.jpg?w=1)
PROPERTY FROM A MASSACHUSETTS COLLECTOR
HEVELIUS, Johannes (1611-1687). Mercurius in sole visus Gedani, anno christiano MDCLXI... cui annexa est Venus in sole pariter visa, anno 1639... Liverpoliae, a Jeremia Horroxio, nunc primum edita. Danzig: Simon Reiniger for the author, 1662.
Details
HEVELIUS, Johannes (1611-1687). Mercurius in sole visus Gedani, anno christiano MDCLXI... cui annexa est Venus in sole pariter visa, anno 1639... Liverpoliae, a Jeremia Horroxio, nunc primum edita. Danzig: Simon Reiniger for the author, 1662.
2° (353 x 230 mm). 94 leaves. Engraved allegorical title vignette after A. Boy, 10 engraved plates by Hevelius, letterpress tables, woodcut and type-ornament head- and tail-pieces and initials. (Old marginal repaired tear on Ii1, small rust-hole on Vv2 catching a few letters.) Contemporary vellum (some wear and soiling).
Provenance: MICHAEL KIRSTEN (1620-1678) Doctor, mathematician, astronomer and poet born in Beraun, lived in Northern Germany, Copenhagen, Padua, Breslau and settled in Hamburg in 1655. His most significant works among his numerous publications are his scientific works: Non Entia Chymica, 1645; Dethardingii Chymischer Probier-Ofen, 1645; Bartholini Institutiones anatomicae oder künstliche Zerlegung des menschlichen Leibe, übers, 1648 and 1657; Commentatio de motu sanguinis, 1650; and Casserii anatomische Tafeln, 1650; JOHANN ALBERT FABRICIUS (1668-1736), German classical scholar and celebrated bibliographer, credited with writing 128 books on Latin, Greek and other subjects (signature on title-page).
FIRST EDITION. PRESENTATION COPY, INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR TO MICHAEL KIRSTEN on the title-page: "Viro Eruditissino ac Clarissimo Dr° M Kirstenio dono mittit Autor." ANNOTATED BY HEVELIUS on 12 pages, including four longer annotations on the first engraving, that of a partial lunar eclipse. This work publishes Hevelius' observations of the transit of Mercury on 3 May 1661, followed by the first published description of the important observations by the short-lived English astronomer Jeremiah Horrocks (1618-1641) of the transit of Venus of 24 November 1639, with supplementary notes by Hevelius. Horrocks was the first astronomer to observe a transit (or conjunction with the sun) of Venus, an event that he had predicted through close study and correction of Kepler's tables. His observations enabled him to make the first accurate calculations of the diameter of Venus and of the constants of its orbit. This was the first of any of Horrock's manuscripts to be published.
The final portion of the work contains a description and ephemerides of a new star (probably a nova) in the "neck" of the constellation Cetus, first observed in 1638, and a description of unusual optical occurrences observed by Hevelius in 1660 and 1661, including a paraselene (or mock moon), and a parhelion (or mock sun).
Hevelius's works are notably rare: a fire at his house in September 1679 destroyed all of his various works published up to and including 1679. This and the following lot are remarkable not only for their survival, but for their exceptional provenance, having been presented to Michael Kirsten and later collected by Johann Albert Fabricius. Norman 1067.
2° (353 x 230 mm). 94 leaves. Engraved allegorical title vignette after A. Boy, 10 engraved plates by Hevelius, letterpress tables, woodcut and type-ornament head- and tail-pieces and initials. (Old marginal repaired tear on Ii1, small rust-hole on Vv2 catching a few letters.) Contemporary vellum (some wear and soiling).
Provenance: MICHAEL KIRSTEN (1620-1678) Doctor, mathematician, astronomer and poet born in Beraun, lived in Northern Germany, Copenhagen, Padua, Breslau and settled in Hamburg in 1655. His most significant works among his numerous publications are his scientific works: Non Entia Chymica, 1645; Dethardingii Chymischer Probier-Ofen, 1645; Bartholini Institutiones anatomicae oder künstliche Zerlegung des menschlichen Leibe, übers, 1648 and 1657; Commentatio de motu sanguinis, 1650; and Casserii anatomische Tafeln, 1650; JOHANN ALBERT FABRICIUS (1668-1736), German classical scholar and celebrated bibliographer, credited with writing 128 books on Latin, Greek and other subjects (signature on title-page).
FIRST EDITION. PRESENTATION COPY, INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR TO MICHAEL KIRSTEN on the title-page: "Viro Eruditissino ac Clarissimo Dr° M Kirstenio dono mittit Autor." ANNOTATED BY HEVELIUS on 12 pages, including four longer annotations on the first engraving, that of a partial lunar eclipse. This work publishes Hevelius' observations of the transit of Mercury on 3 May 1661, followed by the first published description of the important observations by the short-lived English astronomer Jeremiah Horrocks (1618-1641) of the transit of Venus of 24 November 1639, with supplementary notes by Hevelius. Horrocks was the first astronomer to observe a transit (or conjunction with the sun) of Venus, an event that he had predicted through close study and correction of Kepler's tables. His observations enabled him to make the first accurate calculations of the diameter of Venus and of the constants of its orbit. This was the first of any of Horrock's manuscripts to be published.
The final portion of the work contains a description and ephemerides of a new star (probably a nova) in the "neck" of the constellation Cetus, first observed in 1638, and a description of unusual optical occurrences observed by Hevelius in 1660 and 1661, including a paraselene (or mock moon), and a parhelion (or mock sun).
Hevelius's works are notably rare: a fire at his house in September 1679 destroyed all of his various works published up to and including 1679. This and the following lot are remarkable not only for their survival, but for their exceptional provenance, having been presented to Michael Kirsten and later collected by Johann Albert Fabricius. Norman 1067.