_{The Macrocosm:}

The Collections' newest incunabulum was written by Abú Ma'shar (787-886). It was purchased by the Dean of the Libraries, Sul Lee, in celebration of the fiftieth year of the program in the history of science.

Abu Ma'shar was one of the most important and prolific writers on astrology during the Middle Ages. Synthesizing astrological learning from a wide variety of Islamic sources, he was very important in the development of science in Islam. The first edition of this book and the only one printed during the fifteenth century, it was the most frequently quoted astrological text in the West, and was important in the transmission of Aristotelian knowledge. The printer, Ratdolt, was the same person who printed the Kalendarium. A native of Augsburg, he went to Venice in 1475 and set up a printing shop with two colleagues, producing many beautiful books, including the 1482 first printed edition of Euclid's Elements of Geometry also held by the Collections.