ZAMORANO, Rodrigo (1542-1620) - photo 1
ZAMORANO, Rodrigo (1542-1620) - photo 2
ZAMORANO, Rodrigo (1542-1620) - photo 3

ZAMORANO, Rodrigo (1542-1620)

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£ 13 860
Auction dateClassic
14.12.2022 10:30UTC +01:00
Auctioneer
CHRISTIE'S
Event location
United Kingdom, London
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ID 870778
Lot 129 | ZAMORANO, Rodrigo (1542-1620)
ZAMORANO, Rodrigo (1542-1620)

Compendio del arte de navegar. Sevilla: Juan de León, 1588.

Rare fourth edition of an important navigational manual, chiefly intended for voyages to America. All early editions are very rare: RBH/ABPC record just one other copy of this edition in the last 60 years.



First published in 1581, it was reprinted a further four times in Spain before the end of the 16th century. It also exerted significant influence in England after it was included in translation in Edward Wright’s Certaine Errors in Navigation (1610). Zamorano was King Philip II's chief cosmographer and taught at the Casa de la Contratacion which trained pilots and managed the trade between Spain and the New World. In his introduction, he cites Peurbach, Regiomontanus, Johannes Wener, Copernicus, and Reinhold with regards to the obliquity of the ecliptic and ‘used the mathematics of Copernicus to correct the tables of solar declination' (Barrera-Osorio).



‘As early as 1519, the Casa de Contratacion in Seville had specialists in instrument and mapmaking, and in 1523 it named its first specialist with the title of Cosmographer […] Cosmographical activity at the Casa de la Contratacion coalesced around the figure of Rodrigo Zamorano during the 1580s. A university trained cosmographer, he occupied at one point or another each of the Casa’s Cosmographical posts during his almost 40 years at the Sevilian institution’ (Portuondo). Antonio Barrera-Osorio, Experiencing Nature: The Spanish American Empire and the Early Scientific Revolution (2010); Palau 379250; María M. Portuondo, Secret Science: Spanish Cosmography and the New World (2013); USTC 342533.



Octavo (187 x 123mm). Woodcut printer’s device on title, woodcut initials, numerous woodcuts in the text illustrating navigational instruments including an astrolabe (occasional finger soiling or faint stain, lightly washed). 19th-century tree sheep, red morocco lettering piece gilt. Provenance: Gabriel Josepé Lopez Valencia, Colmenar Viejo (inscription on verso of title dated 1753) – Hauptbibliothek des Reichs-Marine-Amts (label on front pastedown, stamps and number on title) – further unidentified ink stamps on title – evidence of removed label from spine.





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Place of origin:Europe, Spain
Category:Printed book
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