Astronomical Images : Title-page with zodiac signs

Johannes Sacrobosco

Astronomical Images

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. Sphaera mundi, 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 is from one of the first Italian translations of Sacrobosco's Sphaera, to which Fra Mauro Fiorentino added a short treatise on cosmography, navigation, altimetry and stereometry. Fra Mauro Mattei from Florence or Fiorentino (c. 1493-1556) was a Servite active at the Annunziata Church in Florence. His interests covered several mathematical disciplines, including music (on which a treatise by him survives at the Laurenziana Library). At the beginning of his edition, Fra Mauro included a dedicatory letter to Giovan'Orthega de Carion, from the Annunziata Church, 1537. This Italian translation of Sacrobosco's classic work on the Sphere would have provided a useful resource for those who wanted to improve their knowledge of cosmography but lacked the Latin skills to read the original text, or preferred to read the vernacular version. Though we may associate the zodiac signs with astrology, these signs were an integral part of the ecliptic which is discussed in Sacrobosco's Sphaera. This title-page shows naturalistic rendering of the twelve signs, and a prudish reader has blotted out the genitals depicted. The device at the bottom comprises an astronomical ring and an armillary sphere, flanked by cherubs on each side. The title of the work can be translated as 'The common Sphere newly translated with many noteworthy additions of geometry, cosmography, navigational art, stereometry, proportion and quantity of the elements, distances, magnitudes and movements of all the celestial bodies ...'.