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KEPLER, JOHANNES. Astronomia nova aitiologitos; seu, Physica Coelestis, tradita commentariis de motibus stellae Martis, ex observationibus G.V. Tychonis Brahe. [Heidelberg: E. Vogelin] 1609.
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KEPLER, JOHANNES. Astronomia nova aitiologitos; seu, Physica Coelestis, tradita commentariis de motibus stellae Martis, ex observationibus G.V. Tychonis Brahe. [Heidelberg: E. Vogelin] 1609.
Folio, 363 x 237 mm. (14 1/4 x 9 3/8 in.), seventeenth-century calf, sides with double gilt fillet border, spine gilt-panelled in seven compartments, the second gilt-lettered, joints and corners carefully renewed, 6-inch repaired tear to folding table, light browning, a few small stains, rust-stain to fol. Y5 affecting a letter, lacking final blank as usual and 2 of 3 blanks in first quire.
FIRST EDITION, folding synoptic table, numerous woodcut diagrams in text, several repeated.
Caspar, Bibliographia Kepleriana 31; Dibner, Heralds of Science 5; Grolier/Horblit 57; Honeyman sale 5:1783; Houzeau & Lancaster 11830; Norman 1206; PMM 112.
A FINE COPY OF KEPLER'S MOST IMPORTANT WORK, containing the first enunciation of the first two of the three laws of planetary motion: the law of elliptical orbits, and the law of equal areas. In 1599, having been abruptly expulsed from Graz along with other Protestant teachers, Kepler spent three months with Tycho Brahe at his Benatky Castle observatory in Prague. There, "by Divine Providence", as Kepler later saw it, Brahe assigned him to come up with a theory of Mars based on Brahe's own observations, which he pursued with some interruptions for the next 5 years. Kepler's conclusions are spelled out in the Astronomia nova, which truly laid the groundwork for a "new astronomy": "Copernicus in his computations had referred planetary motions to the center of the earth's orbit, but Kepler referred them to the sun itself, thereby paving the way for a real center of force and making possible the Newtonian celestial mechanics" (Dibner). Publication of the work was delayed largely because of contestation by Tycho Brahe's heirs, who held a financial interest in Brahe's data. One of them, Brahe's son-in-law Gansneb Tengnagel, "although unqualified, promised his own publication and, after failing to produce, threatened to suppress Kepler's commentary... A compromise was reached: Tengnagel was allowed a preface to warn the readers not to 'become confused by the liberties that Kepler takes in deviating from Brahe in some of his expositions, particularly those of a physical nature'. The printing finally began at Heidelberg in 1608, and the Astronomia nova was published in the summer of 1609. Although the distribution of the large and magnificent folio was a privilege held by the emperor, Kepler eventually sold the edition to the printer in an attempt to recover part of his back salary" (Dictionary of Scientific Biography 7:297).
Folio, 363 x 237 mm. (14 1/4 x 9 3/8 in.), seventeenth-century calf, sides with double gilt fillet border, spine gilt-panelled in seven compartments, the second gilt-lettered, joints and corners carefully renewed, 6-inch repaired tear to folding table, light browning, a few small stains, rust-stain to fol. Y5 affecting a letter, lacking final blank as usual and 2 of 3 blanks in first quire.
FIRST EDITION, folding synoptic table, numerous woodcut diagrams in text, several repeated.
Caspar, Bibliographia Kepleriana 31; Dibner, Heralds of Science 5; Grolier/Horblit 57; Honeyman sale 5:1783; Houzeau & Lancaster 11830; Norman 1206; PMM 112.
A FINE COPY OF KEPLER'S MOST IMPORTANT WORK, containing the first enunciation of the first two of the three laws of planetary motion: the law of elliptical orbits, and the law of equal areas. In 1599, having been abruptly expulsed from Graz along with other Protestant teachers, Kepler spent three months with Tycho Brahe at his Benatky Castle observatory in Prague. There, "by Divine Providence", as Kepler later saw it, Brahe assigned him to come up with a theory of Mars based on Brahe's own observations, which he pursued with some interruptions for the next 5 years. Kepler's conclusions are spelled out in the Astronomia nova, which truly laid the groundwork for a "new astronomy": "Copernicus in his computations had referred planetary motions to the center of the earth's orbit, but Kepler referred them to the sun itself, thereby paving the way for a real center of force and making possible the Newtonian celestial mechanics" (Dibner). Publication of the work was delayed largely because of contestation by Tycho Brahe's heirs, who held a financial interest in Brahe's data. One of them, Brahe's son-in-law Gansneb Tengnagel, "although unqualified, promised his own publication and, after failing to produce, threatened to suppress Kepler's commentary... A compromise was reached: Tengnagel was allowed a preface to warn the readers not to 'become confused by the liberties that Kepler takes in deviating from Brahe in some of his expositions, particularly those of a physical nature'. The printing finally began at Heidelberg in 1608, and the Astronomia nova was published in the summer of 1609. Although the distribution of the large and magnificent folio was a privilege held by the emperor, Kepler eventually sold the edition to the printer in an attempt to recover part of his back salary" (Dictionary of Scientific Biography 7:297).