REGIOMONTANUS, Johannes.

[Kalendarium]. [Incipit:] Aureus hic liber est non est preciosior ulla Gemma kalendario quod docet istud opus …

Venice: Bernhard [Maler] Pictor, Peter Löslein and Erhard Ratdolt, 1476.

Second edition, an extraordinary and absolutely complete copy, of Regiomontanus’ Calendarium, the first printed in Italy; it was first issued in Latin in 1474 from Regiomontanus’ own press at Nuremberg. Printed calendars and almanacs became extremely popular in the fifteenth century and provided ordinary people with the basic knowledge required to plan their daily routines. The market for calendars was first tapped by Gutenburg, who published a calendar which calculated the times of new and full moons and planetary positions, with readings every two to three days. All earlier calendars, however, were superseded by those of Regiomontanus (1436-1476) whose calculations were far more accurate. Regiomontanus’ Calendarium represents the first application of modern scientific methods of astronomical calculation and observation to the problems of the lunar calendar, such as Easter, and the accurate prediction of eclipses. Regiomontanus’ almanacs contained planetary positions for a particular year as calculated from astronomical tables, freeing astronomers from performing the laborious task themselves. He designed a sundial to work independently of one’s latitude, and a volvelle, or circular dial, to locate the position and phase of the Moon according to date and time. Books had become observational instruments in their own right. This Venetian publication is rightly famous for bearing the earliest known example in the history of printing of the “idea of the modern title page. That is, instead of signing the books in a colophon on the final page in accord with manuscript tradition, they placed their names and that of the place and date of printing at the bottom of the opening page” (Stilwell). Prior to this date, and throughout the remainder of the 15th century, the title, place, and date of printing, as well as the printer's name were usually printed on the colophon leaf at the end of books, in the manner of medieval manuscripts. It is also the first book to be dated with Arabic rather than Roman numerals, and the first Italian book with extensive use of woodcut initials. The German astronomer “incorporated in his productions the first solutions to a host of typographical problems: tabula data [...]; pioneering printed geometrical diagrams, illustrations of eclipses and planetary models (some systematically coloured by hand under the supervision of the press); the first volvelles and sundials with built-in brass arms in a printed book” (M. H. Shank, The Geometrical Diagrams, p. 27). The border framing the title page is designed in the purest Renaissance style. As Goldsmith states, the floral and foliate motifs recall the ornaments carved in relief by Lombardi in the marble pilasters of the Venetian church Santa Maria dei Miracoli. Between 1474 and 1500 no less than 14 editions of the Calendarium were printed in Latin, German and Italian. Ratdolt also issued an edition of the Calendarium in Italian in the same year as the present work, but that edition omits the disquisition on the true date of Easter and table of its incidence from 1488 to 1531. Although this book is reasonably well represented in institutional collections, complete copies are very rare on the market, and copies of this magnificence probably unique.

“The most popular of Regiomontanus’s works, after the almanacs, were the calendars. The oldest printed calendars are not his, for there is evidence of a printed calendar for 1448. Wall calendars appeared later. All of these earlier calendars were superseded by Regiomontanus’s calendars, which contained times of the true new moon and full moon, the true solar and lunar paths, the length of the day, and a table of locations – for 57 years. Besides this, they contained figures for reckoning time and converting hours of equal length to planetary hours …

“[Neither the German nor the Latin calendars] contain the calendar the days of the month and feast days then the true solar path through the signs and the times of the new and full moons in hours and minutes for the year is 1475–1531, valid for Nuremberg. If the reader wishes to know the time for another location the necessary correction is taken from the table of locations. For eclipses, there follow special tables with times of the middle of an eclipse and its half-duration, as well as graphic woodcuts; from these it can be seen at a glance just which part of the sun or moon is being eclipsed.

“The commentary contains instructions for finding the golden numbers, Sunday letters, times of movable feasts, and true solar and lunar paths for the entire time period covered. There is also a short instruction set for determining times for phlebotomy according to the lunar path through the signs. Then there is the determination of the length of the day for each day and important instructions for designing a ‘Süduhr’ on a wall, for use of a portable sundial (the ‘Quadratum horarium generale’), and for converting equal-length hours to unequal hours reckoned from sunrise, or planetary hours. At the end there are four figures of the true lunar path, the design of the sundial, the portable sundial, and the conversion of equal hours to planetary hours …

“At the end of the Latin calendar there is a section on the errors in ecclesiastical calculations of Easter. Regiomontanus published this important section only in Latin, hence only in the calendar understandable by scholars. He was obviously trying to avoid being accused of stirring up large segments of the population against the Church by referring to errors in the Church’s calculations … calendar form was an important idea in those days … in the Latin calendar he described the errors in ecclesiastical reckoning of Easter to which he appended a table of the dates for Easter for 1475-1531 …

“This calendar enjoyed tremendous popularity, as witnessed by its many copies and reprintings. As a result of Regiomontanus’s untimely death, the beautiful publications of his press were discontinued. Although the edition was supposed to have come to 1000 copies, the calendar must have quickly sold out … And so it was not long before reprints appeared of which Regiomontanus never would have approved …

“It was in 1476 that Erhard Ratdolt printed the Latin (and Italian) calendars in Venice, in collaboration with Bernhard Maler and Peter Löslein; two years later he and Maler also printed the German calendar. These calendars – just printings without additions – are nicely done. They begin with songs of praise to calendars and their makers” (Zinner, pp. 125-127).

HC 13775; Klebs 836.2; Sander 6400; BMC v 243; IGI 5310; Goff R93; BSB R-69; Essling 247; Stillwell, Science 100. Zinner, Regiomontanus, 2014.

4to (290 x 208 mm), ff. [32] leaves. Text in one column, 37 lines. Type: 109R, 50G (for a few words and the letters in the plates). Title page printed in red and black, within three-side woodcut border consisting of symmetrical floral and foliate designs, in this copy lavishly illuminated on gold ground. The shield included in the lower panel of the border filled in with a small coat of arms, a standing lion painted in blue; the same coat of arms in larger size and painted on silver ground in the lower margin, within laurel wreath and flanked by two cornucopias. On the same leaf large initial 'A’ printed in red. The 24-page Calendar with initials names of the saints and figures printed in red. Sixty woodcuts depicting the various stages of lunar and solar eclipses (fols. [b]6 - [b]8; some repeated), of which many are hand-coloured in yellow. Four instruments printed on two double sheets glued together: the ‘instrvmentvm horarvm inaeqalivm’ (fol. [c] 14) and the ‘instrvmentvm veri motvs lvnae.minve’ (fol. pc] 1v) are both with the often lacking two moveable volvelles (including the strings), both the ‘qvadrans horologii horizontalis’ (fol. [c] 14r) and the ‘qvadratvm horarivm generale’ (fol. [c]14b) include the brass pointer in its full form (one half is often lacking). Contemporary or early 16th-century Italian vellum. A beautiful wide-margined copy.

Item #5633

Price: $325,000.00