Pithoys (Pithois), Claude. Cosmographie ou doctrine de la sphere

Avec un traitté de la geographie. Par C.L. Pithoys professeur en philosophie en l'academie de Sedan, & licentié és droicts. Sedan, François Chayer, 1661, 127 p., cont. hvellum w. manuscript "Cosmographie" on spine, 4to. Apart from some minor imperfections and signs of age, a very good, untrimmed copy.

Perhaps the only surviving copy of this second and last edition, no other copies traced, not even at the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. Cf. Houzeau-Lancaster II, number 10920 and P.J.S. Whitmore. A 17th Century Exposure of Superstition: Select Texts of Claude Pithoys (1972), 5 (both only listing the ed. 1641). The present work appears to be meant as a schoolbook, and the deliberate destruction of books of the Protestant Academy at Sedan (the academy mentioned in the title) in 1681 must have contributed to the rarity of Sedan (academy) books of this period. It contains a foreword addressed to "ceux qui le meritent", explaining that this "small but sufficient Cosmography" does not contain azimuths, almucantas, concentrics, excentrics, epicycles of planets or horoscopes, but does answer questions such as what the disposition of the universe is, what part of the world the reader lives in, how the different seasons came about etc. The following prelude provides 12 definitions of terms incl. cosmography, sphere, hemisphere, diameter, axis and degrees of a sphere, and that natural and artificial spheres exist. After these preliminary explanations, the work is divided in 4 parts: I. Traitté de la sphere en general (on Ptolemaic astrolabes, the earth and the universe). II. Traitté de la region celeste (on on the sun, the moon, planets and stars, including constellations). III. Traitté de la region elementaire (on the earth, subterranean regions, seas and air, associated w. the 4 elements). IV. Traitté des principes de la geographie (w. special emphasis on globes). The work was only known from the very rare first edition (Sedan, P. Jannon for L. Perier, 1641, 167 p., the printed date on the present work's title-p. is therefore not 1641 misprinted). Claude Pithois is best known for his Traitté curieux de l'astrologie judiciaire (1641).