BIANCANI (Giuseppe)

Lot 113
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Estimation :
5000 - 6000 EUR
BIANCANI (Giuseppe)
Sphaera mundi, seu cosmographia. Bologna, Sébastien Bonomi, 1620, In-4, soft vellum (contemporary binding). Carli & Favaro, n°83. - Lalande, p. 179 - Riccardi, t. I, col. 127. Original edition of this rare and important treatise on astronomy, decorated with a folding plate (p. 79) and numerous astronomical and technical figures in the text, the one on p. 227 being provided with a volvelle. Jesuit Father Giuseppe Biancani (1566-1624), an Italian mathematician and astronomer, taught mathematics for 20 years, especially in Parma. An adept of Tycho Brahe's geo-heliocentric system, he often claimed to be Galileo's friend. This Sphaera mundi is of double interest for the history of astronomy. On the one hand, because Biancani talks about recent advances in this field, integrating in particular the discoveries of Tycho Brahé, Kepler and Galileo. On the other hand, it is the first astronomy treatise in which the term telescope is regularly used by its author (cf. Grant McColley, "Josephus Blancanus and the adoption of our word "Telescope" in Isis, vol. 28, 1938, pp. 364-365: Biancani was the first to employ exclusively and repeatedly the term "telescope" in an extended treatise. More important, however, is the fact that his example and influence undoubtedly hastened general acceptance and use of the term). The book also contains a study on acoustics, entitled Echometria, which makes Biancani one of the leading theorists in this science (see Patrizio Barbieri, "The Jesuit acousticians and the problem of wind instruments" in Analecta Musicologica, 38, 2007, pp. 155-204). Split on a bit and a small snag in the tail.
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