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Astronomicum Caesareum

Author Petrus Apianus German
May 1540
Not on view
This most sumptuous of all Renaissance instructive manuals explained the use of the astrolabe (for calculating the altitude of stars) and other instruments used for computing planetary positions. The author, court astronomer to Emperor Charles V, also provided new observations on the comet of 1531 (Halley's Comet). Only about forty copies of this work survive; very few still have the seed pearls that were originally attached to the string markers on each of the eighteen disks.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Astronomicum Caesareum
  • Artist: Michael Ostendorfer (German, (?) ca. 1490–1549 Regensburg)
  • Author: Petrus Apianus (German, active 1526–40) , German, 1495–1552
  • Printer: Georg and Petrus Apianus (German)
  • Date: May 1540
  • Medium: Hand-colored woodcuts
  • Dimensions: 17 7/8 × 12 11/16 × 1 5/16 in. (45.4 × 32.3 × 3.3 cm)
  • Classification: Books
  • Credit Line: Gift of Herbert N. Straus, 1925
  • Object Number: 25.17
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

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Pilgrims at the Church of the 'Beautiful Virgin' at Regensburg, Michael Ostendorfer German, Woodcut
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Block 2: An army marching to the left away from Laxenberg, from "Warhafftige beschreibung des andern Zugs in Osterreich wider den Turcken gemeyner Christenheit Erbfeinde..."
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Block 1: View of encampment outside Vienna; from "Warhafftige beschreibung des andern Zugs in Osterreich wider den Turcken gemeyner Christenheit Erbfeinde..."
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