Sizzi's Dianoia - photo 1
Sizzi's Dianoia - photo 2

Sizzi's Dianoia

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$ 7 560
Auction dateClassic
27.01.2023 10:00UTC +01:00
Auctioneer
CHRISTIE'S
Event location
United Kingdom, London
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Archive
ID 887857
Lot 86 | Sizzi's Dianoia
SIZZI, Francesco (d. 1618). Dianoia [in Greek] astronomica, optica, physica. Venice: Pietro Maria Bertano, 1611 [Bound with:] AURIA, Giuseppe d’ (fl. 16th century). Euclidis phaenomena post Zamberti. Rome: Giovanni Martinelli, 1591 [And:] BEYER, Johann Hartmann (1563-1625). Stereometriae inanium nova et facilis ratio. Frankfurt: Officina Paltheniana, impensis Ionae Rhodii, 1603 [And:] JORDAN, Adam Bernhard (fl. 16th century). Typus temporis vel potius hypotyposis, seu brevis designatio ad ultimum atomum ac momentum eiusdem. Frankfurt: [publisher?], 1592.

Sammelband of first edition astronomical texts, including the first book to respond to Galileo's Sidereus nuncius. Sizzi did not directly challenge the Copernicanism of the Sidereus nuncius, but instead denied his discovery of Jupiter’s planets, which violated the canonical order of the Aristotelian cosmos. He argued that they were optical effects produced by the telescope itself, using as an example the effects of refraction produced on the surface of a glass globe filled with water which was given by Kepler in his 1609 Astronomia pars optica (Kepler, for his part, was not a fan, calling Sizzi’s die-hard Aristotelianism a speculation over "a world on paper" rather than reality). Galileo and Sizzi were in fact friends, and Sizzi was at pains to point out that it was the Sidereus, and not Galileo himself, that he was criticizing; in turn Galileo, unusually for him, refused to refute Sizzi, saying he would rather preserve their friendship. Sizzi was later tortured and executed for sorcery in Paris.

The other works here include the first edition Auria's commentary on Euclid, a treatise on gauging and measurement by another correspondent of Kepler, and a pamphlet on astrology. I. Cinti 32; Carli and Favaro 44; Tomash B 148 and 149.

Four works bound in one, quarto (203 x 160mm). I: woodcut printer's device on title (title lightly dustsoiled); II: printer's device on title and woodcut diagrams in text; III: woodcut diagrams in text (two repairs to paper flaws without loss, light toning); IV: printer's device on title. Contemporary limp vellum (lower portion of spine repaired, without front flyleaf). Provenance: inscription on last leaf "1618 In Roma a 17 Gugno sabato."
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13.01.2023 – 27.01.2023
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