Johannes Hevelius (1611-1687)

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£ 3 000
Auction dateClassic
09.12.2020 00:00UTC +01:00
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CHRISTIE'S
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United Kingdom, London
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ID 470234
Lot 105 | Johannes Hevelius (1611-1687)
Johannes Hevelius (1611-1687)

Epistolae IV. 1654

HEVELIUS, Johannes (1611-1687). Epistolae IV. I. De observatione deliquii solis anno 1649 habita^. ... II. De eclipsi solis anno 1652 observata. ... III. De motu lunae libratorio. ... IV. De utriusque luminaris defectu anni 1654. Gdansk: Andreas Julius Moller for the author, 1654.



Hevelius's definitive mapping of lunar libration. ‘Hevelius' descriptions of a librational cycle of shadow changes in the lunar details, his method of judging the libration by means of changes in the apparent (telescopic) separation of a pair of lunar details, and his introduction of rudimentary lunar coordinate systems provided a sound basis for the work of subsequent astronomers’ (DSB). Following upon his 1647 lunar atlas, the Selenographia, Hevelius published these four scientific papers, presented as correspondence: on the solar eclipses of 1649 and 1652, on lunar libration, and on the double-eclipses of 1654. New engraved plates graphically reproduced the astronomical events that had occured in the intervening years.



Folio (347 x 225mm). Engraved title vignette, 9 engraved plates of which 7 full-page, one double-page from the Selenographia and one diagram in the text, letterpress astronomical tables, woodcut initials (apparently lacking an additional title between pp.48-49, first 2 leaves loose, waterstaining to lower portion of 13 leaves, occasional light browning, inner upper corner of the front free end-paper torn). 18th-century leather-backed marbled boards (spine chipped and worn, edges rubbed). Provenance: Collection of Peter and Margarethe Braune (bookplate).

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