Astronomical Images : The oblique horizon, and the spheres of the Elements

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 woodcut figures that draw closely on those from the 1488 edition, also printed in Venice by Joannes Lucilius Santritter and Hieronymus de Sanctis. The figure at the top illustrates the oblique horizon and the figure at the bottom shows the relative positions of the spheres of the Elements.</p>