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COPERNICUS, Nicolaus (1473-1543). De revolutionibus orbium coelestium. - Georg Johann RHETICUS (1514-1574). De libris revolutionum Nicolai Copernici Narratio prima. Basel: Heinrich Petri, 1566.
2o (282 x 196 mm). Roman type, occasional Greek type. Narratio prima in double-column. Woodcut diagrams, printer's device on title, a different device on final verso, woodcut historiated initials. Gatherings m and n interleaved with half sheets presumably by Gellibrand, z3v with an overlay paper on diagram to allow a drawing of two additional epicycle pairs. (Title a little frayed at edges, upper right corner of last third with some light dampstaining.) Early 17th-century limp vellum (spine reinforced, minor wear to upper fore-edge, ties missing); quarter morocco folding case.
Provenance:
1. HENRY BRIGGS (1561-1630), the first professor of geometry at Gresham college and at Oxford. He put Napier's logarithms onto base 10 (ownership signature "H. Briggs" on title and annotations throughout).
2.-3. HENRY GELLIBRAND and JOHN WELLS (ownership inscription on title "J Welles. Ex dono colendissimi m[a]g[istr]i Hen: Gellibrand 1634"). Henry Gellibrand (1597-1636) was professor of astronomy at Gresham College and completed Briggs' trigonometric tables. John Wells (fl. 1607-1635) was a practical mathematician specializing in dialing, and an intimate friend of Briggs and Gellibrand. His first initial in the signature is possibly a cipher for John (his inscription and annotations throughout).
4. Robert Fletcher (ownership signature on title "R. Fletcher" inked over). Sir Robert Fletcher (1625-1664), father of:
5. Andrew Fletcher (ownership signature on title "A Fletcher"). Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun (1655-1716), Scottish patriot. His library of 6,000 volumes was exceeded in Britain only by John Selden's collection.
6. Harrison D. Horblit (bookplate; his sale part I, Sotheby's London, 11 June 1974, lot 241).
AN EXCEPTIONAL ASSOCIATION COPY
SECOND (AUTHORIZED) EDITION OF THE MOST SIGNIFICANT SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATION OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY, the first edition to contain Rheticus' Narratio prima. First published at Gdansk in 1540, and addressed to the astronomer and globe-maker Johann Schöner, who is thought to have first informed the young Rheticus of Copernicus' radical new cosmological theories, the Narratio contains a summary of the Copernican heliocentric hypothesis and an account of Rheticus' efforts to persuade Copernicus to publish his work. The first edition-- of the greatest rarity--was followed by a pirated edition printed at Basel in 1541, making this its third appearance in print.
This second edition of De revolutionibus reproduces the text of the 1543 edition, including Andreas Osiander's unsigned prefatory letter, an attempt to placate eventual critics of the work by emphasizing its purely theoretical aspect. The errata, listed on a leaf inserted in some copies of the first edition, were not corrected for this edition. Petri added a prefatory recommendation by the noted astronomer Erasmus Reinhold (printed at the end of the index), stating that "all posterity will gratefully remember the name of Copernicus, by whose labor and study the doctrine of celestial motions was again restored from near collapse..." (Owen Gingerich's translation, Eye of Heaven, p.221). In his census of the 1543 and 1566 editions, Owen Gingerich has located 317 copies of the second edition, making it only slightly less rare than the first.
ANNOTATED BY TWO COPERNICAN SCHOLARS AND GRESHAM PROFESSORS
HENRY BRIGGS was the first professor of geometry at the newly founded Gresham College in London (1597-1619) and the first Savilian Professor of Geometry at Oxford. "Refered to by contemporaries as 'Stupor Mathematicorum,' and a Copernican, Briggs's London circle included many of those interested in the new practical applications of geometry, including Thomas Blundeville, Edward Wright, William Gilbert, William Oughtred, JOHN WELLS, HENRY GELLIBRAND, Edmund Gunter, John Marr, Jodocus Hondius and Samuel Purchas." (Taylor). His Gresham lectures on Napier's logarithms helped to popularise and advance this important discovery. In the appendix to Blundeville's The Theoriques of the seven Planets... (London, 1602) Briggs' published a table of calculations showing how the magnetic dip-cirle could be used in navigation, for finding latitude, without using astronomic devices (see lot 49). In 1624 he published his important work Arithmetica logarthmica (see lot 70). His friend and professor of astronomy at Gresham College (1626-36) HENRY GELLIBRAND was the second owner of this copy. Gellibrand completed the second volume of Briggs' Trigonometria Britannica in 1633. His "most widely appreciated scientific discovery... was that of the secular change in the magnetic variation (declination)" (DSB). It was published in A Discourse Mathematicall on the Variation of the Magneticall Needle (London, 1635, see lot 224). In addition Gellibrand studied matters of mathematical navigation and computed "the longitude from observations made by Captain James on his voyage to Hudson Bay" (Taylor). JOHN WELLS the third owner of this work, was an intimate friend of Henry Briggs and Henry Gellibrand. He was a practical mathematician who specialized in dialing. He describes the construction of 17 dials, classified according to the system of Clavius' in his Sciographia, or the Art of Shadows (London,1635).
Gingerich notes in regards to the present copy: "Annotations, mostly numerical and scattered over 80 pages between f. 13 and f. 206, by both Briggs (in a soft gray ink) and Gellibrand (in a crisp black-brown ink). The book was presumably rebound by Gellibrand." Adams C-2603; Houzeau & Lancaster 2503; Gingerich An annotated Census of Copernicus' 'De revolutionibus' (Nuremberg, 1543 and Basel, 1566), II.306; Houzeau & Lancaster 2503; Taylor Mathematical Practitioners pp.184, 199 and 138.
2
Provenance:
1. HENRY BRIGGS (1561-1630), the first professor of geometry at Gresham college and at Oxford. He put Napier's logarithms onto base 10 (ownership signature "H. Briggs" on title and annotations throughout).
2.-3. HENRY GELLIBRAND and JOHN WELLS (ownership inscription on title "J Welles. Ex dono colendissimi m[a]g[istr]i Hen: Gellibrand 1634"). Henry Gellibrand (1597-1636) was professor of astronomy at Gresham College and completed Briggs' trigonometric tables. John Wells (fl. 1607-1635) was a practical mathematician specializing in dialing, and an intimate friend of Briggs and Gellibrand. His first initial in the signature is possibly a cipher for John (his inscription and annotations throughout).
4. Robert Fletcher (ownership signature on title "R. Fletcher" inked over). Sir Robert Fletcher (1625-1664), father of:
5. Andrew Fletcher (ownership signature on title "A Fletcher"). Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun (1655-1716), Scottish patriot. His library of 6,000 volumes was exceeded in Britain only by John Selden's collection.
6. Harrison D. Horblit (bookplate; his sale part I, Sotheby's London, 11 June 1974, lot 241).
AN EXCEPTIONAL ASSOCIATION COPY
SECOND (AUTHORIZED) EDITION OF THE MOST SIGNIFICANT SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATION OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY, the first edition to contain Rheticus' Narratio prima. First published at Gdansk in 1540, and addressed to the astronomer and globe-maker Johann Schöner, who is thought to have first informed the young Rheticus of Copernicus' radical new cosmological theories, the Narratio contains a summary of the Copernican heliocentric hypothesis and an account of Rheticus' efforts to persuade Copernicus to publish his work. The first edition-- of the greatest rarity--was followed by a pirated edition printed at Basel in 1541, making this its third appearance in print.
This second edition of De revolutionibus reproduces the text of the 1543 edition, including Andreas Osiander's unsigned prefatory letter, an attempt to placate eventual critics of the work by emphasizing its purely theoretical aspect. The errata, listed on a leaf inserted in some copies of the first edition, were not corrected for this edition. Petri added a prefatory recommendation by the noted astronomer Erasmus Reinhold (printed at the end of the index), stating that "all posterity will gratefully remember the name of Copernicus, by whose labor and study the doctrine of celestial motions was again restored from near collapse..." (Owen Gingerich's translation, Eye of Heaven, p.221). In his census of the 1543 and 1566 editions, Owen Gingerich has located 317 copies of the second edition, making it only slightly less rare than the first.
ANNOTATED BY TWO COPERNICAN SCHOLARS AND GRESHAM PROFESSORS
HENRY BRIGGS was the first professor of geometry at the newly founded Gresham College in London (1597-1619) and the first Savilian Professor of Geometry at Oxford. "Refered to by contemporaries as 'Stupor Mathematicorum,' and a Copernican, Briggs's London circle included many of those interested in the new practical applications of geometry, including Thomas Blundeville, Edward Wright, William Gilbert, William Oughtred, JOHN WELLS, HENRY GELLIBRAND, Edmund Gunter, John Marr, Jodocus Hondius and Samuel Purchas." (Taylor). His Gresham lectures on Napier's logarithms helped to popularise and advance this important discovery. In the appendix to Blundeville's The Theoriques of the seven Planets... (London, 1602) Briggs' published a table of calculations showing how the magnetic dip-cirle could be used in navigation, for finding latitude, without using astronomic devices (see lot 49). In 1624 he published his important work Arithmetica logarthmica (see lot 70). His friend and professor of astronomy at Gresham College (1626-36) HENRY GELLIBRAND was the second owner of this copy. Gellibrand completed the second volume of Briggs' Trigonometria Britannica in 1633. His "most widely appreciated scientific discovery... was that of the secular change in the magnetic variation (declination)" (DSB). It was published in A Discourse Mathematicall on the Variation of the Magneticall Needle (London, 1635, see lot 224). In addition Gellibrand studied matters of mathematical navigation and computed "the longitude from observations made by Captain James on his voyage to Hudson Bay" (Taylor). JOHN WELLS the third owner of this work, was an intimate friend of Henry Briggs and Henry Gellibrand. He was a practical mathematician who specialized in dialing. He describes the construction of 17 dials, classified according to the system of Clavius' in his Sciographia, or the Art of Shadows (London,1635).
Gingerich notes in regards to the present copy: "Annotations, mostly numerical and scattered over 80 pages between f. 13 and f. 206, by both Briggs (in a soft gray ink) and Gellibrand (in a crisp black-brown ink). The book was presumably rebound by Gellibrand." Adams C-2603; Houzeau & Lancaster 2503; Gingerich An annotated Census of Copernicus' 'De revolutionibus' (Nuremberg, 1543 and Basel, 1566), II.306; Houzeau & Lancaster 2503; Taylor Mathematical Practitioners pp.184, 199 and 138.