[Tabulae solis et lunae coniunctionum]... Opusculuz tabularum utile verarum Solis [et] lune coniunctionum

by Faber de Budweis, Wenceslaus

$15,000 · Offered by Biblio

[Leipzig]: Martin Landsberg[?], 1495. [8] leaves. Title printed in red and 2 pages printed in red and black. Quarto (210 x 153 mm). Bound in old manuscript leaf over boards. Light staining at sheet edges. Provenance: R. David Parsons (booklabel). [8] leaves. Title printed in red and 2 pages printed in red and black. Quarto (210 x 153 mm). Very rare incunable edition of this novel method for predicting the new and full moon, which offers an ingenious alternative to the Alphonsine Tables. Composed by Wenzel Faber (d. 1518), the Leipzig university professor, astronomer, and prolific author of printed astrological practica, the Opusculum includes all the tables required to estimate times of the new and full moons occurring between the years 1377 and 1772. Replacing cumbersome iterative procedures of the Alfonsine Tables with a single addition of results from a double-entry solar and a single-entry lunar table, Faber's approach simplifies a table written c.1400 by Nicholaus de Heybech of Erfurt. Times of syzygy, reckoned to the nearest minute via such tables, were the most widely cited astronomical data of the incunable period, regularly appearing on the hundreds of broadside almanacs and multi-leaved astrological practica issued by the early printers. Faber's Opusculum was printed in two nearly identical editions, using the types of Martin Landsberg of Leipzig in 1494-95 and not before 1499, both of which are rare. The British Museum Catalogue originally assigned the printing to

• Publisher: Martin Landsberg[?]
• Year: 1495
• Binding: unknown

Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.