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Tag Archives: moon

Fall Equinox

22 Friday Sep 2017

Posted by rarebooks in Uncategorized

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Tags

ancestor, Autumn, beet, broadside, moon, Tom Robbins

PS3568-O233-B4-1990z
“The beet is the ancient ancestor of the autumn moon…”

The beet is the ancient ancestor of the autumn moon…
Tom Robbins (b. 1932)
PS3568 O233 B4 1990z

Broadside printed ca. 1990s. Printer unknown.

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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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Tags

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 — Theatro del mundo y de el tiempo…

14 Monday Mar 2016

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astronomical, atlas, calculations, cartographers, celestial, constellations, Copernicus, Dante, earth, eclipses, equinoxes, geographic, Giovanni Paolo Gallucci, Granada, hell, maps, moon, mythologic, planets, Ptolemaic, Sebastian Munoz, star, sun, Venice, vovelles

QB41-G1818-pg38 QB41-G1818-pg54QB41-G1818-pg64 QB41-G1818-pg115

THEATRO DEL MUNDO Y DE EL TIEMP…
Giovanni Paolo Gallucci
Impresso en Granada en las casas de autor, por su industria, y a su costa por Sebastian Munoz, impressor de libros ano 1607

First published in Venice in 1588 as Theatrum mundi, et temporis, this book presents the forty-eight maps of the Ptolemaic constellations and depicts them as mythologic figures. The star positions are taken from Copernicus’ De revolutionibus orbum coelestium. Giovanni Paolo Gallucci’s Theatrum is considered the first modern celestial atlas because in its maps he used a coordinate system and a trapezoidal system of projection common among geographic cartographers of the time, allowing an exact determination of the star positions. The lively constellation figures overlay very accurate maps of the stars. Gallucci’s text is an encyclopedia of astronomical knowledge. He describes the Ptolemaic theories of the movement of the planets, the sun, the moon, and eclipses. Tables illustrate the earth, a Dantesque hell, and a forecast of the equinoxes from 1588 to 1800. This edition contains several complex vovelles to aid in calculations.

alluNeedSingleLine

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Book of the Week — Opera

25 Monday Jan 2016

Posted by rarebooks in Book of the Week

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Africa, Archbishop of Canterbury, Asia Minor, astrology, astronomy, atonement, Basel, calendars, Caucasus, celestial motion, Christian, Cur Deus Homo, cycles, De imagine mundi, Easter, Egypt, Egyptians, equinox, Europe, geography, God, Gothic type, Greeks, Hebrews, India, islands, Johann Amerbach, Jupiter, lunar, marginalia, Mesopotamia, Monologion, moon, Nuremberg, oceans, Palestine, Parthia, Proslogion, Roman type, Romans, Saint Anselm, seas, solar, solstice, St Augustine, sun, Syria, theology, Thomas More, tides, time, University of Utah, vellum, water, zodiac

TitlepageIndexSpreadSpread1Spread2

“…let my mind meditate upon it; let my tongue speak of it. Let my heart love it; let my mouth talk of it. Let my soul hunger for it; let my flesh thirst for it; let my whole being desire it…”

OPERA
Saint Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury (ca. 1033-1109)
Basel: Johann Amerbach, not after 1497
Second, enlarged edition

The first edition of the collected works of St Anselm was printed in Nuremberg in 1491. After St Augustine and Thomas More, St Anselm was one of the most widely read of Christian theological writers in western Europe. His influence was far-reaching. This collection includes his three most famous works: the Cur Deus Homo, a treatise on the atonement; the Proslogion, which contains his argument for the existence of God; and the Monologion. The last thirty pages of this volume is a two-part geographical astronomical/astrological compendium, “De imagine mundi,” dating from about 1100, containing chapters on India, Parthia, Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, the Caucasus, Asia Minor, Europe, Africa and sections on islands and water (seas, oceans, tides). There are a few articles on the zodiac, and more on astronomy. Anselm describes celestial motions of the sun, moon and Jupiter, with reference to the solar and lunar cycles and the importance of their measurement for calculating time. Anselm notes different divisions of time as reckoned by the ancient Hebrews, Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans. He addresses various calendars and the cycles and divisions on which they were based. He notes the practical importance of their use for calculating astronomical events such as the equinox and solstice, and the sacred importance of calculating Easter. Printer Johann Amerbach (ca. 1440-1513) was the first printer of Basel to use a Roman type as well as Gothic. Printed in two columns of fifty lines each in Gothic type. University of Utah copy bound in 18th century vellum over boards; brown stain on cover. An early ownership inscription is inked out, and a stamp erased from the title-page. Some contemporary marginalia.

 

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Book of the Week – Sphaera Mundi

25 Monday Mar 2013

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cosmography, Galileo, Guiseppe Bianchani, Jesuit, moon, Society of Jesus, telescope, thermometer, Tycho Brahe, woodcuts

Guiseppe Bianchani, Sphaera Mundi,1620
Guiseppe Bianchani, Sphaera Mundi,1620
Guiseppe Bianchani, Sphaera Mundi,1620


Sphaera Mundi
Guiseppe Bianchani (1566 – 1624)
Bononiae: Typis S. Bonomij, sumptibus Hieronymis Tamburini, 1620
First edition
GA7 B57

One of the most immediate consequences of the telescopic observations of Galileo in 1609-10 was the discussion it generated among the mathematicians and astronomers of the Society of Jesus. They reproduced Galileo’s observations and debated the cosmological order of the universe taking into consideration the new data. The debate culminated in the adoption of Tycho Brahe’s system and was made official with the publication of Giuseppe Bianchani’s Sphaera Mundi.

The Jesuit Bianchani fully accepted Brahe’s amendation of the Copernican cosmography which acknowledged the heliocentricity of the planetary system, while preserving the geocentricity of the universe. Bianchani wrote his treatise in 1615, but it was not published until 1620, after the Decree of the Congregation of the Index in 1616. Written at the request of his students, Bianchani respectfully cites Brahe, Copernicus, Galileo, and Kepler repeatedly. He discusses the satellites of Jupiter and Saturn, sunspots, and the new stars of 1572, 1600, and 1604, astronomical phenomena not observed before the development of the telescope.

Bianchani also presents his own theory of the earth’s tendency toward roundness, wherein natural forces operate to flatten mountains and fill valleys so that the surface would be completely covered by the ocean, as it was in the early formation of the earth. Bianchani writes that God created the earth on the third day as a smooth sphere. God then created the depths of the sea and formed the mountains.

One of the many woodcuts in the text is an illustration of the moon, with very inaccurately drawn craters. Another is the first illustration of a thermometer.

 

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