Astronomicon

Before dying prematurely at the age of 32, Basinio da Parma (1425-57) was an Italian humanist and poet who authored several important works that have survived to the present including his Astronomicon. Composed while he was living at the court of the Malatesta family in Rimini**, his work was first published in 1455. Basinio da Parma wrote the first astronomical poem of Italian Humanism in the tradition of other Astronomicon texts from ancient Rome; similar astronomical poems written by Marcus Manilius and Gaius Julius Hyginus had been rediscovered in recent decades. The manuscript known as Bodley 646 is one of the finest and most fascinating specimens of the Latin hexameter work, which describes in detail the structure of the cosmos, the constellations and their stars, and the motions of the Sun and the planets.

The Commission of an English Earl

The codex was copied by Angelo Aquilano (who is identified in the manuscript) ca. 1460 at the behest of the English scholar and Earl of Worcester John Tiptoft (1427-70), who had a number of works transcribed during his stay that were then brought back with him to England in 1461 after his two-year sojourn in Italy. The 38 miniatures of constellations in the text are clearly based on models from antiquity and are the work of the Tiptoft Master. Constellations are brightly colored and surrounded by gold leaf stars while other miniatures include two celestial diagrams containing the description of the heavens and the planets as well as a diagram of the celestial circles. A magnificent frontispiece introduces the work showing the title and author of the work in capital letters written in gold ink. A palm tree grows behind the inscription, which is held up by two cherubs flanked by red amphorae, out of which grows a garland arch. All of this rests on a marble plinth in the center of which are placed the coat of arms and the crest of John Tiptoft. The manuscript was later donated by Sir Richard Worsley to the Bodleian Library in the 17th century.