Johannes de Sacrobosco

Johannes de Sacrobosco (c. 1195–1252).
Sphaera mundi.
Venice: Franciscus Renner de Hailbrun, 1478. (06413)

An English astronomer also known as John of Holywood, Sacrobosco completed this treatise on the "Earthly Sphere" while teaching at the University of Paris, c. 1230. As the title of his work indicates, medieval scientists were perfectly aware that the earth was not flat. Sacrobosco's statement "Terra in medio omnium immobiliter teneatur" (the Earth is an immobile sphere at the center of the universe) was entirely in harmony with the beliefs of the medieval Church. The hand-colored woodcut in this 1478 Venetian edition is the earliest printed illustration of solar and lunar eclipses.