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Astronomical Images : Personification of Astronomy

Gregor Reisch

Astronomical Images

<p style='text-align: justify;'>The <i>Margarita philosophica</i> was a compendium, or 'Epitome' of university learning in the sixteenth century. It was written by the prior of the house of Carthusians at Freiburg, Gregor Reisch (d. 1525), and was first published in 1503 in Freiburg by Johannes Schott, a printer from Strasbourg. The work was illustrated amply with somewhat crude woodcuts, and was divided into twelve books, with one book each dealing with the trivium (grammar, dialectic and rhetoric) and quadrivium (arithmetic, music, geometry, astronomy), four books devoted to natural philosophy, and one book on moral philosophy. It was a popular work, reprinted numerous times during the sixteenth century, including the unauthorized, augmented editions by another printer at Strasbourg, Johann Grueninger. Oronce Fine edited and added to the Latin text of the 1535 edition. This woodcut shows the personification of Astronomy, standing behind Ptolemy (2nd century CE) who was frequently depicted as a king owing to a confusion with the Ptolemaic kings who ruled over Egypt after the death of Alexander the Great. Ptolemy is shown holding a quadrant, and an armillary sphere is shown in the foreground.</p>


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