COPERNICUS, Nicolaus (1473-1543). De revolutionibus orbium coelestium. - Georg Johann RHETICUS (1514-1574). De libris revolutionum Nicolai Copernici Narratio prima. Basel: Heinrich Petri, 1566.
COPERNICUS, Nicolaus (1473-1543). De revolutionibus orbium coelestium. - Georg Johann RHETICUS (1514-1574). De libris revolutionum Nicolai Copernici Narratio prima. Basel: Heinrich Petri, 1566. 2 o (282 x 196 mm). Roman type, occasional Greek type. Narratio prima in double-column. Woodcut diagrams, printer's device on title, a different device on final verso, woodcut historiated initials. Gatherings m and n interleaved with half sheets presumably by Gellibrand, z3v with an overlay paper on diagram to allow a drawing of two additional epicycle pairs. (Title a little frayed at edges, upper right corner of last third with some light dampstaining.) Early 17th-century limp vellum (spine reinforced, minor wear to upper fore-edge, ties missing); quarter morocco folding case. Provenance : 1. HENRY BRIGGS (1561-1630), the first professor of geometry at Gresham college and at Oxford. He put Napier's logarithms onto base 10 (ownership signature "H. Briggs" on title and annotations throughout). 2.-3. HENRY GELLIBRAND and JOHN WELLS (ownership inscription on title "J Welles. Ex dono colendissimi m[a]g[istr]i Hen: Gellibrand 1634"). Henry Gellibrand (1597-1636) was professor of astronomy at Gresham College and completed Briggs' trigonometric tables. John Wells (fl. 1607-1635) was a practical mathematician specializing in dialing, and an intimate friend of Briggs and Gellibrand. His first initial in the signature is possibly a cipher for John (his inscription and annotations throughout). 4. Robert Fletcher (ownership signature on title "R. Fletcher" inked over). Sir Robert Fletcher (1625-1664), father of: 5. Andrew Fletcher (ownership signature on title "A Fletcher"). Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun (1655-1716), Scottish patriot. His library of 6,000 volumes was exceeded in Britain only by John Selden's collection. 6. Harrison D. Horblit (bookplate; his sale part I, Sotheby's London, 11 June 1974, lot 241). AN EXCEPTIONAL ASSOCIATION COPY SECOND (AUTHORIZED) EDITION OF THE MOST SIGNIFICANT SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATION OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY, the first edition to contain Rheticus' Narratio prima. First published at Gdansk in 1540, and addressed to the astronomer and globe-maker Johann Schöner, who is thought to have first informed the young Rheticus of Copernicus' radical new cosmological theories, the Narratio contains a summary of the Copernican heliocentric hypothesis and an account of Rheticus' efforts to persuade Copernicus to publish his work. The first edition-- of the greatest rarity--was followed by a pirated edition printed at Basel in 1541, making this its third appearance in print. This second edition of De revolutionibus reproduces the text of the 1543 edition, including Andreas Osiander's unsigned prefatory letter, an attempt to placate eventual critics of the work by emphasizing its purely theoretical aspect. The errata, listed on a leaf inserted in some copies of the first edition, were not corrected for this edition. Petri added a prefatory recommendation by the noted astronomer Erasmus Reinhold (printed at the end of the index), stating that "all posterity will gratefully remember the name of Copernicus, by whose labor and study the doctrine of celestial motions was again restored from near collapse..." (Owen Gingerich's translation, Eye of Heaven, p.221). In his census of the 1543 and 1566 editions, Owen Gingerich has located 317 copies of the second edition, making it only slightly less rare than the first. ANNOTATED BY TWO COPERNICAN SCHOLARS AND GRESHAM PROFESSORS HENRY BRIGGS was the first professor of geometry at the newly founded Gresham College in London (1597-1619) and the first Savilian Professor of Geometry at Oxford. "Refered to by contemporaries as 'Stupor Mathematicorum,' and a Copernican, Briggs's London circle included many of those interested in the new practical applications of geometry, including Thomas Blundeville, Edward Wright William Gilbert, William Oughtred, JOHN WELLS HENRY GELLIBRAND, Edmund
COPERNICUS, Nicolaus (1473-1543). De revolutionibus orbium coelestium. - Georg Johann RHETICUS (1514-1574). De libris revolutionum Nicolai Copernici Narratio prima. Basel: Heinrich Petri, 1566.
COPERNICUS, Nicolaus (1473-1543). De revolutionibus orbium coelestium. - Georg Johann RHETICUS (1514-1574). De libris revolutionum Nicolai Copernici Narratio prima. Basel: Heinrich Petri, 1566. 2 o (282 x 196 mm). Roman type, occasional Greek type. Narratio prima in double-column. Woodcut diagrams, printer's device on title, a different device on final verso, woodcut historiated initials. Gatherings m and n interleaved with half sheets presumably by Gellibrand, z3v with an overlay paper on diagram to allow a drawing of two additional epicycle pairs. (Title a little frayed at edges, upper right corner of last third with some light dampstaining.) Early 17th-century limp vellum (spine reinforced, minor wear to upper fore-edge, ties missing); quarter morocco folding case. Provenance : 1. HENRY BRIGGS (1561-1630), the first professor of geometry at Gresham college and at Oxford. He put Napier's logarithms onto base 10 (ownership signature "H. Briggs" on title and annotations throughout). 2.-3. HENRY GELLIBRAND and JOHN WELLS (ownership inscription on title "J Welles. Ex dono colendissimi m[a]g[istr]i Hen: Gellibrand 1634"). Henry Gellibrand (1597-1636) was professor of astronomy at Gresham College and completed Briggs' trigonometric tables. John Wells (fl. 1607-1635) was a practical mathematician specializing in dialing, and an intimate friend of Briggs and Gellibrand. His first initial in the signature is possibly a cipher for John (his inscription and annotations throughout). 4. Robert Fletcher (ownership signature on title "R. Fletcher" inked over). Sir Robert Fletcher (1625-1664), father of: 5. Andrew Fletcher (ownership signature on title "A Fletcher"). Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun (1655-1716), Scottish patriot. His library of 6,000 volumes was exceeded in Britain only by John Selden's collection. 6. Harrison D. Horblit (bookplate; his sale part I, Sotheby's London, 11 June 1974, lot 241). AN EXCEPTIONAL ASSOCIATION COPY SECOND (AUTHORIZED) EDITION OF THE MOST SIGNIFICANT SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATION OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY, the first edition to contain Rheticus' Narratio prima. First published at Gdansk in 1540, and addressed to the astronomer and globe-maker Johann Schöner, who is thought to have first informed the young Rheticus of Copernicus' radical new cosmological theories, the Narratio contains a summary of the Copernican heliocentric hypothesis and an account of Rheticus' efforts to persuade Copernicus to publish his work. The first edition-- of the greatest rarity--was followed by a pirated edition printed at Basel in 1541, making this its third appearance in print. This second edition of De revolutionibus reproduces the text of the 1543 edition, including Andreas Osiander's unsigned prefatory letter, an attempt to placate eventual critics of the work by emphasizing its purely theoretical aspect. The errata, listed on a leaf inserted in some copies of the first edition, were not corrected for this edition. Petri added a prefatory recommendation by the noted astronomer Erasmus Reinhold (printed at the end of the index), stating that "all posterity will gratefully remember the name of Copernicus, by whose labor and study the doctrine of celestial motions was again restored from near collapse..." (Owen Gingerich's translation, Eye of Heaven, p.221). In his census of the 1543 and 1566 editions, Owen Gingerich has located 317 copies of the second edition, making it only slightly less rare than the first. ANNOTATED BY TWO COPERNICAN SCHOLARS AND GRESHAM PROFESSORS HENRY BRIGGS was the first professor of geometry at the newly founded Gresham College in London (1597-1619) and the first Savilian Professor of Geometry at Oxford. "Refered to by contemporaries as 'Stupor Mathematicorum,' and a Copernican, Briggs's London circle included many of those interested in the new practical applications of geometry, including Thomas Blundeville, Edward Wright William Gilbert, William Oughtred, JOHN WELLS HENRY GELLIBRAND, Edmund
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