Astronomical Images : Risings and settings of the stars

Johannes Sacrobosco

Astronomical Images

<p style='text-align: justify;'>Very little is known about Johannes Sacrobosco except that he was probably British, taught astronomy at Paris University, and died there in the second quarter of the thirteenth century. <i>Sphaera mundi</i>, his major work, was an extraordinarily popular astronomical textbook for several generations. Manuscripts of it circulated through all the main European centres of learning. It was first published in 1472 in Ferrara, and went through dozens of editions up to the mid-seventeenth century. This edition of Sacrobosco's <i>Sphaera mundi</i> was printed in 1490, and draws closely on the woodcut figures from the 1488 edition also printed in Venice by Joannes Lucilius Santritter and Hieronymus de Sanctis. The woodcut at the top accompanies part of the third chapter of Sacrobosco's text which discusses risings and settings of the stars. The woodcut at the bottom of the page shows the right and oblique horizons with the zodiac and the equator.</p>