De le Stelle Fisse Libro Uno: Imagin celesti minutissimamente si tratta; et non folo le Fauole loro ordinatamente si narra, ma ancora le Figure di ciascheduna n'apparon cosi manifeste, et distintamente disposte, et formate, come a punto per il Ciel si distendono. [Of the Fixed Stars: Book One. Celestial images are very minutely discussed; and not only are their faces narrated in an orderly manner, but also the figures of each one appear so clear, distinctly arranged, and formed, as they extend right across the sky]

Venice: Giovanni Varisco et Compagni, 1566. 4to. (8 x 5 1/2 inches). Undated edition likely printed between 1559 and 1572, but not the 1561, 1564, or 1570 editions. Professor of Astronomy Gingerich posited 1564 as a date for this example, but to judge from other title pages of the same year, that is incorrect. [A]-M8. Foliated [1]-32, then paginated [1]-48, then foliated 25-93, then unpaginated [6 pp]. 254 pp. Title with woodcut mermaid cartouche, Dedication to the lesbian poet Laudomia Forteguerri (1515-1555), A poem dedicated to Forteguerri, De le Stelle Fisse ff. 4-33, 47 woodcut star charts pp. 1-48, Calendrical tables ff. 25-93, Con qual grado del Zodiaco naschino. Woodcut printer's device on title, woodcut headers and historiated initials, two large woodcut illustrations on ff. 7 and 11, 47 woodcut star charts, Text in Italian. Later half vellum over curl marbled paper boards with remnants of titling-pieces on spine, on laid paper

Provenance: Harvard Professor of Astronomy and rare bookman specializing in the history of science, Owen Gingerich (1930-2023), who helped determine the "proof" copy of Galileo's "Sidereus Nuncius" was a modern forgery.

Piccolomini's classic sixteenth-century astronomical text: the first book with a printed celestial atlas, profusely illustrated with woodcuts.

De le Stelle Fisse is a landmark book of science drawing on traditional Ptolemaic-Aristotelian geocentric cosmography. It was not meant to be a university textbook, but rather a text for self-study. [Cozzoli] As Norman writes, "Piccolomini was one of the first popularizers of science who wrote his astronomical treatises in the vernacular to extend scientific knowledge beyond the confines of the church and the university." But its substance was not lacking. For the first time, stellar representations are herein identified by a Latin letter and classified according to four magnitudes of brightness; they are in their true positions, without the undergirding of mythological figures. Piccolomini depicts all of the Ptolemaic constellations, excepting the Horse. "De le Stelle Fisse represents the first printed star atlas, containing maps of the stars as opposed to simple pictures of constellations in works like Hyginus, and introduces the practice of identifying stars by letter, a method later adopted and expanded by Johann Bayer," and through Bayer, all modern astronomers. [Norman] De le Stelle Fisse became a fundamental work of early astronomy, which had profound implications for the developing art of navigation, in part because Piccolomini's star charts always indicate the position of the North Pole. Piccolomini was spurred on to produce De le Stelle Fisse due to his unrequited love for the aristocratic Sienese lesbian poet Laudomia Forteguerri; he dedicates the work to her in the text no fewer than three times. Forteguerri had remarked to Piccolomini her regret that, as a woman, she was not allowed to study astronomy. He wrote this text in the vernacular and in a manner meant to be understood by a non-specialist, in part for her to better understand the material. Piccolomini's aim was to allow Forteguerri to be able to easily observe the position of all the stars throughout the year. [Cozzoli] Piccolomini's clear and methodical exposition of Renaissance astronomical knowledge was also, in part, an attack against the rampant popularity of astrology. De le Stelle Fisse was such a success that after its initial printing in Venice in 1540, it went through at least eleven editions before the end of the sixteenth century. While it is often found bound with Piccolomini's De la Sfera del Mondo, these should be considered two titles bound in one, which their separate title pages and pagination reflects. Piccolomini, the Archbishop of Siena, was a Sienese polymath who was an astronomer and playwright, a family relation of Pope Pius II, and one of the founders of the Accademia degli Intronati, as well as a professor of moral philosophy. His popular eponymous comedy Alessandro was later adapted by George Chapman and published as May Day in 1611. His family library still survives in the Sienna Cathedral and the lunar crater Piccolomini is named after him.

Adams P-1108. BEA, pp. 904-05. CNCE 41170. Cozzoli, "L'Ouvre astronomique d'Alessandro Piccolomini," in Alesandro Piccolomini: Un siennois à la croisée des genres et des savoirs, Université la Sorbonne Nouvelle, p. 235-244. Edit16 40890. Goldschmidt catalog 148. Honeyman 2477. Houzeau and Lancaster 2491. Norman, Library of Science and Medicine 1696. Riccardi 269, 270. Robin, Publishing Women, pp. 136-138. Sotheran I, 3625. Warner, p. 200.