33

Tycho Brahe (1546-1601)

Epistolarum Astronomicarum.

Uraniborg: Cum Caesaris et Regum Quorundam Privilegus [for the author], 1596.
First edition, first issue; quarto; illustrated with text woodcuts of Brahe's Uraniborg campus in Hven, Sweden; bound in old, possibly original parchment boards, resewn rebacked and recased; with mildew to both boards and text pages throughout (paper has been washed and treated for mildew); housed in custom folding box; 9 1/4 x 6 3/4 in.

"Given the limited distribution of his printed works, correspondence with other scholars was thus an important mechanism by which Brahe communicated his results, became known to others, and managed his scholarly reputation. His letters were also used to acquire astronomical data, collaborate with others, and conduct disputes over priority and credit. In common with many scholars of the period, Brahe circulated some of his correspondence with a wider audience in manuscript. But Brahe also acknowledged the significance of letters for his astronomical enterprise by publishing the letters he exchanged with Landgrave Wilhelm IV of Hessen-Kassel and the Landgrave's astronomer, Christoph Rothmann, as the Epistolarum astronomicarum liber primus (1596); as this title suggests, further volumes of astronomical letters, exchanged with other correspondents, were planned and begun, but remained unfinished at Brahe's death in 1601." (Quoted from the overview of Adam Mosley's The Correspondence of Tycho Brahe: 505 Letters, as found on Early Modern Letters Online at: http://emlo-portal.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/collections/?catalogue=tycho-brahe.)

  • Notes: Ex libris Professor, Astronomer, Historian & Bibliophile Owen Gingerich.
  • Condition: *4, (:)4, ):(4, (*)4, )*(4, A-Z4, Aa-Qq4.

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