Bonatus, Decem tractatus astronomiae, Augsburg, 1491, 2 volumes, contemporary half calf, Melk copy

Guido Bonatus

Decem tractatus astronomiae [with additions by Jacobus Canter, edited by Johannes Angeli]. Augsburg: Erhard Ratdolt, 26 March 1491

bound in 2 volumes (up to quire E in first volume), 4to (212 x 159mm.), 408 leaves (of 422), [*¹⁴] a–z A–Z AA–EE⁸, 39-44 lines, gothic type, woodcut illustrations, large woodcut printer's device on red on final leaf, contemporary Germanic half tooled calf over wooden boards, single clasp, paper label on upper covers, some deckle edges, in modern drop-backed brown buckram box, lacking index (supplied in facsimile at the start of the second volume), slight damp-staining at the start of each volume at the foot of the page, a few small wormholes at start of volume 1, spines slightly worn with slight loss

FROM THE ABBEY OF MELK. FIRST EDITION AND A CHARMING COPY of Bonatti's treatise on astronomy, beautifully printed by Erhard Ratdolt. Bonatti (died c. 1300) was a renowned mathematician, physician and astrologer, politically a Ghibelline, and placed by his contemporary Dante in Hell. It is thought that he wrote this substantial treatise after 1277, aimed at the general reader rather than the specialist, and the result was "the most successful treatise of Latin astrology of the period" (R. Kay, Dante's Christian astrology, 1994, p. 281).

This copy does not contain the index which is thought to have been printed separately.

LITERATURE:

ISTC ib00845000

PROVENANCE:

A gift from Abbot Gregorius (died 1502) of the Cistercian monastery of Lilienfeld, Lower Austria, to Father Paul of Melk, the cellarer [i.e. Paulus of Prunau?], early inscription on flyleaf; erased inscription at start of volume 2; Benedictine abbey of Melk, inventory numbers A.107 and A.108 on covers