Lot 262: FINÉ, Oronce (1494-1555). Orontii…In proprium Planetarum aequatorium....

FINÉ, Oronce (1494-1555). Orontii…In proprium Planetarum aequatorium. Paris: Gourmont, 1538

Rare second, enlarged edition (one record at auction, and no record for the first, which is a rarissimum). ‘Fine was considered as well versed in art as in sciences. His work as a designer is closely related to his major fields of mathematics, astronomy and geography, and his contribution to book production is particularly interesting in extending beyond the illustration to the ornamentation of scientific texts’ (Mortimer). It is in this very rare edition (f.2v) that the author presents his invention of a new astronomical instrument as an offering to the ‘republic of mathematics’, as he called it – a remarkable extension of the notion of super-national community thus far applied to men of letters, which he extends to men of science. BMC 9, col. 209; Graesse, II, 580.

Octavo (200 x 139mm). Woodcut folding plate, woodcut device to title, woodcut initial, and large woodcut device on the last verso (some marginal repairs to all pages, two clean short tears to the plate repaired). Modern quarter morocco.