Beschreibung:

DIGGES, Thomas (c.1546-1595). Alae seu scalae mathematicae. London: Thomas Marsh 1573.
DIGGES, Thomas (c.1546-1595). Alae seu scalae mathematicae. London: Thomas Marsh 1573. Small 4° (201 x 146mm). Full-page woodcut on verso of title, depicting the constellation of Cassiopeia, full-page woodcut of Lord Burghley’s arms on A2r and Digges’s arms on recto of final leaf, woodcut diagrams. (Small wormtrack in title, touching one or two letters on recto, closed in the following 2 leaves, inner gutter of title repaired, a few tiny wormholes in first few leaves, browned throughout, light spotting at beginning and end.) Modern vellum. Provenance: erased inscription on title. FIRST EDITION. The work was prompted by the ‘new star’ of 1572, a phenomenon which astounded Europe and became the subject of an outpouring of astronomical and astrological work. ‘Addressed to a European audience of astronomers, Alae was Digges' only Latin publication and offered an analysis and improvement of the mathematical and instrumental techniques available for the study of the new star. Recent radio astronomy has shown that Digges's observations were the most accurate then made. Moreover, he concluded that the new star was indeed a celestial body rather than a meteorological phenomenon, thus challenging the interpretations offered by contemporary Aristotelian natural philosophy. Digges' cosmological ambitions went beyond his claims concerning the new star. In Alae he condemned the "monstrous" planetary astronomy of Ptolemy and wrote approvingly of Copernicus ( Alae , sigs. A4v, 2A3r, 2A4v, L2v). But he did not wholeheartedly endorse the Copernican heliocentric system, in which the sun rather than the earth is stationed at the centre of the universe. Writing only shortly after the appearance of the new star, Digges initially hoped that its changing brightness might provide concrete observational evidence to support or modify the Copernican doctrine’ (DNB). Houzeau and Lancaster 2694; STC 6871.