{ "viewingDirection": "left-to-right", "metadata": [ { "label": "Uniform Title", "value": "In sphaeram Joannis de Sacro Bosco commentarius" }, { "label": "Origin Place", "value": "Rome" }, { "label": "Physical Location", "value": "Whipple Library" }, { "label": "Extent", "value": "Leaf height: 206 mm, width: 206 mm." }, { "label": "Funding", "value": "" }, { "label": "Abstract", "value": "
This is the third edition of Clavius's work, first published in Rome in 1570 and then in 1575. This text shows clearly how commentaries on Sacrobosco's De sphaera<\/i> had become, by the end of the sixteenth century, substantial astronomical treatises in their own right. Clavius's work was used as an advanced astronomy textbook in Jesuit colleges throughout Europe. This edition contains an important innovation with respect to the previous ones. Here Clavius asserts the importance of astronomy and its methods against scholastic philosophers. He presents his views on Copernicanism. It is noteworthy that although the present edition appeared almost a decade after the 'Brahe' nova of 1572, here Clavius ignored the new phenomenon. In the 1585 edition he did introduce a section on it and a discussion of its location. This issue was a major point of contention with the scholastic philosophers, who maintained the incorruptibility of the heavens. The use of an armillary sphere to illustrate the title-page of this work is not surprising, given that it was used as a Jesuit textbook. The armillary sphere was an instrument used largely to model the heavens and their relationship to the Earth. By a practical understanding of the arrangement of its rings, a student would come to understand the theory of the Sphere. Thus, it was a useful aid to teaching and acted as an emblem of accessible astronomical teaching.<\/p>" }, { "label": "Date of Creation", "value": "1581" }, { "label": "Title", "value": "Title-page with armillary sphere" }, { "label": "Material", "value": "paper" }, { "label": "Classmark", "value": "Whipple STORE 55:2" }, { "label": "Note(s)", "value": "
Links to other items:<\/p>
Frontispieces and title-pages with religious, allegorical or emblematic representations: CUL Syn.6.51.5 (Personification of Astronomy)<\/a><\/p> Frontispieces and title-pages with religious, allegorical or emblematic representations: CUL L*.9.44(C) (Frontispiece with geographers and astronomers)<\/a><\/p> Frontispieces and title-pages with religious, allegorical or emblematic representations: Wren T.18.31 (Frontispiece to Hevelius' Selenographia<\/em>)<\/a><\/p> Further image from this work: Whipple STORE 55:2 (Proof that solar eclipses differ according to the relative distance of the Sun, Moon and Earth)<\/a><\/p> Frontispieces and title-pages with spheres and instruments: Whipple STORE 55:13 (The author and instruments for astronomy and navigation)<\/a><\/p> Frontispieces and title-pages with spheres and instruments: CUL Adams.5.55.1 (Terrestrial globe)<\/a><\/p> Frontispieces and title-pages with spheres and instruments: Wren T.23.8 (Armillary sphere)<\/a><\/p> Frontispieces and title-pages with religious, allegorical or emblematic representations: CUL Inc.5.B.3.96c[1702] (Personification of Astronomy)<\/a><\/p> Frontispieces and title-pages with religious, allegorical or emblematic representations: CUL Norton.c.32 (Personification of Astronomy)<\/a><\/p> Frontispieces and title-pages with religious, allegorical or emblematic representations: CUL Qq*.2.158(B) (Title-page with the bear emblem of the Orsini family)<\/a><\/p> Frontispieces and title-pages with religious, allegorical or emblematic representations: CUL Qq*.2.158(B) (Mystical frontispiece with heavenly rose and the portrait of Saint Bathildis)<\/a><\/p> Frontispieces and title-pages with religious, allegorical or emblematic representations: CUL Norton.b.14 (Personification of Astronomy, with large armillary sphere)<\/a><\/p> Frontispieces and title-pages with religious, allegorical or emblematic representations: CUL T*.4.18(D) (Frontispiece of Galileo's Dialogo<\/em>)<\/a><\/p> Frontispieces and title-pages with religious, allegorical or emblematic representations: CUL M.8.10 (Frontispiece to the Rudolphine Tables<\/em>)<\/a><\/p> Frontispieces and title-pages with religious, allegorical or emblematic representations: CUL M.10.47 (Aristotle, Ptolemy and Copernicus with tellurium and armillary sphere)<\/a><\/p> Frontispieces and title-pages with religious, allegorical or emblematic representations: CUL M.7.36 (Frontispiece weighing up cosmological systems)<\/a><\/p> Frontispieces and title-pages with spheres and instruments: Whipple STORE 54:24 (Dryander's rings on a title-page)<\/a><\/p>