Augsburg, David Franck, 1609, 4to,First Edition, text of Proclus in parallel Greek and Latin, title with woodcut device, woodcut initials, 2 folding tables, errata f. at end, Contemporary French Olive Morocco, Gilt, Arms of Charles de Valois, Duc d'Angoulême to covers, and his CC monogram to spine.
Henisch's great work on the sphere, astronomy and exploration. Includes several mentions of America, Columbus and Vespucci.
Hieronymus Wolf recommended Henisch for the Protestant St. Anna Gymnasium in Augsburg, where he was professor of logic and mathematics from 1576-1617. He also taught in Hebrew, Greek, Latin and rhetoric, held the office of rector together with Simon Fabricius from 1580-93, was head of the city library at the same time and led a medical practice until his death. Four times he was dean of the Augsburg medical college. He collected and organized the files of the Collegium medicum founded in 1582, thus laying the foundation for Augsburg's rich medical history.
He also published the first printed catalogue of the city library in 1600; it is the oldest printed catalogue of a public library, an exemplary act. Henisch belongs to the late humanist group at the turn of the 16th to 17th centuries, which had an impact far beyond Augsburg. Its patron and moving force was the patrician Markus Welser. He was the mathematician and natural scientist, but also the Germanist of this group, a tolerant nature, whose friendly ties and scientific ties from the Jesuits mainly in Augsburg, Munich and Dillingen to Catholic and Protestant scholars in Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands were enough. He participated with Welser and Hoeschel in the publishing house "Ad insigne Pinus", which started as a joint venture between the late humanists of Augsburg and ended as a defender of a Christian middle-class humanism in the service of the Counter-Reformation. In the merchant city of Augsburg, humanism was essentially focused on practical knowledge and results. H. met the wishes of the sober, calculating and counting bourgeoisie. His writings are strongly rational, his mind pushed for clear concepts and sensible methods. As a medical writer, he wrote a handbook and edited an edition of Aratus.
The study of the heavenly bodies and the firmament occupied him all his life. Every year he delivered a mathematical-astronomical calendar and published this important commentary on Proclus and the use of the Sphere . He treated geography as historical auxiliary science. The crown of the sciences was mathematics. He introduced arithmetic, geometry and astronomy to the students of the high school, and for practical reasons he enjoyed greater favour with the citizens than the philologists Hoeschel and Wolf.
Henisch is also the author of the first German dictionary that still serves well today. With his diligence and readiness, he managed to complete at least one volume from A-G. It is a comparative dictionary, in 10 languages: German, English, Bohemian (Czech), French, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Polish, Spanish and Hungarian.
Provenance: Charles de Valois, duc d'Angoulême (gilt arms to covers)
Tomash & Williams H103; VD17 23:289511T
