Syntagma Arateorum

In-4 of (6) ff., 42 pp., (1) blank f., 36 pp., 1 folding plate, 95 pp., 43 plates, 24 pp., 128 pp.
Text in Greek and Latin, with some printing in Arabic and Hebrew. Printer’s woodcut device on title, one folding plate and 43 in-text engravings of constellations by Jacob de Gheyn, marginal restoration to 3 leaves of notes, marginal tear to 1 leaf.
Contemporary gilt citron morocco for Jacques-Auguste de Thou and his second wife, Gasparde de La Chastre (Olivier 216, tool 8), spine with seven compartments and six raised bands, their cipher compartmentalized. Binding of the period.

Provenance: Jacques-Auguste de Thou (1553-1617) (binding, manuscript shelfmarks on pastedowns and cover); Richard Heber.

244 x 162 mm.

Eudoxus of Cnidus (400 – 355 BC). Grotius, Hugo, editor (1583-1645). Aratus of Soli (c. 315-240 BC). Syntagma Arateorum: Opus Poeticase et Astronomiae studiosis utilissimum: Quo quae contineantur versa pagella indicabit.
Leiden, Christopher Raphelengius for Plantin. 1600.

A double plate and 44 engravings by Jacob de Gheyn illustrating the constellations.

First edition by the young Hugo de Groot (1583-1645), dubbed "the miracle of Holland" by Henry IV due to his precocity, of the Aratea, "The first star catalogue", the first star catalogue by Eudoxus of Cnidus, Greek astronomer of the 4th century BC. The text, now lost, survived thanks to the adaptation made by the Alexandrian poet Aratus of Soli in his didactic poem Phaenomena.

The extraordinary copperplate figures by Jacob de Gheyn, "perhaps the finest illustrations of the individual Hyginus constellations" (Warner), were directly inspired by the illuminations of the famous Carolingian manuscript Aratea of Leiden, composed circa 825 probably for Louis the Pious, which was, at that time, in the possession of Grotius. The manuscript then passed to Christina of Sweden, then to Vossius.

“The De Thou copy of the first edition of Grotius's edition of Aratus’s Phainomena ("astronomy"), the famous didactic poem of the 3rd century BC, describing the relative positions of the principal stars and constellations. It is printed here with Latin translations of parts of the poem by Cicero, Germanicus, and Avienus, and includes Grotius’s detailed critical apparatus. The plates by Jacob de Gheyn are among the finest engravings of celestial symbols ever published. They were published separately in 1621. Adams A-1519 - Lalande p.135.”

Born at Cnidus in Asia Minor around 390 BC, Eudoxus was famous throughout antiquity as a scientific authority and transmitter of knowledge. In mathematics, he notably proposed the first unified theory of proportions. In astronomy, he designed the first geometric model able to account for planetary movements by means of concentric spheres.

Eudoxus is undoubtedly the greatest scholar of the 4th century BC, and one of the best known, although only fragments of his work remain, mostly found through commentators. His mathematical treatises deeply influenced Euclid’s Elements, while his theory of ratios and method of exhaustion, perfected by Archimedes, place him among the forerunners of integral calculus.

He brought back from Egypt knowledge of astronomy with which he proposed a reform of the Greek calendar that became highly popular. After a stay with Mausolus at Halicarnassus, he moved to Cyzicus, where he established himself as a sophist. He then settled in Athens, accompanied by disciples, most of whom were geometers (Menaechmus, Dinostratus, Athenaeus of Cyzicus), and for a time rivaled Plato. According to Aristotle, he professed hedonism in ethics and the immanence of ideas in metaphysics. He returned to Cnidus, where he was received with honor. He gave laws to his fellow citizens.

Little more than fragments survive of the work of one of the most universally learned scholars of his time, who played the greatest role in the development of mathematics during that era. His “Octaeteris,” in which he expounded his calendar reform, is cited, but the original text seems to have disappeared rather quickly. The “Mirror” and the “Phenomena” are two editions of a work that served as the basis for Aratus's descriptions of the sky.

Jacques-Auguste de Thou, son of Christophe, first president of the Parliament of Paris, and Jacqueline Tulleu de Céli, was born in Paris on 8 October 1553; he first became a canon of Notre-Dame de Paris and was employed on various diplomatic missions; the death of his father in 1583 prompted him to leave the ecclesiastical state, join the judiciary, and become maître des requêtes of the hôtel on 10 April 1584, councillor of state on 26 August 1588, grand master of the King's library on 6 February 1593, and president à mortier at the Parliament of Paris in 1595; the main achievement of his political career was the negotiation of the Edict of Nantes. De Thou, who had been appointed to the council of finances in 1610, died in Paris on 7 May 1617. He had married, in first marriage, in 1587, Marie de Barbançon de Cany, who died in 1601, and second, in 1602, Gasparde de La Chastre.

Magistrate, politician, and diplomat, de Thou was also a conscientious and famous historian; he wrote in Latin the “History of his own time” and also wrote his “Memoirs.”

Aside from all these titles of glory, President de Thou occupies a prominent place in the history of bibliophily and ranks among the most famous collectors; he assembled the finest book collection of his era, more remarkable for the selection of works than their sheer number (about a thousand manuscripts and eight thousand printed volumes); he had two or three copies printed on paper specially made for him of all the good books published both in France and abroad. His volumes, bound in full morocco by Le Gascon, sometimes in calf or white vellum, were adorned with his arms and his cipher, which varied during his life, until his marriage (1587), when de Thou used his simple arms and a monogram formed of the letters I A D T (Jacques-Auguste de Thou); from 1587 to 1602, his arms were joined with those of his first wife, Marie Barbançon, and his monogram composed of the letters I A M (Jacques-Auguste-Marie); finally, after 1602, his arms appeared alongside those of his second wife, Gasparde de La Chastre, and his cipher combined the initials I A G G (Jacques-Auguste-Gasparde).

Except for some of the manuscripts that entered the Royal Library, his collection passed to Charron de Ménars in 1680, then to Cardinal de Rohan in 1706, and finally to the latter’s nephew, the Prince of Soubise, whose immense library was dispersed in 1788.