ROIZ (Pedro). LIBRO de Reloges Solares. Valencia. 1575.

ROIZ (Pedro). LIBRO de Reloges Solares. Valencia. 1575.
ROIZ (Pedro)
LIBRO de Reloges Solares. Compuesto por Pedro Roiz [...], discipulo del Maestro Hieronymo Muñoz; en el qual muestra a hazer reloges, en llano, y en paredes a qualquier viento descubiertas, levantadas a plomo, o inclinadas hazia tierra, y otras cosas para esto necessarias. Valencia: en Casa de Pedro de Huete, 1575.

A-R4; [8], 128 pp.; 200 mm.

FIRST EDITION of what for a long time was the only one published on the subject in Spanish. Little is known about the author's biography and what is known comes from the few biographical notes contained in his work. He was parish priest of the church of San Valero in Valencia and later canon of the Metropolitan Cathedral. Disciple of Jerónimo Muñoz (1520-1591), astronomer and geographer who was professor in Salamanca, a position that Roiz also held. His only published work has the particularity of having been written in such a way that anyone, even without any mathematical knowledge, could dedicate themselves to the business of building sundials. This was at least his intention, well expressed in the prologue to the reader: «Las cosas de Mathematicas van tan asidas y encadenadas entre se, que no se pueden understand las unas sin las otras: las medias sin las del principio, ni las postreras sin these two. Everything necessary to understand the manufacture of solar clocks in this book will be stated in it, without the need for anything else. Lean it from the beginning, and don't pass it by, without understanding it: and when you offer something that is not stated here, please explain it, because it will not be necessary for our intent.» The work is extraordinarily rare, with very few records of sales and none at auction in recent years.