Beschreibung:

RUMOVSKII, Stepan Iakovlevich (1734-1812). Nabliudeniia iavleniia Venery v solntse [Observation of the Appearence of Venus before the Sun in the Russian Empire in 1769] . St. Petersburg: by the Imperial Academy of Sciences, 1771. 4° (259 x 199mm). Engraved vignette on title, engraved headpiece and tailpiece by C.M. Roth after J. Stahlen, folding engraved plate, final blank leaf. (Waterstained, inkstain on first four leaves.) Original boards, worn. FIRST EDITION. Printed in an edition of 1200 copies, this work contains detailed information of the organisation of the astronomical expedition and the results of observations by C. Meyer, Rumovskii, D.E. Lovits, C.L. Euler, I.I. Islenev and others. Rumovskii, who watched the transit of Venus before the sun on the Kola peninsular, calculated the value of the solar parallax closer than any of his contemporaries to the present accepted value. Svodnyi katalog 6202; Sopikov/Rogozhin 6429; Drage 623.