Ephemerides.. Ad annos twelfthim, incipientes ab Anno Domini 1589.

FIRST EDITION, [8],270, [1]pp., richly engraved title by Girolamo Porro, woodcut initials and text illustrations, occasional contemporary marginal annotations, library stamp to A1., on N1 an old correction with a label that corrects “intercalarem” to “communem”, occasional light staining, worm holes to margin of final leaf, text not affected, contemporary parchment, yapped edges, manuscript title to spine, 4to (241x170mm), Venice, Lucantonio Giunta, 1589

The work contains Scala’s ephemerides for twelve years starting in 1589.

Giuseppe Scala (1556-1585), a Sicilian physician, is known for his work in Renaissance science, including this set of astronomical tables which was published four years after his death.These tables were used for calculating the positions of celestial bodies, which were essential for both navigation and astrology.

Scala’s Ephemerides… was included on the now famous Index Librorum Prohibitorum (List of Forbidden Books). It was one of a wide range of work that was banned by the Roman Catholic Church between 1563 and 1765. A response of the religious anxiety the Church felt following the Reformation as well as the intellectual flourishing of the Italian Renaissance.

Compared to the collation reported by SBN, our copy has fascicles I and M consisting of 4 leaves instead of 8, but the text appears complete; our copy also matches the digitized copy from the National Central Library of Rome. SBN reports “several errors in the numbering of the leaves.”

A fascinating volume that is extremely difficult to find on the market, having only been auctioned once in 1993 (RBH).