4to (236 x 180 mm), pp [xl] 309 [3], with engraved portrait of Brahe on verso of title, woodcut colophon device and six woodcuts in the text (3 full-page) illustrating the observatory at Hven; two leaves with paper fault to blank lower outer corner, some occasional scattered spotting, a couple of gatherings browned, on the whole a very clean copy for this work, in contemporary limp vellum, gilt arms on covers, a little worn and with some spotting on back cover, preserved in a morocco-backed box. £12,500
First edition, second issue, comprising the original sheets of the 1596 printing with the title and dedicatory verses reset. Printed on paper made at Tycho’s own mill on Hven (where the standard of production was never high), this work contains correspondence between Brahe and the Landgrave Wilhelm IV of Hesse and his astronomer Christopher Rothmann, mostly concerning astronomical observations and the construction of astronomical instruments. ‘This correspondence covered all aspects of contemporary astronomy: instruments and methods of observing, the Copernican system (which Rothmann supported against Tycho’s system), comets, and auroras’ (DSB under Rothmann). Brahe’s description of Uraniborg contained here is one of the first such descriptions of an astronomical observatory and its instruments.
This work is the precursor and indispensable companion to the Astronomia instauratae mechanicae, 1598. ‘Here the last of the pre-telescope observations were made, which enabled Kepler to discover the laws of planetary motion. Printed at Brahe’s private press in a few copies’ (Dibner).
'In the preface Tycho refers to the length of time necessary to form a complete series of observations by which the restoration of astronomy might be accomplished. Though the solar orbit may be sufficiently investigated in four years, the intricate lunar course requires the study of many years, while it takes twelve years to follow the oppositions of Mars and Jupiter round the zodiac, and even thirty years to see Saturn move round the heavens. He had commenced his own observations at the age of sixteen, though the results of the first ten years' work were less accurate than the later ones. Ptolemy and Copernicus had not observed for such a length of time, and consequently the numerical values of astronomical constants had not been well determined by them' (Dreyer, Tycho Brahe p 229).
‘Instead of dividing his correspondence chronologically, with the first volume to include all letters up to about 1589, Tycho now decided to extract all the correspondence with the Landgrave and Rothmann and print it as a memorial to the Landgrave’ (Thoren, The Lord of Uraniborg p 363). This is the only volume of correspondence published, in spite of the promise of the title.
Loss of favour at the Danish Court, following the death of Frederick II, and the allure of Rudolph II’s Prague, caused Brahe to leave Hven in 1597, taking with him all his belongings including his printing press and the unsold sheets of the present work. After his death in 1601 his heirs sold the sheets to the Nuremberg bookseller Levin Hülsius, who reprinted the first four leaves (title and dedicatory verses), adding the fine engraved portrait which doesn't appear in the first issue (and is often not present in this second issue). When Hülsius died the remaining sheets were turned over to the bookseller Gottfried Tampach. Once more, a new title-page was printed and the book was issued in Frankfurt in 1610. The portrait depicts Brahe aged 40.
This copy has some contemporary annotations, a few referring to passages where the Copernican theory is discussed. In addition, there is a manuscript correction to the text on page 109 which isn't found in the errata.
BL 17th-C German B1968; Dibner 4 (first issue); Wightman 95; Zinner 3878; NUC: PU PPAmP PBL; OCLC adds Cal Tech, UC Berkeley, Library of Congress, Linda Hall, Capital District Library New York, University of Arizona, and University of Texas, Austin
GBP 12500.00
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