Beschreibung
First edition, very rare, of "the most important work on planetary systems between Kepler and Isaac Newton" (Robert Alan Hatch in Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers), "the first treatise after Kepler's Rudolphine Tables to take elliptical orbits as a basis for calculating planetary tables" (Cambridge Companion to Newton), and "the first to state that the planetary moving force should vary inversely as the square of the distance and not, as Kepler had held, inversely as the first power" (DSB). An early Copernican and Keplerian, Ismael Boulliau was the most noted astronomer of his generation (BEA). Newton read the present work closely and used it to rebut Robert Hooke's claim to have been the first to perceive the inverse-square law of gravity. Tables of calculations are grouped in the second part of the volume, in separate pagination: among these are a catalogue of fixed stars according to Tycho Brahe (pp. 181-209: Catalogus stellarum fixarum mille, ex accuratio Tychonis Brahé observationibus & calculo ad annum Incarnationis MDCI), and Synopsis tabularum Astronomicarum Persicarum, dedicated to Gabriel Naudé. "Ismael Boulliau (1605-94), born in London, the son of an astronomer, converted to Catholicism in 1630. As secretary to Dupuy he catalogued the library of the Président de Thou and became acquainted with a wide circle of savants. In the scientific debate in Paris at the time of the publication of Galileo's Dialogo in 1632, he played a major role, supporting Galileo's theories. This work, with its heliocentric doctrine, was his most significant" (Macclesfield sale catalogue). RBH records only two copies. Macclesfield 403 (Sotheby's, 2004, £5,400 - a copy in a later binding with rust holes through the text); Sotheran I: 500 ("This important work according to Newton first mentions the sun's attraction, which decreases in inverse proportion to its distance"). Folio (364 x 233 mm), pp. [2], 3-22, [26: part titles]; 469, [1: blank]; 232 [tables] (title with some light creasing and with old inscription). Contemporary calf, spine richly gilt in compartments with lettering-piece (very skilfully rebacked). Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers ABE-1692567686476
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