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Astronomical Images : Elements of geometry: the parts and properties of the circle and the sphere

Johannes Sacrobosco

Astronomical Images

<p style='text-align: justify;'>Very little is known about Johannes Sacrobosco except that he was probably British, taught astronomy at Paris University, and died there in the second quarter of the thirteenth century. <i>Sphaera mundi</i>, his major work, was an extraordinarily popular astronomical textbook for several generations. Manuscripts of it circulated through all the main European centres of learning. It was first published in 1472 in Ferrara, and went through dozens of editions up to the mid-seventeenth century. This edition of Sacrobosco's <i>Sphaera mundi</i> was printed with Georg Peuerbach's <i>Theoricae novae planetarum</i> and Johannes Regiomontanus's <i>Disputationes contra Cremonensia deliramenta.</i> It is illustrated throughout with woodcuts, some of which were coloured. These illustrations are part of the elements of geometry that elucidate chapter one of Sacrobosco's text which defines the Sphere. Those on the left show the circle and its parts and lines. Those on the right serve to demonstrate that other shapes do not have the proprieties of the sphere, and show poles, axes and diameters.</p>


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