De solaribus horologiis, & quadrantibus, libri quatuor

4to (225x169 mm). [16], 223, [1] pp. and 1 folding plate. Collation: ?⁴ ?⁴ a-z⁴ A-E⁴. Cavellat's famous device with the hen in two versions on title page and at the end (the latter has been colored by a later hand). Title page within a woodcut border with grotesque and initials at the foot. With 57 woodcut illustrations in text (several full page) based on those of the 1532 edition and attributed to G. Desbordes (G. Bordeus), whose name is mentioned in the preface. The typographer has been identified with Benoît Prévost, as the woodcut headpieces and initials include those used by Prévost in Bouelle's Geometrie pratique (1555). Some annotations by different hands. Modern vellum. Some marginal staining, but a very good copy with good margins.

First separate edition (issue A without the date on the title), published posthumously by Finé's son, Jean, and considerably expanded from the first edition that had appeared in 1532 as the fourth part of the Protomathesis. The treatise describes various types of sundials and hydraulic clocks, but also includes parts on the astrolabe and the quadrant. There is also a description of a water hourglass and an ivory dial in the shape of a boat, which is now preserved in Milan.

Renouard, Imprimeurs et libraires Parisiens[…]fasc. Cavellat, nn. 159 e 193; Houzeau-Lamcaster, 11351; Mortimer, 232; D.S.B, XV, pp. 153-157; Thorndike, V, pp. 284-292; Honeyman, 1319.

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