Sammelband of 5 works mostly on the controversy of the comets - photo 1
Sammelband of 5 works mostly on the controversy of the comets - photo 2
Sammelband of 5 works mostly on the controversy of the comets - photo 3
Sammelband of 5 works mostly on the controversy of the comets - photo 4
Sammelband of 5 works mostly on the controversy of the comets - photo 5
Sammelband of 5 works mostly on the controversy of the comets - photo 6
Sammelband of 5 works mostly on the controversy of the comets - photo 7

Sammelband of 5 works mostly on the controversy of the comets

Lot 76
19.10.2023 10:00UTC -05:00
Classic
Starting price
$ 100
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUSA, New York
Archive
The auction is completed. No bids can be placed anymore.
Archive
ID 1032728
Lot 76 | Sammelband of 5 works mostly on the controversy of the comets
Estimate value
$ 10 000 – 15 000
Fortunio LICETI (1577-1657). De regulari motu minimaque parallaxi cometarum caelestium disputationes [bound with:] De terra unico centro motus singularum caeli particularum disputationes [and:] De centro; & de circumferentia libri duo [bound with:] De natura, et arte libri duo [and:] De luminis natura & efficientia libri tres. Udine: Nicola Schiratti, 1640.

Sammelband of five first editions of astronomical and optical works by Fortunio Liceti, centered around the controversy of the comets. The first treatise is a detailed overview of the debates which arose after the appearance of the supernova observed by Tycho Brahe in Cassiopeia in 1572; his observations led him to assert that the "new star" was above the moon in the region of the fixed stars--something hitherto thought impossible in the unchanging Aristotelian cosmos. The appearance of three comets in 1618 intensified this controversy. Much of the text here is an attack on Scipione Chiaramonti, who had published attacks on Brahe (who was in turn defended by Kepler). Liceti cites them, as well as Galileo, Cysat, Glorioso, and Bardi in the course of summarizing the arguments.

The second and third works engage with many of the same sources and ideas, examining the center of the world, the Tychonic system (which Liceti refutes), and further implications of the "new stars." The fourth examines the arts of the natural world, including medicine, and the fifth is one of Liceti's primary treatises on the nature of light--a subject to which he would return many times over the course of his career, and about which he corresponded frequently with Galileo. In the present example, Liceto discusses not only the theories of Galileo but those of Alhazen, Witelo, Peckham, Kepler, Aguillon, Maurolico, Lagalla, and more. Much of the text is concerned with the nature of light in astronomy: the light emanating from stars, comets, and the secondary light of the moon. Riccardi I pt 2 39 nos 4-7; Carli and Favaro 176 and 178; DiLaura 83; for a detailed discussion of the fifth item see V. Zoubov, "Une théorie aristotélicienne de la lumière du XVIIe siècle," Isis vol 24 n 2 (1936), pp 343-60.

Five works in one, quarto (202 x 143mm). Each work with title page bearing woodcut printer's device, first 4 works with full-page woodcut portrait of the author, ornaments and initials, second work with a few woodcut diagrams (gatherings A-N in parts III and V bound transposed; occasional stains, a few sheets toned). Early carta rustica. Provenance: a few readers' marks – partially removed older printed label of Venetian ecclesiastical library – Collegio Antonianum, Padua (stamps on first title and one text leaf; this institution was dissolved and the library dispersed).
Artist:Fortunio Liceti (1577 - 1657)
Place of origin:Italy
Auction house category:Medicine & science, Printed books
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
20 Rockefeller Plaza
10020 New York
USA
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