodcut of sundials, engraved printers device and numerous woodcuts throughout the text, many full page. Bound without the folding plate as usual. The woodcuts on pp. 39, 166, 173, 177 are ascribed to Hans Holbein the Younger. The woodcuts throughout are of sun dials and other means of marking the time.
Münster's name inked out on title-page and in prefatory material because his works were placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum by the Catholic church.
Modern half parchment over brown cloth boards. Spine ruled and lettered in gilt. All edges gilt. Marbled endpapers. A very light marginal dampstain to the first 30 pages, otherwise text is very clean. Title-page with Munster's name inked out and with some old ink scribbles. A few instanced of contemporary ink marginalia in the prefatory pages. Overall a very good, near fine copy.
"The scarce first edition of Münster's famous work on the construction of clocks and sundials. Chapter XLI contains the first description of the nocturnal, an instrument to determine the hour of the night at sea. Burmeister describes a folding woodcut ('fehlt aber wohl in den meisten Exemplaren'), which is virtually never found." (Sotheby's)
Sebastian Münster was a "German cartographer, cosmographer, and Hebrew scholar whose Cosmographia (1544; “Cosmography”) was the earliest German description of the world and a major work in the revival of geographic thought in 16th-century Europe.
Adams M-1916; Brunet III, 1944; Burmeister, Sebastian Münster 49; Houzeau and Lancaster 11349; Zinner 1448.
HBS 68413.
$3,750.
Price: $3,750.00
Item #68413