Egnatio Danti and Proclus Diadochus - La sfera proclo liceo [bound with} Trattato dell'vso della sfera - 1573/1573

First edition of Egnatio Danti's translation of Proclus Sfera and his companion treatise on the use of the sphere, (viii) 55 (i) 33 and (iii) pp - Rebound in modern vellum - Reference; Adams P-2137. B. M. STC 541. Houzeau-Lancaster 430. Condition: Light age-yellowing, very light foxing. A very good, well-margined copy. Egnatio Danti (1536-86) , referred to as Cosmographer of the Grand Duke of Tuscany on these title-pages, was an outstanding scientist who taught at Pisa and Bologna, drew maps for Cosimo de Medici, designed a number of astronomical instruments, brought about the reformation of the Gregorian calendar after having detected a 11-day error, wrote the first book to be published in Italy on the astrolabe (1569) , and was appointed Papal Cosmographer and Mathematician by Gregory XIII (1580) . His translation of Proclus Sfera , dedicated to Isabella de Medici, opens with a two-page life of Proclus and contains long and detailed annotations, often flanked by diagrams, for each of the fifteen chapters of the book. It ends with a five-page essay on how to study the stars without using scientific instruments. Danti s treatise on the use of the sphere is divided into thirty short chapters. Proclus (412-485) , illustrious Neo-Platonic philosopher from Constantinople, was also a fine astronomer who expounded the division of the celestial sphere with modern accuracy.