STOEFFLER Johann Traité de la composition et fabrique de l’astrolabe & de son usage. Traduit du latin. Avec quelques annotations sur l’usage de l’astrolabe, & mesure géométrique faites par Jean Pierre de Mesmes.

Lalande, p. 84; BM, French, 408 ; Houzeau-Lancaster, 3256 ; Brunet, V, 548. See Honeyman, who owned other latin and German editino, but not this French translation. Not in Zinner.

First edition, never reprinted, of the French translation by G. des Bordes whose name appears at the end of the preface. A copy of the issue with the date 1560 printed on the title (undated copies are known).

This first translation – Houzeau-Lancaster mistakenly mentions another from 1556, of which we have been unable to find any trace – is based on the Elucidatio fabricae usque astrolabii published in Latin in 1512

This translation was edited by the astronomer Jean-Pierre de Mesmes, who included his own ideas on the use of this instrument and inserted them in Italics in the text. The edition is illustrated with 52 technical woodcut vignettes in the text. This copy also includes a plate of engravings intended to form the volvelles on pages 13, 14, and 34. Bound at the end of the book, these illustrations have never been detached or mounted.

The plates also contain two fold-out tables. The first is entitled “La Table des Méridionales altitudes du soleil, supputé à l’élévation du pôle arctique de quarante & huit degrés & quarante minutes” (it refers to folio 88), the second is entitled “La Table des conversions des degrés de la longitude, en degrés de l’équinoctial” (it refers to folio 133).

Jean-Pierre de Mesmes (1516-ca. 1578) was one of the first Frenchmen to write on astronomy and, in addition to this translation, is responsible for an important treatise on the subject: Les Institutions astronomiques contenant les principaux fondements et premières causes des cours et mouvements célestes (Paris, 1557). Also well versed in poetry, he was a member of the Pléiade circle.

This edition of the French translation is rare on the market.

Second table slightly shaved touching one word (old spaper restoration), a few small scattered stains, brown stain in the inner head margin outside the text.

Provenance: Signature Peyrannas on the title, and a few notes or appreciations in the margins.