Beschreibung
Two parts in one vol., 4to, pp. [vi], [3-]470, [7]; 217, [1], [1 leaf, blank], with large woodcut printer s device on both titles, and numerous illustrations and diagrams in text; the two leaves of dedication to the Bishop of Munich erroneously bound in at the end of the volume; some mild browning and foxing; the final twenty leaves with a few wormholes filled in, affecting a few letters, otherwise an unusually fine copy, bound in contemporary southern French red morocco, gilt arms to covers. A WONDERFUL COPY OF THE FIRST EDITION OF TYCHO S WORKS , COMPRISING HIS TWO MOST SIGNIFICANT PUBLICATIONS, THE PROGYMNASMATA (1602) AND DE MUNDI AETHEREI (1603), WHICH TOGETHER FORM THE FOUNDATION ON WHICH KEPLER, AND LATER NEWTON, BUILT THEIR ASTRONOMICAL SYSTEMS (Sparrow). PRINTED AT FRANKFURT AT THE VERY END OF THE THIRTY YEARS WAR AND ON PAPER STOCK GENERALLY TENDING TO SEVERE BROWNING, THIS WORK IS NEVER FOUND IN SUCH FINE CONDITION AND IN A HIGHLY REMARKABLE BINDING AS HERE. Tycho s influence and reputation stems from achievements that fall into three quite distinct categories. The one that was most important during Tycho s life and for the fifty years following it was cosmological in character. It was initiated in 1572 by the appearance of what has come to be called Tycho s nova (now classified as a supernova) and raised to the dimension of a crusade by the appearance of the even more spectacular comet of 1577. During the ensuing decade Tycho composed lengthy monographs on each phenomenon. These would form the great bulk of his life s literary output, and would include the discovery which he himself undoubtedly regarded as the outstanding achievement of his career - the so-called Tychonic system of the world (Victor E. Thoren in The General History of Astronomy, 2A p. 3). The star of 1572 and the comets observed at Hveen had cleared the way for the restoration of astronomy but helping to destroy old prejudices; and Tycho therefore resolved to write a great work on these recent phenomena which should embody all results of his observations in any way bearing on them. The first volume he devoted to the new star, but as corrected star places which were necessary for the reduction of the observations of 1572-72 involved researches on the motion of the sun, on refraction, precession, &c., the volume gradually assumed greater proportions . and was never quite finished in Tycho s lifetime. On account of the wider scope of its contents he gave it the title Astronomia instauratae progymnasmata, or "Introduction to the new astronomy," a title which marks the work as paving the way for the new planetary theory and tables which Tycho had hoped to prepare, but which it fell to Kepler s lot to work out . [The new star] roused to unwearied exertions a great astronomer, it caused him to renew astronomy in all its branches by showing the world how little it Knew about the heavens . the star of Cassiopeia started astronomical science on the brilliant career it has pursued ever since, and swept away the mist that obscured the true system of the world (Dreyer, Tycho Brahe, 1890, pp. 162-62 and 196). Many Frankfurt imprints of this period (the Peace of Westphalia ended the Thirty Years War in the year this book was published) are afflicted by heavy browning. Whist there is some browning to the paper of this copy, it is much less pronounced than usually found, and the binding is pristine. Provenance: François de Rignac (1580-1633), Attorney General of the Cour des Aides de Montpellier, with his gilt arms on covers (cf. Olivier-Hermal-de Rotton, pl. 1902 and Guigard, Nouvel armorial du bibliophile, II, 413). The superb binding of this copy is typical of the workshops of the South of France, especially that of Corberan, the binder of Peiresc. Though François de Rignac married a certain Jeanne de Fabry in 1627, she was not related to his namesake, Nicolas Fabri de Peiresc a native of Aix, even though this copy could imply family ties. According to. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 39a18f5aa335fc3dcae98cfd1617518f
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