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Tag Archives: Johannes Kepler

Book of the Week — De Magnete magneticisqve corporibvs et de magna magnete tellure; Physiologia noua, plurimus & orgumentis, & …

20 Tuesday Feb 2018

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Cambridge, De magnete, Earl of Leicester, earth, electricity, England, Francis Bacon, Galileo, geographic poles, Greeks, iron, Isaac Newton, James I, Johannes Kepler, lodestone, London, Lord Burghley, magnet, magnetic lodestone, magnetic poles, magnetism, mariners, navigational tools, P. Short, physician, Queen Elizabeth I, Robert Boyle, Robert Dudley, Royal College of Physicians, Royal Physician, science, William Cecil, William Gilbert, woodcuts


“Non ex libris solum, sed ex rebus ipsis scientiam quaeritis.”

Gvilielmi gilberti colcestrensis, medici londinensis, de magnete magneticisqve corporibvs, et de magno magnete tellure; phsiologia noua, plurimis & argumentis, & experimentis demonstrata
William Gilbert (1540-1603)
Londini: excvdebat P. Short, 1600
First edition
QC751 G44 1600

This the only published work of William Gilbert, an attorney’s son who studied at Cambridge before practising as a physician in London, where he was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in 1573 and its president in 1600. Through his contacts at court, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester; and William Cecil, Lord Burghley, Gilbert was made Royal Physician to Queen Elizabeth I in 1601, an appointment renewed by James I on his accession in 1603. Swank surroundings, but Gilbert earned his reputation from the publication of this book after eighteen years of dedicated labor.

In the six books of De magnete, William Gilbert discussed the history of magnetism. Although the magnetic lodestone had been used by the ancient Greeks, Gilbert argued that the Earth was a natural magnet, and the Earth’s magnetic poles are relatively near the geographic poles. As a result of this argument, mariners were better able to use the lodestone as an effective navigational tool. Considered the first great scientific book published in England, its importance is due to Gilbert’s reliance on experimental methods of research, a crucial development in the field of science.

While Gilbert was chiefly concerned with the properties of magnetism, he also wrote about the attractive effect of electricity. Because of this discussion he is considered the founder of electrical science. The English term “electricity” was not coined until 1646, but, in this book, Gibert wrote “Electrica, qua attrahunt eadem ratione ut electrum.” Gilbert’s experiments proved that the earth’s core is iron, and that the earth rotates daily — some twenty years before Galileo described the same.

De magnete describes Gilbert’s invention of the “Versorium,” the first instrument designed for the study of electric phenomena.

Johannes Kepler, Frances Bacon, Robert Boyle, Isaac Newton, and Galileo were all greatly influenced by this book.

The text is filled with eighty-eighty woodcuts, four of which are full-page, a folding plate, and decorative initials and head- and tail-pieces. Rare Books copy lacks folding plate.

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Pioneers of Science — Now Online

05 Thursday Oct 2017

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Antoine Lavoisier, Carl Gauss, Charles Darwin, College of Mines and Earth Sciences, College of Science, Euclid, Frontiers of Science, Galileo, Isaac Newton, J. Willard Marriott Library, Johannes Kepler, Louis Pasteur, Luise Poulton, Marie Curie, Michael Faraday, Pioneers of Science, rare books, Scott Beadles, Special Collections, The University of Utah

photograph by Scott Beadles

“A library is as much a scientific instrument as a telescope.” — Luise Poulton

Pioneers of Science: Ten Thousand Pages That Shook the World now online.

Euclid’s Elements of Geometry was first printed in 1482, just as soon as one of the early masters of movable type figured out how to do it. Not only does the Marriott Library have this first edition, but also first editions of books by other pioneers of science: Isaac Newton, Johannes Kepler, Galileo, Antoine Lavoisier, Carl Gauss, Charles Darwin, Michael Faraday, Louis Pasteur, Marie Curie, and more. Each of these books has its own story to tell. Together they give insight into the communication, conversation, collaboration, and controversy that made science possible: a revolution that has been going on in print for more than five hundred years.

Presented for the 2017/2018 Frontiers of Science lecture series, College of Science and College of Mines and Earth Sciences, The University of Utah

Luise Poulton, Managing Curator, Rare Books, Special Collections, J. Willard Marriott Library, The University of Utah

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Join Us Tonight! — Pioneers of Science

28 Thursday Sep 2017

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Antoine Lavoisier, Carl Gauss, Charles Darwin, College of Mines and Earth Sciences, College of Science, Euclid, Frontiers of Science, Galileo, Isaac Newton, J. Willard Marriott Library, Johannes Kepler, Louis Pasteur, Marie Curie, Michael Faraday, Pioneers of Science, rare books, Special Collections, The University of Utah

Thursday, September 28, 2017

ASB 220

Pioneers of Science: Ten Thousand Pages That Shook the World

Luise Poulton, Managing Curator, Rare Books, Special Collections, J. Willard Marriott Library, The University of Utah

Euclid’s Elements of Geometry was first printed in 1482, just as soon as one of the early masters of movable type figured out how to do it. Not only does the Marriott Library have this first edition, but also first editions of books by other pioneers of science: Isaac Newton, Johannes Kepler, Galileo, Antoine Lavoisier, Carl Gauss, Charles Darwin, Michael Faraday, Louis Pasteur, Marie Curie, and more. Each of these books has its own story to tell. Together they give insight into the communication, conversation, collaboration, and controversy that made science possible: a revolution that has been going on in print for more than five hundred years.

reception and rare book showing to follow lecture

 

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Rare Science

12 Tuesday Sep 2017

Posted by rarebooks in Events, Recommended Lecture

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Aline W. Skaggs Biology Building, Antoine Lavoisier, Carl Gauss, Charles Darwin, Charles Lyell, Edmond Halley, Euclid, Frontiers of Science, Galileo, Isaac Newton, J. Willard Marriott Library, James Watson, Johannes Kepler, Louis Pasteur, Michael Faraday, rare books, Rare Books Department, science, The University of Utah, William Gilbert

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The J. Willard Marriott Library has a great collection of seminal science works in its Rare Books Department. Visit level 3 of the library to see images from some of these books. Join us for a lecture on September 28.

Frontiers of Science

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From Euclid to James Watson, scientists have put their findings to parchment and paper. Euclid’s Elements of Geometry was first printed in 1482, just as soon as one of the masters of movable type figured out how to do it. It has been in print ever since. Isaac Newton was reluctant to take the time, but his friend Edmond Halley insisted, and so we have Newton’s Principia, printed in 1687. The Marriott Library has first editions of both of these works, and first editions of books by other pioneers of science: William Gilbert, Johannes Kepler, Galileo, Antoine Lavoisier, Carl Gauss, Charles Lyell, Charles Darwin, Michael Faraday, Louis Pasteur, Marie Curie, and more. Each of these books has its own story to tell. Together they give insight into the communication, conversation, collaboration, and controversy that made science possible: a revolution that has been going on in print for more than five hundred years.

“Pioneers of Science: Ten Thousand Pages That Shook the World”
Thursday, September 28, 6:00PM
Aline W. Skaggs Biology Building
The University of Utah

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

FOS Poulton Library Easel Poster

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You Come Too

05 Tuesday Sep 2017

Posted by rarebooks in Events, Recommended Lecture

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Aline W. Skaggs Biology Building, Antoine Lavoisier, Ben Bromley, Carl Gauss, Charles Darwin, Charles Lyell, College of Science, Dean Henry White, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Edmond Halley, Elements of Geometry, Euclid, Frontiers of Science, Galileo, history, Isaac Newton, James Watson, Johannes Kepler, lecture, Louis Pasteur, Marie Curie, Marriott Library, Michael Faraday, Pioneers of Science, Principia, rare books, science, The University of Utah, William Gilbert

 

Delighting over the first edition of Isaac Newton's Principia

Delighting over the first edition of Isaac Newton’s Principia

Remember snow? Winter is coming! Last January, Dean Henry White, College of Science, and Ben Bromley, Chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy, trudged through the snow to Rare Books to look at our first edition of Isaac Newton’s Principia (1687) and other books from our history of science collection.

You come too!

You are invited to “Pioneers of Science: Ten Thousand Pages That Shook the World,” the opening lecture for the College of Science‘s Frontiers of Science lecture series.

Join us for a lecture, reception, and hands-on display of some of our first editions of books that helped make the world what it is today.

From Euclid to James Watson, scientists have put their findings to parchment and paper. Euclid’s Elements of Geometry was first printed in 1482, just as soon as one of the masters of movable type figured out how to do it. It has been in print ever since. Isaac Newton was reluctant to take the time, but his friend Edmond Halley insisted, and so we have Newton’s Principia, printed in 1687. The Marriott Library has first editions of both of these works, and first editions of books by other pioneers of science: William Gilbert, Johannes Kepler, Galileo, Antoine Lavoisier, Carl Gauss, Charles Lyell, Charles Darwin, Michael Faraday, Louis Pasteur, Marie Curie, and more. Each of these books has its own story to tell. Together they give insight into the communication, conversation, collaboration, and controversy that made science possible: a revolution that has been going on in print for more than five hundred years.

Frontiers of Science

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Pioneers of Science: Ten Thousand Pages That Shook the World”
Thursday, September 28, 6:00PM
Aline W. Skaggs Biology Building
The University of Utah

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

FOS Poulton Library Easel Poster

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Book of the Week — Petri Gassendi Institutio Astronomica…

07 Monday Nov 2016

Posted by rarebooks in Book of the Week

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astronomy, Copernicus, crystalline, England, English, Galileo, Jacobi Flesher, Johannes Kepler, Jupiter, light, moon, moons, mountains, Pierre Gassendi, sphere, stars, telescope, textbook, Tycho Brahe, university, valleys, woodcuts

qb41-g2-1653-orbits

“…senseless atoms, playing and toying up and down, without any care or thought, and from eternity trying all manner of tricks, conclusions and experiments, were at length (they know not how) taught, and by the necessity of things themselves, as it were, driven…so that though their motions were at first all casual and fortuitous, yet in length of time they became orderly and artificial, and governed by a certain law, they contracting as it were upon themselves, by long practice and experience, a kind of habit of moving regularly; or else being, by the mere necessity of things, at length forced so to move, as they should have done, had art and wisdom directed them.”

PETRI GASSENDI INSTITUTIO ASTRONOMICA, JUXTA…
Pierre Gassendi (1592-1655), etc.
Londini, typis Jacobi Flesher, 1653
QB41 G2 1653

qb41-g2-1653-title

French polymath Pierre Gassendi worked on atomic theory, physics, and the philosophical implications of the work of Greek philosopher Epicurus (ca. 330 BCE), which he used as support for his opposition to an Aristotelean world view. Gassendi was one of the first to coin the term “molecule,” defined as two or more atoms joined together. Much of his published work was written to counter the philosophical views of Rene Descartes.

Using telescope lenses provided to him by Galileo Galilei, Gassendi made numerous astronomical observations that helped establish the validity of Kepler’s laws of planetary motion. In 1631, he observed Mercury transit in front of the sun, thus providing strong evidence for the Copernican model. Gassendi denounced astrology as having no empirical support.

This is the first edition of this collection and the first publication in England of all three works contained within.

Institutio astronomica was first published in 1647. It was divided into three sections: the first discussed the “theory of the spheres,” the second described astronomical theory, and the third discussed the conflicting ideas of Tycho Brahe and Copernicus. The work was used as a textbook, particularly in English universities, for years. That the second edition, here, includes Galileo’s Sidereus nuncius and Johannes Kepler’s Dioptrice makes the publication historically significant.

Sidereus nuncius (first published in 1610 – this is the third edition, the first English edition of any of Galileo’s works) announced Galileo’s discovery of Jupiter’s moons. Sidereus nuncius was Galileo’s publication of his first observations through a telescope he developed in 1609. Galileo observed the moon as a spherical, solid body complete with mountains and valleys, contradicting the tradition of the moon as a crystalline sphere. He observed thousands of stars hidden from the naked eye. He discovered four moons surrounding Jupiter, in different positions at different times. With these observations Galileo accepted the Copernican theory.

qb41-g2-1653-shadowsurface

qb41-g2-1653-constellation

Dioptrice (first published in 1611 – this is the second edition) explained the manufacture and workings of the telescope, a necessary component in the acceptance of what the telescope revealed. Kepler discussed the laws governing the passage of light through lenses.

Contains four woodcut plates and woodcut diagrams throughout the text. Each work has its own title-page. The main title-page is printed in red and black. University of Utah copy binding contemporary calf, ruled in blind.

qb41-g2-1653-globe

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Book of the Week – Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica

30 Monday Nov 2015

Posted by scott beadles in Book of the Week

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Age of Reason, Albert Einstein, alchemy, Alexander Pope, Aristotle, astronomy, calculus, Copernicus, Edmund Halley, Enlightenment, Galielo, gravity, history of science, Isaac Newton, Johannes Kepler, laws of motion, Leibniz, London, mathematics, Principia, telescope, The University of Utah, theory of relativity, William Wordsworth

QA803-A2-1687-titleQA803-A2-1687-pg1QA803-A2-1687-pg283

Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica
Isaac Newton (1642-1727)
London, J. Streater, 1687
First edition
QA803 A2 1687

Although Copernicus, Galileo, and Kepler had shown the way by describing the phenomena they observed, Isaac Newton explained the underlying universal laws of those phenomena. Newton’s theories overthrew the subjective interpretations of nature that had dominated science and natural philosophy since the time of Aristotle and ushered in the Age of Reason. By age forty-three, Newton had invented calculus, broken white light into its component colors, and built a telescope whose design is still used today. When he was forty-seven he published the book that profoundly changed the way we see the world and established his brilliance as an astronomer and mathematician. It is likely that no more than three hundred copies of the first edition were printed.

Principia gave us the three laws of motion, defined gravity, and provided the precise mathematical equations by which it could be measured. Edmund Halley was instrumental in getting Principia into print. Halley wheedled, flattered and bullied Newton, a recluse, into preparing his manuscript. Halley paid the cost of printing it out of his own pocket. Leibniz admired Newton’s math but was appalled by his fascination with alchemy. Of the birth of the Age of Reason, Alexander Pope wrote, “Nature and nature’s laws lay hid in night;/God said ‘Let Newton be!’ and all was light.” William Wordsworth wrote of Newton, “for ever Voyaging thro’ strange seas of Thought, alone.” Albert Einstein said that Newton “determined the course of western thought, research, and practice like no one else before or since.”

In the twenty-first century, Principia is still considered one of the greatest single contributions in the history of science.

University of Utah copy: Second and third books printed by different printers, evidenced by different type in the headings and a break in paging between the two books. Diagram on p. 22

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Book of the Week – De Cometis Libelli Tres

08 Monday Jul 2013

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comets, Galileo, heliocentric, Johannes Kepler

Kepler, De Cometis…, 1619, Title Page
Kepler, De Cometis…, 1619
Kepler, De Cometis…, 1619

De Cometis Libelli Tres
Johannes Kepler (1571-1630)
Avgvst  Vindelicorvm: A. Apergeri, 1619
First edition
QB724 K46

Johannes Kepler, a staunch supporter of Galileo, extended the Copernican heliocentric theory of the universe with his three laws of motion, including the revolutionary premise that the planets move not in circular but in elliptical orbits. A mathematician and astronomer, Kepler became Imperial Mathematician to the Emperor Rudolf II of Prague in 1601. After the emperor’s death, Kepler faced religious persecution and for this reason moved often until his death in Regensburg.

De Cometis is divided into three sections. The first and longest contains Kepler’s observations of the comets of 1607 and 1618 and the theories of cometary motion he derived from those observations. The middle section discusses the physical nature of comets. The third section discusses astrological connections with the comets.

As a scientist, Kepler recognized that astrological beliefs were based on superstition, but as a man of his age he nevertheless tended to share those beliefs. This thinking included the belief that comets presaged evil and disaster.

Five fold-out plates illustrate Kepler’s observations.

 

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Book of the Week – Novum Organum

04 Tuesday Dec 2012

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Aristotle, Billium, Copernicus, deductive logic, empirical methodology, Francis Bacon, Galileo Galilei, Johannes Kepler, London, Middle Ages, Pillars of Hercules, science, Straits of Gibraltar, Tycho Brahe, Western Europe, William Gilbert

Novum Organum, 1620

Novum Organum, 1620

Francisci de Verulamio, Summi Angliae Cancellarii. Instauratio Magna. Multi Pertransibunt et Augebitur Scientia
Francis Bacon (1561 – 1626)
London: Billium, 1620
First edition
B1165 1620

The foundations of modern science were set out by Francis Bacon in this book. Bacon advanced a new method of reasoning. Bacon argued convincingly that deductive logic, taught by Aristotle and practiced in Western Europe throughout the Middle Ages, would not work for science. Bacon wrote that experimentation was necessary to determine truth. He criticized existing methods of scientific interpretation as inadequate and provided a system based upon empirical methodology, accurate observations, and the accumulation of reliable data. The engraved image on the title page was prophetic. In 1620, the course of philosophy, with Bacon as pilot, was substantially altered. Sailing through the Pillars of Hercules (the Straits of Gibraltar), the limits of the Old World, Bacon’s ship sets out into new and uncharted seas, leaving behind a legacy of superstition and credulity. This voyage, as daring and influential as any undertaken by Renaissance explorers, ushered in a new era.  Although the discoveries of Copernicus, Johannes Kepler, Tycho Brahe, Galileo Galilei, and William Gilbert had done much to destroy the pervasive influence of Aristotle, it was this work that established a new philosophical structure in Western Europe.

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