ALFONSO X (1221-1284), KING OF CASTILE AND LEON. Astronomicae tabulae in propriam integritatem restitutae, ad calcem adiectis tabulis quae in postrema editione deerant... Qua in re Paschasius Hamellius... sedulam operam suam praestitit.
Paris: Christian Wechel, 1545.

A very good copy of the work which is responsible for Alfonso X’s “lasting scientific fame” (DSB), in a handsome strictly contemporary London or Cambridge binding. The ‘Alphonsine Tables’, as they became known, were a standard work of reference for astronomers, cosmographers, astrologers and navigators for nearly five hundred years. Essentially a translation of the Toledan Tablets of the Cordoban astronomer al-Zarqali (Archazel, c. 1029 - c. 1087), with some new observations made in the years 1262-1272, the work retained the Ptolemaic system for calculating celestial motions.

The tables were used to predict the motions of the planets and stars, and also to determine lunar phases, eclipses and calendrical information. They “utilized mean solar, lunar, and planetary orbits and equations; declinations of stars; ascension, opposition and conjunction of the sun and moon; visibility of the moon and of eclipses; and a trigonometrical theory of sines and chords to predict the motion of celestial bodies” (DSB I 122).

Alfonso el Sabio (‘The Learned’, 1221 - 1284), was the great-grandson of Frederick Barbarossa, and became Alfonso X upon the death of his father Ferdinand III in 1252. He was an enthusiastic sponsor of the translation of Arabic works, especially astronomy, into Latin and Castilian. The commission of a translation of the present work, which became known as the Tablas alfonsinas, was his most enduring achievement. In its Latin form it was widely popular throughout the Middle Ages, the Spanish text from which it was translated having been lost. The first printed edition was Ratdolt’s in Venice, in 1483, and there were nine subsequent editions (the last one in 1649), two of them published by Wechel.

Houzeau & Lancaster 12487; BMC French p. 11; Adams A-733; Oldham HE g4; Brunet I, p.199; Cantamessa I 103; Graesse I 86; Brunet I 199 nota; Macclesfield 2170 (this copy).

4to: 255 x 187mm. Pp. [viii] 274 [ii]. A very good, large unsophisticated copy in contemporary English blind-tooled calf over pasteboard, covers with central fleurons in roll-tooled borders with Tudor rose, fleur-de-lys, portcullis, crown, and dragon motifs within double blind-ruled borders, spine gilt in compartments, front guard and rear pastedown preserving fragments of 14th-century manuscript (one corned and foot of spine expertly repaired, joints cracked but holding firm). From the library of the Earls of Macclesfield at Shirburn Castle, with their armorial bookplate to front pastedown, and embossed stamp to title and aii.