Softcover NYPL Astronomica Journal

The original De astronomia is most commonly believed to have been composed late in the 1st century B.C. by C. Julius Hyginus, a freedman of Augustus Caesar and chief librarian of the then recently established Palatine Library in Rome. The original is long lost. Over the centuries, manuscript copies of the treatise were created in order to preserve Hyginus’ words and reflections. The work was transmitted by scribes who painstakingly reproduced the original text and artists called miniaturists who supplied the appropriate illustrations in each. Today, only 88 manuscript copies survive, the earliest dating to the 9th century. De sideribus tractatus itself is dated to circa 1475–1480 and named for the recognizable words written in capital letters at the beginning of the text: “Hygini de sideribus tractatus incipit,” meaning “Here begins the treatise of Hyginus on the constellations.” Over the years, the work has also been referred to as “Poeticon Astronomicon” (used in the first illustrate