CLAVIUS. In sphaeram Ioannis de Sacro Bosco commentarius.

In-4to. 206x155 mm. Contemporary full smooth vellum binding. Pages [32], 467, [1]. Collation: ?82?8A-2E82F¹°. On Title Page typographical indication “ex officina Dominici Basae”; at end “apud Franciscum Zanettum” and Zanetti printer's device. Large woodcut armillary sphere at title page; in text numerous diagrams and woodcut tables . Ancient possession note to Title Page. Traces of wear, some trace of waterstain to margin of first few pages, a few wormholes, good copy.

Rare illustrated and enlarged edition. This is the first edition to contain Clavius' condemnation of Copernicus. Here Clavius provides, for the first time, an extensive and methodical denunciation of Copernican heliocentrism, particularly on pages 436-7. DSB: "'In [this book] Clavius was apparently the first to accuse Copernicus not only of having presented a physically absurd doctrine but also of having contradicted numerous scriptural passages. The friendship between Clavius and Galileo, according to their correspondence, began when Galileo was twenty-three and remained unimpaired throughout Clavius' life."

This 1581 edition is greatly enlarged and contains an analysis of eccentrics, epicycles and eclipses (Ch. IV, pp. 415-67), including Clavius' first-hand accounts of the eclipses of 1560 and 1567, the first known record of an annular solar eclipse. The work is illustrated with ten very detailed woodcut diagrams of solar and lunar eclipses not included in the first edition.

Adams C-2100; BM STC Italian 597; EDIT6 12672; Houzeau & Lancaster 2678; Sommervogel I, col.1212; USTC 822863; Thorndyke, VI,45-46.

Cfr. Gattei, On the Life of Galileo (2019); Lalande 111; Lattis, Between Copernicus and Galileo (1994); Maclean, 'Sacrobosco at the Book Fairs', in Publishing Sacrobosco's De Sphaera (2022d).