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Tag Archives: sun

Book of the Week — Geographiae et hyrdrographi reformat

19 Monday Mar 2018

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Almagestum Novum, astronomer, astronomy, Benatij, Bologna, Bononi, cosmology, geography, Giovanni Battista Riccioli, heliocentric, Jesuit, John Smith, latitude, longitude, magnetic needle, Modena, navigation, psalms, Ptolemy, stars, sun, surveying, terrestrial meridian, Tycho Brahe


You who laid the foundations of the earth,
So that it should not be moved forever” – Psalm 104, NKJV

“[A]s Geography without History seemeth a carkasse without motion; so History without Geography, wandreth as a Vagrant without a certaine habitation.”
― John Smith (1580-1631)

Geographiae et hydrographi reformat…
Giovanni Battista Riccioli (1598-1671)
Bononi: Ex typographia hredis V. Benatij, 1661
First edition
G114 R54

Giovanni Battista Riccioli, a Jesuit astronomer, was and is still best known for his work on astronomy, Almagestum Novum, 1651, in which he sets out reasons for and against a heliocentric cosmology. Riccioli was also a geographer. Geographia et hydrographiae reformatae libri is his attempt to collate all the geographic knowledge of the time. Riccioli addresses the variation of the magnetic needle, observations on geographical longitudes and latitudes, and several problems relating to navigation. Riccioli took measurements to determine the radius of the earth and to establish the ratio of water to land.

He developed a leveling device for use in surveying. He gave an account of the methods he used in order to determine the length of a degree of the terrestrial meridian. For this purpose, a base-line was measured near Bologna, and a triangulation was formed between that city and Modena, although the stations appear to have been improperly chosen — the angles between them are often less than eight degrees, and only two were observed in each triangle.

The instrument used to obtain the terrestrial angles was similar to the parallactic rulers of Ptolemy. In reducing the distances between the stations to one spherical surface, Riccioli assumed the refraction as constant, and equal to thirty minutes, as it had been determined by Tycho Brahe for celestial bodies in the horizon. The latitudes of the stations were determined by the sun and certain stars, their altitudes being observed with a quadrant whose radius was eight feet. But the declinations were taken from the catalogue of Brahe, and consequently liable to errors amounting to one minute or more.

Riccioli believed that the measures of the ancients were nearly correct. Among his own observations, he chose results which arrived closest to those earlier measures. Thus, his determination of the length of a degree was erroneous.

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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.

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Book of the Week — Opera

25 Monday Jan 2016

Posted by rarebooks in Book of the Week

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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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Marie Curie — The Poster and Rare Books

02 Friday Oct 2015

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atmosphere, atomic, chemistry, Continuum, diagrams, frontispiece, Gauthier-Villars, Henri Becquerel, marbled boards, marbled endpapers, Marie Curie, Marie Sklodwaska Curie (1867-1934), math, Nobel Prize, Paris, physics, Pierre Curie, polonium, protrait, radiation, radioactivity, radium, Sorbonne, sun, Thatcher Building of Biological and Biophysical Chemistry, The University of Utah, thorium, uranium, Utah, women

Continuum, The Magazine of the University of Utah features The Curie Poster.

“In the southwest corner of the University of Utah’s Thatcher Building for Biological and Biophysical Chemistry, The Curie Poster is displayed as a tribute to Utah women in chemistry.”

Read the Continuum article

Curie-Wall-Mosaic

Visit the poster in the Thatcher Building for Biological and Biophysical Chemistry.

Hold the first edition of Marie Curie’s Traite de Radioactivite, Paris, 1910, in Rare Books.

QC721-C98-1910-v.1-title

Traite de Radioactivite
Marie Curie (1867-1934)
Paris: Gauthier-Villars, 1910
First edition
QC721 C98 1910

Marie Sklodowaska Curie received degrees in math and physics in Paris. She earned her doctorate in 1903. Her husband, Pierre, a professor of physics, became involved in her research. They, along with Henri Becquerel, were awarded a Nobel Prize in physics for their work that same year. In 1906, after the death of her husband, she was offered his chair in physics at the Sorbonne. In 1911 she was awarded a second Nobel Prize in chemistry.

Traite is Curie’s fullest statement on radioactivity, a word she created for a concept that she invented and defined. Henri Becquerel discovered of a type of radiation discharged from a uranium compound that was capable of passing through sheets of matter opaque to ordinary light. Curie then began a systematic examination of a large number of chemical elements and their compounds to test whether they possessed the “radioactive” property of uranium. Only one other element, thorium, was found to show this effect to a degree comparable with that of uranium.

After testing the various compounds of uranium, Curie discovered that radioactivity was an atomic property, i.e., the activity was proportional to the amount of uranium present and was independent of its combination with other substances. In trying to isolate this radioactive property from the compounds, Curie isolated the new elements polonium and radium.

In Traite she provided a detailed review of discoveries she made and confirmed the connection between matter and electricity. The first volume contains detailed descriptions of how she measured radiation, with numerous text illustrations of the instruments. In the second volume, Curie discussed the nature of radiation, the heat and various phenomena associated with radiation and the varieties of radioactive substances. The final chapter concerns radiations of the sun and atmosphere.

With a frontispiece portrait of Pierre Curie, seven plates, five of which are photographic, and nearly two hundred diagrams. Bound in contemporary three-quarter brown cloth with green morocco spine label and marbled boards and endpapers.

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