![BRAHE, Tycho (1546-1601). Epistolarum astronomicarum libri. Uraniborg [Hven]: [at the author's press, 1596].](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2016/CKS/2016_CKS_13730_0021_000(brahe_tycho_epistolarum_astronomicarum_libri_uraniborg_hven_at_the_aut093852).jpg?w=1)
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BRAHE, Tycho (1546-1601). Epistolarum astronomicarum libri. Uraniborg [Hven]: [at the author's press, 1596].
4° (230 x 169mm). 3 woodcut diagrams, 5 woodcut illustrations of Brahe's observatory, of which 2 full-page, one woodcut map, large woodcut device on final leaf. (Title torn and laid down with loss of first three letters in ‘Epistolarum’ and greater loss to imprint, next three leaves holed with minor loss, soiled, and crudely repaired with further loss to top lines, some waterstaining and more occasional soiling thereafter, quires X to Aa spotted, several quires heavily browned.) 17th-century vellum with manuscript title on spine, blue edges (covers bowed, two tears at upper joints, one corner chipped, spine repaired at foot). Provenance: note of purchase in Prague 1625 (on title-page) — entered in the catalogue of the Society of Jesuits, Vienna, 1653 and 1740 (further note on title) — University Library, Vienna (stamp on title and further stamps at end).
FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE of the scientific correspondence between Tycho Brahe, Landgrave Wilhelm IV of Hesse (1532-1592), and the latter's court astronomer Christopher Rothmann (d. c. 1599-1608), printed at Brahe's private press in his observatory on the island of Hven, on paper made at the observatory paper mill. Although Brahe had projected publication of a series of volumes containing selections from his vast scientific correspondence, this was the only one to appear. Prince Wilhelm, who had been tutored in his youth by Rumold Mercator, was an important patron of the study of astronomy and a gifted amateur astronomer whose primary concern was the improvement of techniques of astronomical observation. He designed several astronomical instruments, built the first observatory with a revolving dome, and conceived the project, only completed after his death, of a complete catalogue of the Hessian sky, for which vast undertaking he obtained, at Brahe's advice, the assistance of the industrious Rothmann. Brahe had visited Wilhelm at Kassel in 1575, and had favourably impressed the Landgrave, whose recommendation may have led King Frederick II of Denmark to offer Brahe the island of Hven as the site for an observatory. The three are not known to have communicated again until the comet of 1585, 'which led to an exchange of letters between Tycho in Hven and William IV and Rothmann in Kassel that lasted for six years... This correspondence covered all aspects of contemporary astronomy: instruments and methods of observing, the Copernican system (which Rothmann supported against Tycho's system), comets, and auroras' (DSB). Appended is a short description of the Uraniborg observatory — site of 'the last of the pre-telescope observations' (Dibner) — illustrated with woodcuts and a map of the island of Hven that would be reused in the 1598 Astronomiae instauratae mechanica. This is one of the first such descriptions of an astronomical observatory, and anticipates the more detailed report of the Mechanica. VERY FEW COPIES OF THIS FIRST ISSUE REMAIN IN PRIVATE HANDS. The work is more commonly known through the re-issues of 1601 (Nuremberg: Hulsius, with new title-page) and 1610 (Frankfurt: Tampach, new title-page and some sheets reprinted). Adams B-2653; Dibner Heralds 4; Dreyer Tycho Brahe, pp. 369-70; Houzeau & Lancaster 7824; Rosenkilde and Balhausen, Thesaurus Librorum Danicorum (Copenhagen 1987), 256.
4° (230 x 169mm). 3 woodcut diagrams, 5 woodcut illustrations of Brahe's observatory, of which 2 full-page, one woodcut map, large woodcut device on final leaf. (Title torn and laid down with loss of first three letters in ‘Epistolarum’ and greater loss to imprint, next three leaves holed with minor loss, soiled, and crudely repaired with further loss to top lines, some waterstaining and more occasional soiling thereafter, quires X to Aa spotted, several quires heavily browned.) 17th-century vellum with manuscript title on spine, blue edges (covers bowed, two tears at upper joints, one corner chipped, spine repaired at foot). Provenance: note of purchase in Prague 1625 (on title-page) — entered in the catalogue of the Society of Jesuits, Vienna, 1653 and 1740 (further note on title) — University Library, Vienna (stamp on title and further stamps at end).
FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE of the scientific correspondence between Tycho Brahe, Landgrave Wilhelm IV of Hesse (1532-1592), and the latter's court astronomer Christopher Rothmann (d. c. 1599-1608), printed at Brahe's private press in his observatory on the island of Hven, on paper made at the observatory paper mill. Although Brahe had projected publication of a series of volumes containing selections from his vast scientific correspondence, this was the only one to appear. Prince Wilhelm, who had been tutored in his youth by Rumold Mercator, was an important patron of the study of astronomy and a gifted amateur astronomer whose primary concern was the improvement of techniques of astronomical observation. He designed several astronomical instruments, built the first observatory with a revolving dome, and conceived the project, only completed after his death, of a complete catalogue of the Hessian sky, for which vast undertaking he obtained, at Brahe's advice, the assistance of the industrious Rothmann. Brahe had visited Wilhelm at Kassel in 1575, and had favourably impressed the Landgrave, whose recommendation may have led King Frederick II of Denmark to offer Brahe the island of Hven as the site for an observatory. The three are not known to have communicated again until the comet of 1585, 'which led to an exchange of letters between Tycho in Hven and William IV and Rothmann in Kassel that lasted for six years... This correspondence covered all aspects of contemporary astronomy: instruments and methods of observing, the Copernican system (which Rothmann supported against Tycho's system), comets, and auroras' (DSB). Appended is a short description of the Uraniborg observatory — site of 'the last of the pre-telescope observations' (Dibner) — illustrated with woodcuts and a map of the island of Hven that would be reused in the 1598 Astronomiae instauratae mechanica. This is one of the first such descriptions of an astronomical observatory, and anticipates the more detailed report of the Mechanica. VERY FEW COPIES OF THIS FIRST ISSUE REMAIN IN PRIVATE HANDS. The work is more commonly known through the re-issues of 1601 (Nuremberg: Hulsius, with new title-page) and 1610 (Frankfurt: Tampach, new title-page and some sheets reprinted). Adams B-2653; Dibner Heralds 4; Dreyer Tycho Brahe, pp. 369-70; Houzeau & Lancaster 7824; Rosenkilde and Balhausen, Thesaurus Librorum Danicorum (Copenhagen 1987), 256.
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