Katalog - Rare Book Week Berlin

Mc Rare books b.v.

Rutilio BENINCASA (1555-1626 c.) Auf Merkliste setzen

Almanacho Perpetuo brevissimo, Et repertorio de’Pianeti. Con il Lunario di giorno in giorno, in che segno Celeste si ritrova la Luna, e gli apetti de’ Pianeti, con la varietà de’ Tempi perpetuamente. Et ancho si dichiara tutte le difficoltà de gl’altri Almanachi: E come sicalcolano le Hore del far della Luna, con la varietà de’ Tempi: E che cosa significano Quadrati, Trini, Sestili, Congiontioni & Oppositioni, che sanno li loro Aspetti, & alytri secreti meravigliosissimi. Composto per Rutilio Benencasa, della fedelissima città di Cosenza. Ex officina Horatij Salviani, in Napoli, 1593 8vo (156 x 105), 288 pp. Full page woodcut with the Sersale family (to whom the work is dedicated) coat-of. arms on title page verso, profusely illustrated, with an extensive repertoire of zodiacal, astrological and kabbalistic figures, lunar phases, horoscopes, palm readings and physiognomy examples as well as calculation diagrams. Contemporary limp vellum with remnant of clasps, ancient owners’ signatures on title page, partially illegible due to ink oxidation.

First edition,of mythical rarity, known only thorough the bibliographical sources, the only surviving copy, a true ghost. Printed just eleven years after the calendar reform introduced by Pope Gregory XIII. This famous work underwent numerous editions, with additions and contributions from various scholars, who considerably expanded its content. The most substantial contribution came from Ottavio Beltrano who, in the mid-17th century, substantially revised and enlarged the work. Rutilio Benincasa’s famous Almanacco Perpetuo is a vast and astonishing work, remarkable for the sheer volume of information it contains: it is a veritable ‘compendium’ of the scientific knowledge and popular beliefs of the sixteenth century, reprinted numerous times and translated into several languages. The work covers a wide range of subjects: from astronomy to agriculture, from medicine to navigation, with considerable space devoted to astrology and Kabbalah. Benincasa distinguished himself above all for the accuracy of his astronomical calculations and weather forecasts, despite his astrological and kabbalistic theories. “A work of great utility and enjoyment to anyone (“and particularly to astrologers, physiognomists, doctors, physicists, surgeons, barbers, distillers, alchemists, farmers, painters, shipmasters… and any other curious person”, as Beltrano later specified in the editions he edited). It belongs to the later period of that literature of ephemerides or almanacs widely circulated in Europe throughout the 16th century, which included, in addition to astronomical tables and the variable data necessary for compiling the calendar, a weather forecast, supplemented by an indication of the most opportune times for various agricultural tasks, an ecclesiastical calendar (or a series of data necessary for its compilation), a medical calendar (indicating the appropriate times for purges, baths and bloodletting, dietary guidelines for the various periods of the year, etc.), a wind rose, and various astrological elements designed to predict auspicious or inauspicious events. The B. Almanac, however, stands out from this type of literature due to its perpetual nature, based on a nineteen-year cycle, and its marked claim to comprehensiveness (it contains elements of cosmology, cosmography and chronology; it deals with the measurement of the Earth and the spheres, the origin of meteorological phenomena, the various eras and their duration, the foreseeable duration of the world, etc.), and above all because astronomy is regarded merely as a theoretical premise of astrology, for which B. intends to provide a manual.” (Menchi, translated). REF. B. BONCOMPAGNi, Intorno a un trattato d'aritmetica stampato nel 1478 In: Atti d. Accad. pontificia dei Nuovi Lincei, XV (1862-63), pp. 608-626, 952-962; L. ACCATTATIS Le biografie degli uomini illustri delle Calabrie, vol. ii (sec. xvi e xvii), Cosenza, Tip. Municipale, 1870, p. 106; SILVANA MENCHI Rutilio Benincasa, In: Dizionario Biografico degli italiani, vol. 8, Roma, Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, 1966; D. RE, L. RE, Rutilio Benincasa cosentino, “l’Aristotile delle plebi contadine”. La vita, i racconti, le leggende, le fiabe, gli scritti, il suo Almanacco perpetuo “celeberrimo trattato di astronomia e astrologia”, Torano Castello, Provincia di Cosenza – Pubblica Istruzione e Politiche culturali, Progetto promozione del libro e della lettura, 2007; S. SPIRITI Memorie degli scrittori cosentini, Napoli 1750, pp. 122-123; MINIERI RICCIO Notizie biogr. e bibl. degli scrittori napoletani fioriti nel sec. XVII, II, p. 23. (Seller ref. MC0955)

20000,- EUR
Differenzbesteuert/Subject to margin taxation

Sachgebiete: Astrologie, Astronomie, Erstausgaben, Illustrierte Bücher

Kontakt zum

Anbieter