Details
BRAHE, Tycho (1546-1601). Opera omnia, sive astronomiae instauratae progymnasmata in duas partes distributa... Secunda autem de mundi aetherei recentioribus phaenomensis agit. Frankfurt: Johann Gottfried Schnwetter, 1648. 4o (222 x 176 mm). 2 parts in one, separately titled and paginated, 2-leaf dedication (omitted in some copies) bound in at end, 9 full-page woodcuts of astronomical instruments, numerous smaller woodcut diagrams, publisher's woodcut devices on titles and colophon page, woodcut head- and tail-pieces and initials. (Light browning throughout as usual.) 18th-century speckled calf, later calf lettering-piece on spine (upper cover detached, front free endpaper loose, lower joint starting, headcap defective). Provenance: Earl of Hopetoun (bookplate).
First collected edition of the Progymnasmata (first published posthumously by Kepler at Prague in 1602) and De mundi Aetherei (Uraniborg, 1588), the first two parts of a projected but never completed trilogy. The first work contains Brahe's observations of the supernova in Cassiopeia of 1572-1574, as well as his revisions of the theories of solar and lunar movement and a catalogue of the positions of 777 fixed stars. The second work records Brahe's observations of the comet of 1577, and a description of his geoheliocentric theory of the universe, a view that evolved from his study of these two astronomical phenomena, and which was one of several new theories that helped pave the way for acceptance of the Copernican doctrine. Houzeau and Lancaster 2704; Norman 321.
[With:]
DREYER, John Louis Emil (1852-1926). Tycho Brahe: a picture of scientific life and work in the sixteenth century. Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black, 1890. 8o. Collotype plates, line block text illustrations. Original cloth (extremities worn). Provenance: HARVEY CUSHING (1839-1939), presentation copy (July 1937 presentation inscription) to: Herbert M. Evans, pioneer American collector of books of science and medicine (December 1937 presentation inscription to): Francis R. Johnson (bookplate). Norman 322. (2)
First collected edition of the Progymnasmata (first published posthumously by Kepler at Prague in 1602) and De mundi Aetherei (Uraniborg, 1588), the first two parts of a projected but never completed trilogy. The first work contains Brahe's observations of the supernova in Cassiopeia of 1572-1574, as well as his revisions of the theories of solar and lunar movement and a catalogue of the positions of 777 fixed stars. The second work records Brahe's observations of the comet of 1577, and a description of his geoheliocentric theory of the universe, a view that evolved from his study of these two astronomical phenomena, and which was one of several new theories that helped pave the way for acceptance of the Copernican doctrine. Houzeau and Lancaster 2704; Norman 321.
[With:]
DREYER, John Louis Emil (1852-1926). Tycho Brahe: a picture of scientific life and work in the sixteenth century. Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black, 1890. 8o. Collotype plates, line block text illustrations. Original cloth (extremities worn). Provenance: HARVEY CUSHING (1839-1939), presentation copy (July 1937 presentation inscription) to: Herbert M. Evans, pioneer American collector of books of science and medicine (December 1937 presentation inscription to): Francis R. Johnson (bookplate). Norman 322. (2)