HUYGENS, Christiaan (1629-1695) and Pierre GASSENDI (1592-1655) - photo 1
HUYGENS, Christiaan (1629-1695) and Pierre GASSENDI (1592-1655) - photo 2
HUYGENS, Christiaan (1629-1695) and Pierre GASSENDI (1592-1655) - photo 3
HUYGENS, Christiaan (1629-1695) and Pierre GASSENDI (1592-1655) - photo 4
HUYGENS, Christiaan (1629-1695) and Pierre GASSENDI (1592-1655) - photo 5

HUYGENS, Christiaan (1629-1695) and Pierre GASSENDI (1592-1655)

Lot 133
12.07.2023 00:00UTC +00:00
Classic
Starting price
£ 40 000
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 993368
Lot 133 | HUYGENS, Christiaan (1629-1695) and Pierre GASSENDI (1592-1655)
Estimate value
£ 40 000 – 60 000
HUYGENS, Christiaan (1629-1695) and Pierre GASSENDI (1592-1655)

Systema Saturnium, sive de causis mirandorum Saturni phaenomenon, et comite ejus planeta novo. [bound with:] Institutio astronomica. Iuxta hypotheses tam veterum quam Copernici & Tychonis . . . Editio ultima. The Hague, Adrian Vlacq, 1656 [and] 1659.

First edition of Systema Saturnium, containing the first full announcement of Huygens’s discovery with his advanced telescope of the ring and satellite of Saturn. The mystery of Saturn's ‘arms’ had puzzled astronomers in the decades following Galileo's observation in 1610 of the planet's oval shape. Starting in the 1650s, Huygens and his brother Constantijn acquired great skill in the grinding and polishing of spherical lenses, and the telescopes that they built were the best of their time. In 1655, using their first greatly improved telescope, Huygens spotted a satellite of Saturn, later named Titan. Although still unable to physically make out the cause of Saturn's odd and variable shape, Huygens theorized that it was due to a single flat ring, whose inclination to the line of sight varies. ‘He arrived at this solution partly through the use of better observational equipment, but also by an acute argument based on the use of the Cartesian vortex (the whirl of "celestial matter" around a heavenly body supporting its satellites)’ (DSB). In 1656 Huygens presented his theory in a one-sentence anagram included in Pierre Borel's De vero telescopii inventore, thus securing priority of the discovery. The Systema Saturnium contains as well ‘many other observations on the planets and their satellites, all contributing to an emphatic defense of the Copernican system’ (Norman), and an observation and illustration of the Orion nebula. Systema Saturnium: Dibner Heralds, 9; Norman 1136.

This copy is bound with a substantial part of Pierre Gassendi’s Institutio astronomica. Iuxta hypotheses tam veterum quam Copernici & Tychonis . . . Editio ultima (The Hague, Adrian Vlacq, 1656), which is lacking the portrait of the author and all text after page 182.



2 works bound in one volume, small quarto (198 x 145mm). First work: Folding engraved plate, 11 engraved illustrations, 8 woodcut diagrams and initials (illustration on page 60 slightly shaved). Second work: title in red and black, woodcut illustrations and diagrams, last sections bound first (lacking 2 leaves of preliminaries [containing portrait of author], title and a few pages dust-soiled, without final blank). Contemporary mottled calf (expertly rebacked to style, corners and edges restored). Provenance: Gustavus Wynne Cook (American banker, businessman, and amateur astronomer, 1867-1940, bookplate).







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12.07.2023 – 12.07.2023
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