Francesco Giuntini (1523-1590)
La Sfera del Mondo.
Lyon: Appresso Simforiano Beraud, 1582
First edition, octavo,
author portrait in woodcut medallion to title page;
illustrated with text diagrams,
one full page plate extraneous to the collation and one folding plate with parts of unconstructed volvelles (folding plate broken and repaired along one vertical fold, with some losses to two of the volvelle components);
bound in full original vellum (upper endcap damaged with loss; toning and some foxing);
rare at auction, before the 2024 sale listed in RBH, only two other copies appear in 1948 & 1950;
Content:
Dedication:
To the very magnificent M. Zanobi Giovannini, noble Florentine merchant.
Book I. The Sphere of the World by Messer Giovanni Sacrobosco.
Book II: of the Sphere of the World.
Book III. of the Garden & Sunset of Signs & the Diversity of Days (and) Nights, (and) the Diversity of Climates. Chapter I.
Book IV: of the Circles (and) Motions of the Planets (and) of the Causes of Eclipses of the Sun (and) of the Moon.
Table of the most notable things contained in this work of the sphere of the world.
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This particular work gives testimony to the intellectual creep Copernicus's heliocentric model had made some decades after its initial appearance on the scene, even in catholic astronomy.
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"In his diagram [as seen on page 19 of the present work], Giuntini depicts the planetary system established by Copernicus. [...]
Preceding and following this diagram is Giuntini's brief description of the heliocentric theory: a central sun, above which are the 'heavens' of Mercury and Venus, the earth with its triple motion and lunar satellite, the 'heavens of Mars, Jove and Saturn, followed by the immobile eighth sphere.
This 'opinione,' says Giuntini, is that previously held by Aristarchus Samius. [...]
That Giuntini was friendly toward the hypothesis is also implied by the high regard in which he held Copernicus and his early followers. [...]
To praise both Reinhold and Copernicus, to publish ephemerides based upon the heliocentric interpretation, and to present perhaps the earliest description and diagram of this interpretation to be printed in Italian, is evidence of a friendly interest in the Copernican hypothesis."
(Quoted from Grant McColley's "Francesco Giuntini and the Copernican Hypothesis," published in Popular Astronomy, vol. 45, page 70, February 1937.)
Size 4 1/4 by 6 1/2 in.
Text in Italian
Ex-libris:
Professor, Astronomer, Historian & Bibliophile Owen Gingerich, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, MA

Francesco Giuntini (or Junctinis or Junctinus ) ( 1523 – 1590 ) was an Italian theologian , astronomer and astrologer .
He was one of the most famous astrologers of the second half of the sixteenth century.
A Carmelite and doctor of theology , he spent most of his life in Lyon .
He wrote a weighty treatise in defense of astrology , containing the Greek text and the Latin translation of the Tetrabiblos of Claudius Ptolemy with his personal commentary, a collection of astrological aphorisms and a synthesis of the theories and techniques of Arab astrologers , illustrated by more than four hundred birth charts .


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