Name: Apianus’s 'Book of Cosmography'
Author: Petrus Apianus

The Sunderland Collection

Copies of the first Latin editions (1524, 1529, 1533) with all four mobile diagrams, such as the present example, are extremely rare. The British Library copy, for instance, lacks the volvelle on p. 50.  The strings attached to the centre of some volvelles are likely contemporary  (c.1524). 

Apianus’s 'Cosmographicus Liber' ('Book of Cosmography') was an introductory textbook guide written in accessible language for people outside of institutional academia. The book instructed readers on the discipline of 'cosmography' - the science of mapping both the earth and stars in observable relation to one another. During Apianus’s time (1495–1552), public interest and use of maps and globes served as a crucial dynamic in the development of cosmology as well as astronomy. 

Apianus's work has many explanatory illustrations, including maps and depictions of astronomical instruments such as armillary spheres. Perhaps the most dynamic are his rotating volvelles, which are essentially two-dimensional astrolabes - instruments that function as star charts used by astronomers - but adapted in his work to suit a cosmological purpose. One is accompanied by a map, and indicates the latitude and longitude of a region, its relative time, and the movement of the sun as seen from a specific vantage point.

The system for cartographic projection that Apianus used in his world map attained enormous success and was popularised by Sebastian Münster and 

. He was the among one of the first cartographers to include the name America (‘Solinus’) on a printed map.

Petrus Apianus’s 'Book of Cosmography' is an instructional work written for the non-academic public on the practice and discipline of 'cosmography'. It covers topics including navigation, geography, cartography, and the weather. It contains his explanations on various map projections, commentary on the shape of the Earth, and instructions for the use of mathematical instruments.

There are four volvelles in this book. One volvelle, which is often missing from this work, shows the world from the North Pole, including a large piece of America. An exciting feature about this book is the presence of strings attached to a few of the volvelles that are likely from the sixteenth century, and provide a function similar to retes on an astrolabe.

Apianus’s book was a great success and was reprinted steadily through 1607, gaining him favour with the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. Under Charles’s patronage, Apianus wrote the monumental 'Astronomicum Caesareum' ('Astronomy of the Emperor') of 1540.

Apianus’s definition of 'cosmography' was adapted from Jacobus Angelus’s translation of Claudius Ptolemy's 'Geographia', published in 1406–7, which he originally titled 'Cosmographia'. The preface to Angelus’s translation explained that Ptolemy’s description of the world relied on both terrestrial and celestial geography. By Apianus’s time (1495–1552), translations of Ptolemy’s work had been re-translated to 'Geographia', and 'cosmography' had just emerged as its own discipline. It was structured by learning through instruments such as astrolabes, armillary spheres, maps and globes.

Apianus produced the 'Book of Cosmography' in 1524, which was reissued in 1529 by Gemma Frisius, and thereafter published through until 1609. The work had countless editions and was translated into German, Spanish, French and Dutch. Some editions including annotations and additions such as maps by Frisius. Apianus was later appointed printer at the University of Ingolstadt and eventually to Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, to whom Apianus dedicated his most famous work, 'Astronomicum Caesareum’ ('Astronomy of the Emperor'), in 1540.

Frontispiece

Coat of Arms of Archbishop Matthäus Lang of Salzburg

Armilliary Sphere

Illustration showing perspectival perception with sightlines projecting from an eye

Illustration of the senses: sight and sound

Diagram showing the planetary sphere

Armilliary sphere

Diagram showing the 5 climatic zones / Diagram proving the Earth is a sphere

Diagram showing lines of latitude

Diagram showing lines of latitude and longitude

Diagram of a volvelle instrument 

The cosmographical book of Petrus Apianus

Small diagram of the constellations

Volvelle instrument

Diagram of the Moon's phases 

Lunar distance calculations

Diagram showing how to take manual measurements using parts of the body

Ornamental globe 

Diagram showing how to find the meridian line

Diagram of the positions of the constellations

The globe surrounded by windheads

Simple map of the Balkans 

Introduction to geometry and astronomy/ diagram of a Ptolemaic map projection

Volvelle instrument for determining the positions of the Sun and other Heavenly bodies 

Diagram showing the way the moon looks depending on its position in relation to the sun 

Parts of volvelles

Copies such as this example of the 'Cosmographia' are very rarely found with the full complement of volvelles with original working parts and strings to make calculations.