1484 -1498
Four Italian Judaica incunabula: Abraham ibn Ezra, De nativatibus

ERHARD RATDOLT FROM AUGSBURG worked in Venice between 1476 and 1485, at first in a celebrated partnership with two other German craftsmen, Bernhard Maler and Peter Löslein. The Venetian period produced works of a scientific and philosophical nature, the various ephemerides of Johann [Müller] Regiomontanus (of Königsberg), books by Arab authors, then Euclid and Ptolemy. On returning to his native Augsburg in 1486, he continued to print there from 1487 to 1516.
The present text, printed in 1485, is the only one by a Jewish author to be undertaken by Ratdolt at Venice, and it is the only edition of the De nativitatibus known to have been printed in the fifteenth century. The Compositio astrolabij by Henricus Bate, which is here found added to the text of Abraham ben Meir ibn Ezra, was no doubt chosen by Ratdolt because of his interest in astrolabes, especially through the work of Regiomontanus.
Abraham ben Meir ibn Ezra was born in 1092 or 1093, most probably in Toledo, Spain. He became a poet, scientist and philosopher and was well acquainted with Arabic, although he did not write in that language. He probably left Spain in 1137, and is then found wandering through various cities of Italy: Rome in 1140, Lucca in 1145, Mantua in 1145 - 1146, Verona in 1146 -1147; he subsequently went to Provence and afterwards lived for a time in northern France before returning to Narbonne. He died in 1167. The first edition of his commentary on the Pentateuch in Hebrew was printed at Naples in 1488.
Henricus Bate was a native of Malines (in present-day Belgium), where he was born on 23 /24 March 1246. He completed the writing of his Compositio astrolabij at Malines on 11 October 1274. The date of his death is unknown, but it occurred after 1310.

Catalogue of Books Printed in the XVth Century Now in the British Museum. Parts 4 - 7,12 (London 1916-1935 [reprinted with additions, 1962], 1985) (On Italy).