Moleti (Giuseppe)

Discorso…nel quale con via facile et brieve, si dichiarano et insegnano tutti i termini, et tutte le regole appartenti alla geografia, woodcut printer’s device to title, initials, illustrations in text depicting cartographic diagrams, a wind compass, numerical tables, hemipheres, minor spotting and toning, contemporary vellum boards, soiled, 4to, Giordano Ziletti, al segno della Stella, Venice, 1573.

*** Scarce edition, previously issued as a part of Ruscelli’s Italian edition of Ptolomaeus’ ‘Geography’ in 1561. Moleti (1531 – 1588) studied at the Jesuit college in Messina, where he was a pupil of mathematics, and published several works on geography and astronomy prior to his appointment as tutor to the young prince of Mantua, Vincenzo Gonzaga. In 1577 he took up the chair of mathematics at Padua. He’s best known for his ‘Dialogo intorno alla Meccanica’ but was also a renowned mathematician during his lifetime, and was even consulted by Pope Gregory XIII for the reform of the calendar. He published the ‘Tabulae gregorianae motuum octavae sphaerae et luminarium’ (1580) which included the ‘Corrigendo ecclesiastico calendario libri duo’.