175

Pliny the Elder d. 79 CE

Liber de Mundi Historia. Ex Libris Andreas Dudith (1533-1589)

Leipzig: Imprimebat Johannes Steinman, 1573.
Quarto, with Dudith's signature on title in red ink; illustrated with text diagrams and one folding typographical title page; one or two underlined words and instances of short marginalia in Dudith's red ink; bound in full contemporary limp parchment, final few signatures water stained with light signs of mildew affecting the integrity of the final blank leaf; 8 x 6 in

"Visible for months, the Great Comet of 1577 attracted worldwide attention, particularly among the scholars of Europe's Respublica Litteraria, and reflections on it were not limited to the books of scientists like Brahe and Kepler; the Hungarian humanist bishop, politician, and nonprofessional astronomer Andreas Dudith (1533-1589) also published a Short Commentary, a fascinating example of the epistemological changes in scientific discourse and astronomical method that characterized the era. With his zealous advocacy of rational argumentation, insistence on the primacy of 'the most direct causes', and caustic criticism of superstition, Dudith was in a complex discussion with the Aristotelian tradition and the theological-astrological explanations of his day, thus helping clear the way for modern scientific thought. As his voluminous correspondence makes clear, he spent the final decades of his life trying to make a professional astronomer of himself, and though his friends in the Respublica helped guide his research, he never mastered the requisite mathematical methods, though remained a patron of science." (Quoted from Marcell Sebok's "Practicing and Patronizing Science in the Republic of Letters: Andreas Dudith's Radiating Curiosity, Vanity, and Skepticism," Erudition and the Republic of Letters, Brill, 2024.

  • Notes: Ex libris Professor, Astronomer, Historian & Bibliophile Owen Gingerich.
  • Condition: A-Z8, a-r8, s4 (s4 blank & present).

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