Astronomical Images : The eighth sphere according to Thabit

Erasmus Oswald Schreckenfuchs

Astronomical Images

<p style='text-align: justify;'>This unique edition of Oswald Schreckenfuchs' massive commentary contained, for the first time in the <i>Theoricae novae</i> printed tradition, a series of three-dimensional diagrams intended to complement the ordinary diagrams of the orbs, circles, axes and poles of the planets and the eighth sphere. These diagrams are printed on one side of two <i>bifolia</i>. In some copies the <i>bifolia</i> form one gathering b (four folios), bound after the preface; in others the figures have been cut, and each is inserted in the appropriate place in the treatise. They are not lettered and have no legend, though some of their elements are labelled, as they must be used in association with the diagrams in the text. This figure represents the movement of the eighth sphere according to Thabit.</p>