Details

Subjects:

Astronomy -- Early works to 1800.
Astronomy.
Cosmology -- Early works to 1800.
Cosmology.

Form/Genre:

Codices.
Diagrams.
Pen and wash drawings.
Manuscripts, Italian.
Manuscripts, European.

Language:

Italian, with Latin for some figure numbers.

Biography/History:

Corresponding member of the Accademia del cimento of Florence (scientific society in existence 1657-1667); lecturer on logic at the Università di Pisa.

Summary:

Diagrams representing the Ptolemaic (referred to as Aristotelian in the title) and Copernican theories of the universe, with a final diagram representing the theory of Tycho Brahe.

Contents:

1. f.4r-13r: Sistema Tolemaico.
2. f.14r-21r: Sistema Copernicano.
3. f.21v: Sistema Ticonico.

Notes:

Ms. codex.
Title from title page (f. 3r).
Collation: Paper, 22; 1⁴(-1 for pastedown) 2¹⁰ 3¹⁰(-1 for pastedown).
Script: Title and figure numbers written in humanistic script; text in one figure written in cursive script (f. 7v).
Decoration: 46 diagrams in ink or pen and wash; in diagrams including the sun, the sun is drawn more elaborately, with a face; title written in gold, surrounded by a cartouche in pen and wash (f. 3r). The diagrams are numbered, restarting at the beginning of the Copernican section (f. 14r), but the Copernican diagrams are not all in numerical order.
Binding: Limp parchment.
Origin: Written in Italy, ca. 1680.

Local notes:

Lawrence J. Schoenberg & Barbara Brizdle Manuscript Initiative.

Penn Provenance:

Formerly owned by Prince Piero Ginori Conti, (bookplate inside upper cover).
Formerly owned by Robert B. Honeyman (San Juan Capistrano, Calif.).
Sold at auction at Sotheby's in the Honeyman collection of scientific books and manuscripts, Part III, 2 May 1979, lot 1129.
Handled by Laurence Witten.
Formerly owned by John D. Stanitz (Cleveland, Ohio), Ms. 6.
Acquired by Lawrence J. Schoenberg with other Stanitz manuscripts, Sept. 1997.
Deposit by Lawrence J. Schoenberg and Barbara Brizdle, 2012.
Gift of Barbara Brizdle Schoenberg, 2021.

Cited in:

Described in Transformation of knowledge: early manuscripts from the collection of Lawrence J. Schoenberg (London: Paul Holberton, 2006), p. 63-64 (LJS 175).

Cited as:

LJS 175

Contributor:

Ginori Conti, Piero, 1865-1939, former owner.
Honeyman, Robert B., former owner.
Stanitz, John D., former owner.
Lawrence J. Schoenberg Collection (University of Pennsylvania)

OCLC:

815967634

Web link:

The Lawrence J. Schoenberg and Barbara Brizdle Manuscript Initiative Fund Home Page