FINE, Oronce

by Oronce Fine

£2,950 · Offered by Sokol Books

Beautifully printed first edition, of this rare treatise on astrology by one of the most influential mathematical teachers of his time. The work is essentially concerned with the twelve houses of the zodiac and their interpretation for judicial astrology. “Oronce Fine (1494–1555), a French mathematician from the Dauphiné, is chiefly known to historians of science for having been the first to teach mathematics as a royal lecturer within the institution founded by François I in March 1530, but also for his work as a cartographer, as a designer and maker of mathematical instruments, as well as an engraver and an editor of scientific books. .. A central role was attributed to astronomy within Fine’s mathematical teaching program, since the Cosmographia, sive mundi sphaera. (However) .. it would be reasonable to think that Fine also viewed his editorial work on Sacrobosco’s Sphaera as a contribution to the training of astrologers, to help them learn how to calculate the positions of planets in relation to the zodiacal signs and the celestial houses, an activity in which he himself engaged as a court astrologer and which he later promoted through the publication of the ‘Canons des ephemerides’ 1543 and the De duodecim caeli domiciliis 1553. These works respectively deal with the art of producing almanacs (including their astrological features) and with the division of the celestial houses and of the planetary hours necessary to the casting of horoscopes. Fine also published in 1529

• Binding: Hardcover

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