‎ALBUMASAR, Ja'far ibn Muhammad Abou Ma'shar al-Balkhî.‎
‎INTRODUCTORIUM IN ASTRONOMIAM ALBUMASARIS abachi octo continens libros partiales. ‎

‎Venise, per Giacomo Penzio mandato & expensis Melchiorre I Sessa, 1506. In-4 de 63 ff., 1 bois au titre représentant l'auteur, 43 bois dans le texte, 2 diagrammes, lettrines, marque de l'imprimeur au colophon, vélin souple postérieur. 215 x 157 mm. An attractive, finely illustrated Venetian edition of a key astrological work by the great Arab astronomer Abu Ma'shar, who furnished the West with Aristotelian thinking. Duhem, II, pp. 369-386 ; Adams A 567 ; Gaselee, Early printed books in Corpus Christi Cambridge, 166. Essling I, 525 ; Isaac 12913 ; Caillet I, 154 ; Sander, 214 ; The Heritage Library, Scientific Treasures, p. S, no. 31, and p. 30. Panzer VIII, 380, 344. This 12th-century Latin version of Abu Ma'shar's immense introduction to astrology, "Kitab al-madkhal al-kabir 'ala 'ilm ahkam al-nujum" (translated by Hermann of Carintha), was previously published only by Erhard Ratdolt at Augsburg in 1489. This Venetian edition is rare: a single copy is known in the trade since 1952. Of all the Arabic writers on astrology, the most imposing is Ja'far ibn Muhammad Abû Ma'shar (c. 787-886), known in the West as Albumasar. Born in Balkh (now Afghanistan), he travelled to Baghdad during the caliphate of al-Ma'mum (813-33) and there became the main rival of al-Kindi, the father of Arab philosophy, though principally he "devoted himself to the account and justification of astrology. He drew together into one great synthesis many ancient traditions Indian, Greek, and Iranian" (Hackett, "Albumasar", in Gracia & Noone, eds., A Companion to Philosophy in the Middle Ages, p. 102). Abu Ma'shar was an important influence on such thinkers as Albert the Great and Roger Bacon, who commonly referred to him as the "auctor in astronomia", granting him the same status in astronomy that Aristotle enjoyed in philosophy. This text was at the time the primary source regarding rise and fall of sea levels. The book is richly illustrated with woodcuts, including the opening one which depicts the author and is one of the best known representations of an astronomer from the Renaissance. Séduisant exemplaire de cette rare édition vénitienne d’un texte du plus célèbre astronome de la période abbasside (circa 750-1258), et l'un des auteurs médiévaux les plus prolifiques dans ce domaine. "Parmi les ouvrages où les Arabes ont traité des marées et que les Chrétiens ont traduits et étudiés, le premier en date est, en même temps, de beaucoup, le plus important. C'est le fameux introductorium in Astronomiam d'Abou Masar. C'est dans ce livre, peut-on dire, que tout le Moyen Âge latin a appris les lois du flux et du reflux de la mer". L'astronome est représenté en pleine observation sur le superbe bois qui orne la page de titre. Séduisant exemplaire à grandes marges. Provenance : ex-ibris manuscrit du XVIIe siècle au titre ; au verso du titre, cachet "Duplum Bibliothecae R. Monac.", indiquant que l'exemplaire était un doublon de la bibliothèque Royale de Munich (aujourd'hui Bayerische Staatsbibliothek). ‎

Reference : YTB-42

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