1524      COSMOGRAPHICUS LIBER   
   M     athematici     S     tudiose     C     ollectus      by      Petrus     A     pianus  
  The original copy is currently on sale for $85.000  
    ‘One of the first European books to depict and discuss North America’   
  The scarce   , l   avishly illustrated work on cosmography, astronomy, cartography and navigation – a most famous Americanum and a ground-breaking landmark in the history of scientific illustration. 
  ‘Cosmographicus Liber’, which earned Apianus a professorship, was a very successful textbook, translated into most European languages throughout the C16 and later expanded by the mathematician Gemma Frisius. Largely based on Ptolemy, it begins with the definition of cosmography – ‘a broad science of the Renaissance which set out to explain everything in the universe within a mathematical framework’ (Barentine, p.147). In fact, ‘cosmography was fundamentally concerned with using projective geometry to connect the heavens and the Earth, and, frequently, to relate solar motion, terrestrial location and time’ (Whipple, p.58). Part I discusses the movements of the spheres, the 5 climatic zones, the elevation of the poles, how to calculate latitude and longitude, as well as the distance between places, using instruments, eclipses and the winds. Part II deals with the four continents (with a chapter on America), providing the latitude and longitude of major locations, including Guadalupe, Brazil, Cuba, Cabo de Buenaventura and Rio de Santiago, how to calculate the hours of day and night, as well as heights, etc. A great part is devoted to the use of contemporary astronomical instruments, e.g., the armillary sphere and the ‘scala geometrica’.   The C16 annotator of this copy noted down the dates of the winter and summer solstice, ‘8 days before the Kalendae   of January’ (December 25) and ‘8 days before the Kalendae of July’ (June 24), with reference to the Julian calendar. 
  Published 31 years after the first announcement in print of Columbus’s discovery,  It also includes a chapter about America – discovered in 1497’, a date shared by other German sources, with no mention of Columbus - which begins: ‘America, now the Fourth part of the Earth, is so called   after its discoverer, Americo Vespucci. [...] it is referred to as an Island as it is surrounded by the sea.’   The 1-page account describes the native inhabitants as ‘anthropophagi’, mentions their   traditional clothing, customs, cults and rites, as well as the names of surrounding islands (e.g., Cuba). 
   Date     :    1524  
   Current Location:    London, UK 
   Size / Format     :    196   pages / 2   1   .0 ×   29   .0 cm   /   8.3   ”   x 11.7   ” / A4 dimension  
   Shipped with Free Express FEDEX/UPS delivery to worldwide.  
   Limited to just 199     Deluxe     leather-bound copies     , bound by a master bookbinder/rare -medieval manuscript expert with 40 years of expertise in book restoration     .