Beschreibung:

VIRDUNG VON HASSFURTH, Johann (c. 1465-1535). De cognoscendis, et medendis morbis ex corporum coelestium positione libri IIII. Edited by Giovanni Paolo Gallucci (1538-1621). Venice: Damiano Zenaro, 1584.
VIRDUNG VON HASSFURTH, Johann (c. 1465-1535). De cognoscendis, et medendis morbis ex corporum coelestium positione libri IIII. Edited by Giovanni Paolo Gallucci (1538-1621). Venice: Damiano Zenaro, 1584. Small 4° (226 x 154mm). Large hand-coloured woodcut printer’s device on title, woodcut diagrams, volvelle with 5 moveable parts on G4v, one blank leaf with printed slip pasted on inserted after volvelle, historiated and ornamental initials. (Top half of outer margin of title with crude repair, light worming in lower margin of first gathering, light browning at beginning.) Modern vellum. Provenance : D.D. Le Tellier de Courtanvaux (bookplate) — a few marginal annotations. SCARCE FIRST AND ONLY EDITION of this work on medical astronomy. Johann Virdung studied at the Universities of Leipzig and Cracow. ‘He compiled numerous almanacs, annual astrological forecasts and interpretations of special celestial events. His annual prognostications followed the traditional pattern: the determination of the ruling planet of the year, the predication of weather conditions, the prospects for the harvest, and the determination of the time for carrying out medical procedures, as well as the interpretation of eclipses’ ( Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers ). Durling 4631; Wellcome I, 3077; not in Adams.