Nuova pagina 1

James Bassantin

Astronomique discours. Lyons, 1557

Astronomia J. Bassantini Scoti. Opus absolutissimum, in quo, quidquid unquam peritiores mathematici in caelis observarunt, eo ordine, eaque ; methodo traditur, ut cujus posthace facile innotescant quaecumque de Astris ac planetis, necnon de eorum variis orbibus, motibus, passionibus, etc. dici possunt. Ad Sereniss. principem, D. Fridericum IIII. comitem palatinum ad Rhenum, S. R. Imperii electorem primarium, Bavariae ducem, etc. Ginevra 1599

James Bassantin

Astronomique discours. Lyons: Par Jan de Tournes, 1557.

Le due incisioni che presento in questa scheda appartengono a due edizioni della stessa opera dell’astronomo scozzese James Bassantin: la prima edita nel 1557 in lingua francese e la seconda alcuni decenni dopo, nel 1599, in lingua latina. Le due incisioni sono tra loro identiche e riproducono quasi esattamente quella di Pietro Apiano contenuta in Astronomicum Cesareum del 1540http://www.atlascoelestis.com/ApianusPaginabase1.htm. Si presentano come un vero strumento in carta composto da volvelle sovrapposte e rotanti su di un unico perno che hanno lo scopo di Instrument pour trouver les longitudes et les latitudes des étoiles fixes et pour trouver le mouvement des planetes. Il testo, che è una guida pratica all’esercizio delle cose celesti, è ampiamente corredato da approfondimenti iconografici ed oltre alla nostra presenta altre 17 volvelle, o dischi mobili. Ognuna caratterizzata da una specifica funzione. Anche per queste caratteristiche il nostro ha avuto come modello l’opera di Pietro Apiano.

Le copie dell’edizione francese sono rare ma è possibile trovarle nel mondo dell’antiquariato. Di seguito propongo una scheda analitica sull’opera e l’autore realizzata da DB, David Brass Rare Book che attualmente la propone in vendita, http://www.davidbrassrarebooks.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-shopping-cart/single_book.php/?sbook=1352

BASSANTIN, James. Astronomique discours. Lyons: Par Jan de Tournes, 1557.

Rare first edition of this beautifully illustrated astronomical work. Large folio (16 7/8 x 11 11/16 inches; 428 x 297 mm .). 285, [1, privilege], [1, printer's device], [1, blank] pp. With 175 woodcuts and woodcut diagrams, of which fourteen have a total of thirty-five (of thirty-six) volvelles (as in the Honeyman and Horblit copies; the two Harvard copies have only thirty-three), one half-page and the rest full-page. Fifty-six text tables. Arabesque and type ornament headpieces, arabesque tailpieces. Woodcut printer's device on title and another on recto of final leaf.

Early twentieth-century (ca.1925) French brown hard-grain morocco by RenÃ© Aussour (stamp-signed in gilt on the front turn-in). Yapp edges. Covers ruled in blind, smooth spine decoratively ruled in blind and ruled and lettered in gilt, turn-ins ruled in blind, all edges gilt, marbled endpapers. With the bookplate of Marcel Destombes, the famed historian of cartography. Paper repair to lower blank margin of title, to lower gutter of leaf b2 (pp. 11/12), and to a few other leaves. Overall, a fine and fresh copy.

Because of the delicacy of the volvelles' construction, moving parts and active contemporary use, copies in condition with all thirty-six are so scarce as to be near impossible to find. Of the three copies that have come to auction within the last thirty-five years only two were complete. Yet one of those had paper repairs affecting the text. The other, through a lesser auction house, had no auctioneer's condition report whatsoever, making it suspect.

"Printed paper instruments called volvelles provided astronomers with the positions of the Sun, Moon, and planets, freeing them from performing lengthy calculations derived from planetary tables. Bassantin's work, a general overview of astronomy, partly copies Petrus Apianus's Astronomicum CÃ¦sareum of 1540. The Irish astronomer William Molyneux (1656-1698) once owned this copy" (Journeys over Land and Sea : Astronomy and Navigation, Smithsonian Institution).

"The size of this volume and the extent of its illustrations and ornamentation make this an unusually fine example of the attention given to the printing of scientific works at this periodâ�¦This is the principal work of Bassantin [d. 1568], a Scottish astronomer of considerable reputation. Settled in France at this period, he wrote in French, although he had difficulty with the language" (Harvard, French).

"James Bassantin (b. c. 1504 - d. 1568), astronomer and astrologer, was the son of the laird of Bassendean in the Merse, Berwickshire, and was born in the reign of James IV (r. 1488â��1513). He entered the University of Glasgow at an early age, and, after finishing his studies in the humanities, devoted himself to mathematics and its related sciences, in which he acquired remarkable proficiency. To improve further in these subjects he travelled in the Low Countries, Switzerland, France, Italy, and Germany, before finally settling in France, first in Lyons and later in Paris, as a teacher of mathematics. His success there may have been because he was able to introduce new ideas and materials that he had learned in Germany and Italy exactly at the moment that a lack of modern methods in practical mathematics was felt in France. His major work, the Astronomique discours, first published in Lyons in 1557 (Latin trans. Lyons 1559, Geneva 1599), is an elaborately illustrated book with movable diagrams which describes the basic elements of astronomy and planetary motion based on the monumental Astronomicum Caesaream of Peter Apian (1540). Further evidence for the influence of German protestant astronomers on Bassantin is provided by his appeal to the authority of Melanchthon to justify his predictions to Sir Robert Melville.

"Slightly earlier, for the same publisher in Lyons in 1555, Bassantin had produced a revised and enlarged edition of the Paraphrase de l'astrolabe by Jacques Focard (1546) to which was added his â��Amplification de l'usage de l'astrolabe'. The same text was also added to Guillaume Cavellat's 1558 Paris edition of Dominique Jacquinot's L'vsage de l'astrolabe (repr. 1559, 1573, 1598). Bassantin indeed may have been one of the two mutual friends of Jacquinot and Cavellat who revised the whole work. His â��Amplification' concerned first the finding of the positions in ecliptic latitude of the moon, the planets, and the fixed stars, which even Stoefler said could not be found with the astrolabe, and second the use of the shadow square" (DNB).

Graesse I, 308. Adams B369. Brunet I, col. 692. Harvard, French, 47. Honeyman 244. Horblit Library 89.

I planisferi celesti di Apiano e quindi anche quello di Bassantin si inseririscono nella tradizione che ha per riferimento la tavola di Dürer del 1515. Di seguito aggiungo a tal proposito una ulteriore scheda per cortesia di:

https://www.astronomie-nuernberg.de/index.php?category=duerer&page=bassantin-1557

Die Himmelskarte von James Bassantin von 1557

James Bassantin (um 1504-1568) war ein schottischer Mathematiker und Astrologe, der an der Universität in Paris lehrte. 1557 brachte er in Lyon den Astronomique Discours heraus, der Bl. 196veine Sternkarte enthielt, die die von Apian von 1536 bzw. 1540 als Vorbild hatte. 1613 gab es in Genf eine Neuauflage dieser Arbeit, 1599 erschien hier unter dem Titel Astronomia eine lateinische Übersetzung, die auch in Köln und Leiden herauskam.

Weitere Versionen online:

Astronomia von 1599, S. 174 [Smithonian Libraries, Washingthon]

Astronomia von 1599 S. 174 [Bibliothèque de Genève]

Weitere Version aus dem 17. Jahrhundert [HAB Wolfenbüttel]

Aufbewahrende Institution:

Französische Nationalbibliothek, Paris: GE DD- 1688 (Ausgabe von 1577)

Smithonian Libraries, Washingthon: 2 A-2K4 (Lateinische Ausgabe von 1599)

Bibliothèque de Genève: Kb 26 (Lateinische Ausgabe von 1599)

Deutsches Museum, München: 3000/1929 C 45 (Neuauflage von 1613)

Literatur:

Kanas, Nick: Star Maps. History, Artistry and Cartography. Chicester: Praxis Publishing 2007, S. 331

Kunitzsch, Paul: Peter Apian und Azophi. Arabische Sternbilder in Ingolstadt im frühen 16. Jahrhundert. München: Verlag der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaft 1986

Englische Version aus dem Journal for the history of astronomy (mit Abbildung der Karte)

Consulta la prima edizione in francese per cortesia di Google

http://books.google.it/books?id=LssBzEodk14C&printsec=frontcover&dq=inauthor:%22Jacques+Bassantin%22&hl=it&sa=X&ei=2DG4U4egFKmV0AX304GICQ&ved=0CCIQ6wEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

Astronomique_discours_par_Jacques_Bassan.pdf

Consulta l’edizione in latino per cortesia di e-rara

http://www.e-rara.ch/gep_g/content/thumbview/4182511

Astronomia J Bassantini Scoti Opus absolutissimum in quo quidquid unquam peritio.pdf

Tavola del 1557