Medicaeorum ephemerides - photo 1
Medicaeorum ephemerides - photo 2
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Medicaeorum ephemerides

Lot 89
28.01.2025 10:00UTC -05:00
Classic
Sold
$ 2 016
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUSA, New York
Archive
The auction is completed. No bids can be placed anymore.
Archive
ID 1360805
Lot 89 | Medicaeorum ephemerides
Estimate value
$ 3 000 – 5 000
ODIERNA, Joannes Baptista (1597-1660). Medicaeorum ephemerides. Palermo: Cirillos, 1656.

First edition of a rare work of Sicilian astronomy, with astronomical provenance. It contains "the first printed ephemerides of the Galilean planets" (Serio, et al). The observations recorded here by Odierna were principally aimed at determining the period of revolution of the four satellites of Jupiter but also include an important section on nebulae. “Like Galileo he tried to predict their eclipses, which would have helped to solve the long-standing, important problem of determining longitudes at sea; lacking sufficient knowledge of celestial mechanics, neither he nor Galileo was successful” (DSB X, p.176). The work has a peculiar structure, and may best be interpreted as one work in three parts, followed by a supplement with more observations in the final part.

RBH records only two sales: the Macclesfield copy in 2005 and the Beltrame copy in 2017. Carli and Favaro 258; Riccardi I(ii), 214.8; not in Houzeau-Lancaster. See Serio et al., “G.B. Hodierna’s Observations of Nebulae and His Cosmology", Journal for the History of Astronomy, vol. XVI (1985), p.36.

Quarto (230 × 180mm). General title with woodcut of the sun, 4 section-titles the first with woodcut arms of the work’s dedicatee Ferdinando II de’ Medici and the remainder with woodcut printer’s device, woodcut diagrams, woodcut tailpieces and initials (first part lacking epigraph leaf and without duplicate woodcut plate sometimes bound as a preliminary, occasional small stains and spotting, few small tears). Early vellum, manuscript title on spine (small stains, endleaves browned, lower hinge cracked). Provenance: Giovanni Alphonse Borelli (1608-1679, Italian astronomer and physician; ex libris note) – 18th-century inscription on title-page “Biblioth. Schol. Piar. J. Pantal. | ex lib. Alph. Borelli” – unidentified inkstamp to general title.
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