Case 2 - The Heavens

Case 2 is larger than its companion, holding five books that center around a theme of the intangible. Mathematical equations and starry calculations feature prominently here, bouncing between illustrations in Julius Hyginus's Clarissimi viri Iginij [, Johann Dryander's Noui annuli astronomici, Alexander Piccolomini's De la sfera del mundo [& ...] de le stelle fisse, Johannes de Sacro Bosco's Sphaera Mundi, and an anthology headed by Pierre Gassendi and titled in full as Institutio astronomica : juxta hypotheses tam veterum quàm recentiorum; cui accesserunt Galileo Galilei Nuntius siderius, et Johannis Kepleri Dioptrice. 

Putting such complicated concepts onto paper was no easy feat by itself, but the efforts of the woodcut designers excel - even some of the dimmest constellations feature brightly on the pages of Piccolomini's star atlas, and the white-line woodcuts in Galileo's chapter of Gassendi's anthology brilliantly capture how the Pleiades would look at night.