Epitome of Ptolemy's Almagest (1496) - Page 2

Collation: 108 foliosA folio is a leaf of paper or parchment; "108 ff." indicates the book contains 108 leaves. (the last one is blank original: "weiß")

Regiomontanus, Epitome Johannes Müller von Königsberg (1436–1476), known as Regiomontanus, was a celebrated Renaissance mathematician and astronomer. This work is a summary of Ptolemy’s Almagest.

Hain 13806 This refers to an entry in Ludwig Hain’s Repertorium bibliographicum*, a standard catalog used by librarians to identify "incunabula"—books printed before the year 1501.

Proctor 5197 A reference to Robert Proctor’s index of early printed books, identifying this as a product of a specific 15th-century press (in this case, Venice).

The Dibner Library

of the History of

Science and Technology

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION LIBRARIES

The library bookplate features a woodcut illustration of a kneeling figure—likely Atlas—supporting an armillary sphereA model of objects in the sky, consisting of a spherical framework of rings, centered on Earth, that represent lines of celestial longitude and latitude.. The rings are labeled in Latin: Arctic Circle, Tropic of Cancer, Equinoctial Line [Equator], Tropic of Capricorn, and Antarctic Circle.

The page itself consists of heavily wrinkled and stained vellumHigh-quality parchment made from calfskin.. The material shows deep structural folds and a significant reddish-pink circular stain at the bottom center. Remnants of leather thongs are still visible in the holes along the edges, showing how the heavy wooden boards of the binding were once attached to these internal leaves.