La sfera: A Renaissance Interplanetary Voyage
Naomi Miller
'La sfera,' a fifteenth-century cosmological poem,
composed in Florence, proliferated in Renaissance manuscripts. A compendium
of astronomy and geography, La sfera fuses universal subject matter with
praises of the Lord. Combining features of an astrological tract and navigators'
guide, its verses constitute a primer of technical data on celestial phenomena.
Marginal illustrations cast planetary bodies as allegorical personifications,
drawn from Biblical and classical texts, to evoke the vault of heaven and
perfect Euclidean forms. Seeking further inspiration, the poem is related
to the luxurious Este De Sphaera, and works by Ptolemy, Sacrobosco (Holywood),
and Dante.