INAF early printed books: uncovering incunabula and cinquecentine of the It. astronom. Observatories

Emilia Olostro Cirella[1] and Angelica Perrotta[2] INAF-Capodimonte Astronomical Observatory [1] Content author and translator. [2] Content translator and layout author. INAF early printed books: uncovering incunaboli and cinquecentine of the Italian astronomical Observatories In April 2024, the publishing house Leo S. Olschki released, within its “Biblioteca di Bibliografia” series, the catalogue Gli incunaboli e le cinquecentine degli Osservatori astronomici dell’Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, 1478–1560 (by E. Olostro Cirella, L. Abrami, G. Caprio, F. Perrone and D. Randazzo). This first collective scientific catalogue produced by the National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) gathers fifteenthand sixteenth-century printed editions preserved in the libraries of Italian astronomical and astrophysical observatories. The project began in 2015–2016 with a census of sixteenth-century volumes, followed by cataloguing, digitization, and online publication through the INAF portal Polvere di stelle. The catalogue describes 227 editions—17 incunabula and 210 sixteenth-century prints—for a total of 270 copies, as some editions are held in duplicate or triplicate across observatories. Covering the years 1478 to 1560, it opens with Johannes de Sacrobosco’s Sphaera mundi (Venice, 1478), the most widespread Aristotelian–Ptolemaic cosmological treatise of the Middle Ages, and concludes with Johannes Stadius’s Tabulae Bergenses (Cologne, 1560), noted for its Copernican influence. Records are arranged chronologically according to the date on the title page or colophon, and all cataloguing was based on direct examination of the physical book. Entirely conceived and produced by INAF librarians, with the financial support of the Institute’s Libraries, Museums, and Third Mission Service, the catalogue follows national and international bibliographic standards (REICAT, ISBD, Guide to Cataloguing in SBN – Ancient Materials). Each record comprises eight sections: (1) heading; (2) title page transcription; (3) physical description; (4) edition notes; (5) variants; (6) fingerprint (a 16-character alphanumeric identifier for early printed books); (7) copy-specific notes; and (8) bibliographic references. The headings, combined with detailed indexes, facilitate scholarly access. Each includes, in abbreviated form, the essential elements to identify an edition—authors, editors, translators, and printing details—while supplementary texts such as dedications and appendices are described in the edition notes. Copy-specific notes reveal valuable information on provenance and the reconstruction of dispersed collections. Former owners are identified through annotations, bookplates, and stamps, attesting to the circulation of these volumes among scientists and scholars. Notable examples include the Epitoma in Almagestum Ptolemaei by Johannes Regiomontanus at the Brera Observatory, bearing six distinct handwritten ownership notes (Philip Apian, Michael Maestlin, Matthaeus Maestlin, Wilhelm Schickard, Johann Jacob Rabe and Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli), and the copy of Copernicus’s De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (Nuremberg, 1543) at the Capodimonte Observatory in Naples, inscribed “Emendatus iuxta Roman. Emendationem”. The latter reflects the ten corrections imposed by the Sacred Congregation of the Index in 1620, evidence of ecclesiastical censorship on heliocentric works. Although geographically dispersed, INAF’s early bibliographic holdings constitute a unique corpus in the field of scientific libraries, particularly regarding fifteenthand sixteenth-century astronomical works. The catalogue includes numerous editions of foundational texts such as Sacrobosco’s Sphaera mundi, used for centuries in astronomy education, and multiple versions of Ptolemy’s Almagestum, the most influential ancient astronomical treatise, represented by the 1515 editio princeps and the 1538 Greek edition. Also included are the Alfonsine Tables (13th century, updated through the 16th), works by Arab scholars such as Albumasar, and key contributions by European astronomers including Georg von Peurbach’s Theoricae novae planetarum (1474) and Peter Apian’s Cosmographia (1524), noted for its volvelles. The catalogue also records particularly rare works scarcely found in other Italian libraries: the incunabulum Luminare maius by Giovanni Giacomo Manlio (Venice, 1496), a medical and botanical manual; two editions by Georg Joachim Rheticus—Orationes duae (Nuremberg, c. 1542) and Tabulae astronomicae (Wittenberg, 1545); and Niccolò Tartaglia’s Sesta risposta (1548), part of his renowned mathematical dispute with Ludovico Ferrari. The Brera Observatory Library uniquely preserves all six of Tartaglia’s responses, including this rare final one. The invention of movable type facilitated the wide dissemination of astronomical knowledge across Europe. Illustrations played a central role in visualizing complex concepts: printers such as Erhard Ratdolt pioneered multicolor printing, as seen in Regiomontanus’s Kalendarium (Venice, 1485) and Sacrobosco’s Sphaera mundi (1488). Hand-colored diagrams, volvelles, and movable parts became common in works by Peter Apian and Sebastian Münster. The collaboration between scientists, printers, and artists—including Hans Holbein the Younger and Albrecht Dürer—further enhanced the visual culture of early modern science, with Dürer’s Rhinoceros (1515) standing as an emblematic example.