ZACUTO (Abraham). Ephemerides sive Almanach perpetuu[m]. Venetiis. 1498.

ZACUTO (Abraham). Ephemerides sive Almanach perpetuu[m]. Venetiis. 1498.

ZACUTO (Abraham)
Ephemerides sive Almanach perpetuu[m]. Venetiis: Maximiliano Romanorum, 1498.

AA8, BB2, A-O8; [120] ff.; 220 mm. Full contemporary vellum; modern end pages; small contemporary signature on title page.

VERY RARE EDITION of the famous and very important Almanach Perpétuo by Abraham Zacuto, first published in Leiria in 1496. Written between 1473 and 1478, in Hebrew with the title Hajibul Hagadol, the work was translated into Spanish and Latin and edited several times , mostly in Venice. The work contains astronomical tables of different types and for different astrological purposes, preceded by the respective canons. Its importance lies in the fact that the solar tables, essential for the calculation of geographic coordinates, are calculated based on their tables. The Almanach thus allowed several navigators to carry out the necessary calculations for the amazing navigations of the 15th and 16th centuries. With a wide influence on the Portuguese nautical of the time, Zacuto's tables were used for several seamanship books, namely the Reportório dos Tempos by Valentim Fernandes, or in Lendas da Índia by Gaspar Correia. According to studies by Joaquim Bensaúde and Luciano Pereira da Silva, “all the tables of solar declinations [...] were calculated from the numbers found in the Almanach”, in this case the tables with the solar declinations of the Guia Évora Nautical. (cf. Dicionário de História dos Descobrimentos) In fact, it was Zacuto's Almanach Perpetuum that served as the basis for the Portuguese quadrennial solar tables used by Vasco da Gama, or the 1517-1520 quadrennials by Gaspar Nicolas included in the “Manual” of Évora and in use until the mid-16th century. (cf. General Bibliography, v.1, p. 178) Abrham Zacuto, whose name is Rabbi Abraham ben Rabbi Samuel Zacut, was born in Salamanca. After a career of studies, it seems he was a professor at the University of Salanca, having taken refuge in Portugal, first in Porto and then in Lisbon, in 1492 after the decree of expulsion of the Jews. Protected by D. João II and D. Manuel I, he returned to emigrate in 1496 in Tunes. He seems to have died in Damascus in 1522.

¶ Inocêncio, v.22, p.3; Bibliografia Geral, v.1, 18, para as edições incunabulares; RUAS, João, Biblioteca D. Manuel II, v.1