MARGARITA PHILOSOPHICA NOVA CUI, ANNEXA SUNT SEQUENTIA. Grecarum literar[um] institutiones. Hebraicar[um] literarum rudime[n]ta. Architecture rudimenta. Quadrantu[m] varie co[m]positio[n]es. Astrolabij noui geographici ?po. Formatio torqueti. Formatio polimetri. Usus [et] vtilitas co[r]undem omnium. [F]igura quadrantis poligonalis. Quadratura circuli. Cubatio sphere. Perspectiue phisice [et] positiue rudimenta. Cartha vniuersalis terre marisq[ue] fo[r]mam neoterica descriptio[n]e indicas.

(Per Joannem Gruninger ex Argenterato veteri) [Strasbourg, France ]., 1515 Ca. 640 p. **Wonderfully illustrated with woodcuts. Title within woodcut ornamental border, colored in sepia. Early manuscript bibliographic notes. Woodcut chapter heads and marginal diagrams. Numerous full-page and other woodcuts of significance. Includes musical notation and Hebrew language typography, etc. Folding diagram (with loss) mounted at front. Xerox facsimile of the rare world map is included (but the original is not present in this example). 4to. 225 mm. Title within an ornamental border. Leather backed old vellum boards. Marbled endpapers. The important Appendix which includes: Martin Waldseemuller's treatises on architecture and perspective; and Mashaallah's composition of the astrolabe is present. The terminal collation differs from other examples known to us. This is perhaps because of the map and/or the diagram mounted in the front. Gregor (Gregorius) Reisch (1467-1525) became a Carthusian monk after matriculating as a Magister from his home town University of Freiburg in southern Germany. He would become Confessor to Emperor Maximilian I, teacher of John Eck and Martin Waldseemuller, friend to Erasmus, Beatus and Rheananus and Prior at the Carthusian Monastery in Freiburg. His enduring legacy however, was this encyclopedic compendium of contemporary knowledge aimed at educating university students and young people called 'Margarita Philosophica' ('Pearls of Wisdom'). It was the most important and longest encyclopaedia of knowledge in the Middle Ages. Intended as a text-book for youthful students, it contains in twelve books: Latin grammar, dialectics, rhetoric, arithmetic, music, geometry, astronomy, physics, natural history, physiology, psychology, and ethics. The form is catechetical: the scholar questions and the teacher answers. The book was very popular for its comparative brevity and form. The usefulness of the work (and its lasting value to collectors scholars) was increased by numerous woodcuts and a full index. Alexander von Humboldt said of it that it had 'for a half-century, aided in a remarkable manner the spread of knowledge.' The book was written in Latin between 1489 and 1490. It was first published at Freiburg in 1503. Many editions followed, including pirated editions. The differing versions of the text and illustrations make for their own fascinating study. References: Adams R355; Sabin 69127; Sabin 69128; Thacher II, p. 104 (Miscellanea); Proctor 9924; Schmidt I, 124; Ferguson. In: The Library. Ser. 4, no. 10, p. 208-210). The end collation of ours does not agree with others that have been bibliographically described. Ours has 6 leaves in what should be the N sig. and 4 in O. It apparently lacks sig. P which contains the map and two pages about the New World. Very scarce. We have been able to find parts of this edition in only 10 libraries world-wide. Safe Add 1. Hardcover. Good.