Leonardo de Piero Dati, La sfera

Written in an Italian cursive hand, with an ornamental initial in red at the beginning of each stanza. There are 62 water-colours drawings, 2 on each leaf, with two stanzas to each leaf.

Contents

1. ff. Leonard di Piero Dati, La sfera in Italian [Incomplete.]

La sfera is an astronomical-geographical poem written in ottava rima, probably by Leonardo de Piero Dati, friar and humanist, master general of the Dominican order from 1414-26. On this tract see Leonardo Dati, Raffaello Gualterotti, Giovanni Maria Tolosani, Gustavo Camillo Galletti, La sfera libri quattro in ottava rima scritti nel secolo 14. da Leonardo di Stagio Dati ... aggiuntavi La nuova sfera pure in ottava rima di Gio. M. Tolosani da Colle ... e L'America di Raffaello Gualterotti (Molini., 1859)

Mid 15th Century

1 volume 32 ll. (last bl.). folio. 28 1/2 x 21 /2 cm. Levant morocco gilt binding by Rivière. The first 5 leaves and fol. 21 are wanting: most of the leaves from fol. 15 onward are damaged, especially in the lower margins.

Purchased 1935.

The Authorship of the work is disputed, but the B.M. Catalogue definitely assigns it to Leonardo Dati, and not to Gregorio [1362-1436], though it is attributed to the latter in the G.K.W. and in Klebs. It was first printed at Florence in 1472, and there were a number of other 15th cent. editions.

Select images of this work were taken by the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum: WT/D/1/20/1/62/78

Database description transcribed from S.A.J. Moorat, Catalogue of Western Manuscripts on Medicine and Science in the Wellcome Historical Medical Library (London: Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, 1962-1973).