8vo. 260 (instead of 268) pp. (lacking 4 leaves: J8, K1, 4-5), 2 blank ff. With woodcut device in contemporary colour on title-page. Illustrated throughout with woodcut diagrams and spheres, 2 with movable parts, nearly all in stark contemporary colour. - (Bound with) II: Beyer, Hartmann. Quaestiones novae in libellum de sphaera Ioannis de Sacro Bosco, in gratiam studiosae iuventutis collectae ab Ariele Bicardo [...]. Wittenberg, Peter Seitz, 1550. (4), 80 (instead of 84) ff. (lacking 4 leaves: 52-55). With two folding tables, woodcut device on titile-page, an initial and a diagram in the text, all woodcuts in contemp. colour. - (Bound with) III: Honter, Johannes. Rudimentorum cosmographicorum libri III cum tabellis geographicis elegantissimis. De variarum rerum nomenclaturis per classes, liber I. Zürich, Christoph Froschauer, 1552. (30) ff., 2 blank ff., (14) ff., 1 blank f. With woodcut device on title-page. Final 14 leaves comprise the atlas "Circuli sphaerae cum V zonis" with half-title woodcut, 2 smaller woodcuts in the text, and 13 woodcut maps (12 double-page, 1 full-page), all in stark contemporary colour. Contemporary blindstamped pigskin (wanting clasps). Fine sammelband of astronomical and geographical works, annotated and brilliantly coloured throughout by a contemporary owner. - I: Rare edition of the most important astronomical work of the Middle Ages: a reissue of the 1545 edition with only the colophon changed (the earlier year of publication is preserved on the separate title of part two, "De anni ratione" [J3r]). Includes Melanchthon's 1531 preface as well as his 1538 dedication, in the name of Rheticus, to Achilles Gasser. Among the woodcuts are not only two volvelles (the movable part of a third woodcut appears lost) but also a globe map of Europe, Africa, and part of Asia on leaf F5v (apparently an improved version of the "Globus Mundi" map mentioned by Shirley on p. 33). Occasional annotations in brown ink; rubricated throughout, with penwork decorations to initials in blue and red ink; nearly all woodcuts are hand-coloured in surprisingly vivid hues. The four missing leaves have been supplied in facsimile. - II: Early Wittenberg reissue of this popular instructional manual on astronomy, first published in Frankfurt the previous year. "Some new features from the standpoint of presentations and pedagogy, but its astronomy remains Ptolemaic and Sacroboscan" (Thorndike). Heavily annotated throughout in brown and bright red ink by a 16th-century hand. Lower corner of leaf L1 torn off (no loss to text). Missing 4 leaves of text, but includes the two frequently lacking folding tables. - III: Fourth Zurich edition of Honter's atlas with the maps reproduced from the first Froschauer edition published in 1546 (the work had originally appeared in Cracow in 1530 without illustrations). The fine maps, showing the widely used heart-shaped world map (cut by Heinrich Vogtherr the Elder, a specially commissioned reduced version of Waldseemüller's), Spain, France, Germany, Eastern Europe, the Balkans, Greece, Italy, Palestine, Turkey, Asia, Africa, and Sicily (all but the latter printed as double-page spreads), are in good contemporary hand colour, as are the spherical globe, the diagram of the planetary orbits (with the earth at centre), and the globe surrounded by the four winds. - A well-preserved collection in its first binding. I: VD 16, 727. Zinner 1971. BNHCat J 140. NUC 513, p. 474. Cf. Adams H 725. Burmeister, Rhetikus II, p. 56f., nos 6. & 7 (1538 & 1550). - II: VD 16, ZV 1449. Zinner 1978. IA 118.456. Houzeau/Lancaster 2527. This edition not in Adams or BM-STC German. - III: VD 16, H 4781. Adams H 833. Shirley 86 (and fig. 73). Sabin 32796. Alden/L. 552/25. Borsa (Ausg. d. Cosmographia) 96. Cf. Nordenskiöld p. 111 & plate 44. Not in BM-STC German.
