Oronce Fine [Orontius Finaeus Delphinatus]. De solaribus Horologiis, & Quadrantibus, Libri quatuor....

"Fine (1494-1555) was born in the Dauphine but spent his scientific career at Paris... From 1515 Fine edited astronomical and mathematical writings for printers in Paris and abroad... He also was responsible for an edition of Euclid's Elements... Fine's first work (1526) was a treatise on the equatorium, an instrument designed to determine the true positions of the planets... Fine's further works on astronomical instruments include treatises on the new quadrant and on the astrolabe... Fine also inserted a treatise on the new quadrant at the end of his work on gnomonics, De solaribus horologiis et quadrantibus, which first appeared in 1532 as the concluding section of his Protomathesis."- DSB.

Beautiful book describing many solar and water clocks, also dealing with the planisphere or astrolable and the quadrant. Originally published in Fine's Protomathesis (1532), this edition is the first separate edition, prepared by his son, Jean Fine.

Among the many types of sundials described in this book are a multiple dial and a navicular. A very rare ivory navicular signed "Opus Orontii F. 1524" - the only scientific instrument certainly attributable to Fine, and perhaps the only one he ever constructed - is in the private Portaluppi collection at Milan.

Adams F473. Graesse II: 580. Renouard, Cavellat 193. Harvard 232. Fairfax-Murray 165. Lalande 84. Pettegree-Walsby 70647. USTC 152863.