Record ID | cp011898 |
Voet reference number | 19 |
Museum Plantin-Moretus | c:lvd:1132806 |
Author | Michel AITSINGERUS |
Title page transcription | Michaëlis ‖ AITSINGERI AVSTRIACI ‖ PENTAPLVS ‖ REGNORVM ‖ MVNDI. ‖ ⊕ 32 ‖ ANTVERPIÆ, ‖ Ex officina Christophori Plantini, ‖ Architypographi Regij. ‖ M.D.LXXIX. |
Collation | 4⁰ [155]: A⁶, B-O⁴, A-F⁴; pages [1-4], 1-110, [111-160] (Errors: 41, 42, 43, 56 not numbered) |
Fingerprint | 157904 - # b1 A3 b$h : # b2 O3 qu - # c1=c2 A3 ili |
Number of sheets | 20.50 |
Pages | [1]: Title [2-4]: Two illustrations (on pages [2] and [3]) with text and a table (on page [4]) concerning the Pentaplus, its meaning and explanation 1-8:…Rhudolfo II caesari quoque atque imperatori…P.F.S. (Antwerp, 15 January 1579, signed by Michaël Eytzinger Austriacus) 9-12: Beatissimo in Christo patri et domino, domino Pio quarto…summo pontifico (Passau, 18 October 1563, signed by Ferdinand; italic type) 13-110: Text (parts in italic type) [111]: approbation (signed by Waltherus vander Steeghen, Antwerp); Privilege (Antwerp, 12 January 1579, signed by Baudwins); Errata [112]: Blank [113-160]: Indices |
Edition information | |
Illustrations | Woodcuts with symbolical figures and mathematical and astrological constructions on pages [2], [3], 41, 42 |
Copies | Museum Plantin-Moretus - A 392KBR Royal Library of BelgiumCambridgeTrinity College, DublinUniversity Library EdinburghRoyal Library of San Lorenzo de El EscorialGhent University LibraryBiblioteca Nacional de PortugalBritish Library LondonBodleian LibrariesBibliothèque nationale de FranceMinster Library, York |
Digital copies | Museum Plantin-Moretus: A 392 |
Bibliographical references | Ruelens-de Backer, pages 203-204 (1579, no. 23)Cockx-Indestege, E. Belgica typographica 1105 |
Online bibliographical references | STCV c:stcv:12919694USTC 401802 |
Note 1 | Curious mathematical - astrological chronography, which can best be described in the words of the author: 'Pentaplus igitur est omnium ab origine mundi regnorum, regum, temporumque formis quinque distincta, inque varios usus ordinata progressio'. |
Note 2 | Contains: Dedicatory letter to Emperors Maximilian II and Rudolph II, dated Antwerp, 'apud Carmelitas', 15 January 1579 (pages 1-8); Letter of Emperor Ferdinand to Pope Pius IV, recommending Aitsinger intending to go to Rome, and giving some details about his Pentaplus (pages 9-12); First part of the Pentaplus: 'De definitione Pentaplus' (pages 13-40); illustrations (pages 41-42); 'How to use the Pentaplus': practical examples, explaining the illustrations, and given in the form of a letter to Mathias of Austria, brother of Rudolph II, then at Antwerp, dated Antwerp, 'apud Carmelitas', 5 February 1579 (pages 43-55); 'Litterae familiaritatis' given by Emperor Maximilian II to Aitsinger (in German: Vienna, 20 September 1564) (page [56]); Second part: 'De Pentapli usu' (pages 57-110); approbation, Privilege, Errata (page [111]); Blank (page [112]); Index personarum, pro temporum quantitate (on two columns; pages [113-138]); Index temporum, ad constituendam synchronismum (pages [139-154]); Index locorum, pro temporum quantitate (pages [155-160]). Appendices on loose sheets: a) 'Regna sive administrationes ecclesiae militantis ante Christum'; b) 'Regna sive administrationes ecclesiae militantis post Christum'; c) 'Imperia sive monarchiae totius mundi praecipuae'; d) 'Regna sive administrationes gentium quae praeter monarchias IIII ante Christum fuerunt praecipua'; e) 'Regna sive administrationes gentium quae praeter monarchias 4. post Christum habentur praecipua'; f) General table 'Regnorum mundi Pentaplus'; g) 'Tabulæ IIII sine quibus perfecte neque Pentaplus intelligi neque ad usum conferri posse'. |
Note 3 | The recommendatory letter of Emperor Ferdinand to Pope Pius IV suggests that already in 1563 the treatise was wholly or partially written. When in Antwerp Aitsinger, as a follower of Mathias of Austria, must have induced Plantin to print his concoction. In the dedicatory letter of 1579 Aitsinger tells that when the Pentaplus, with indices and tables, was already finished, he decided, at the demand of Plantin, who liked to have an explanatory part, to add a 'De Pentapli intellectu et usu libellum' (see pages 4-5). If this declaration may be accepted at its face value, it should mean that the original part of the Pentaplus consisted only of the letter to Mathias (pages 43-55), the indices (pages 113-160) and the appendices, and that the bulk of the work (pages 13-40, 57-110) was added at the request of Plantin. |
Note 4 | Rooses, M. Musée Plantin-Moretus, page 153, affirms that Aitsinger paid Plantin 100 florins Carolus guilders for the impression of the Pentaplus. According to Arch. 14, folio 29, it was in fact Plantin who on 19 November 1578 gave Aitsinger 23 lb. 10 sh. (81 florins Carolus guilders) 'pour son Pentaplus etc'. |
Note 5 | Listed inM 296, folio 14 verso (Pentaplus Regnorum Mundi M. Eitzingerii, 4⁰, 1579, f[euilles] -, [price:] stuivers 8). |
Further reading |