Tycho Brahe, 1603 & 1610

BRAHE, Tycho (1546-1601). Epistolarum astronomicarum libri. Frankfurt: Gottfried Tampach for the author, 1610 (colophon: Uraniborg: at the author's press, 1596). [Bound with:] De mundi aetherei recentioribus phaenomenis liber secundus. Prague: Schumann for the author, 1603.

First edition, third issue of Brahe's scientific correspondence, bound with the second issue of De mundi aetherei. The first work, Epistolarum astronomicarum libri, includes correspondence between Tycho Brahe, Landgrave William IV of Hesse (1532-1592), and the latter's court astronomer Christopher Rothmann (d. c.1599-1608), printed at Brahe's private press in his observatory on the island of Hven, on paper made at the observatory papermill. Only the title-page and some preliminary leaves were changed by the Frankfurt-printer Tampach in the third issue.

The second work, De mundi, was first published by the author at his press in Uraniborg in 1588. It contains Brahe's observations of the comet of 1577, along with a consideration of the observations and opinion of other astronomers on that comet. It also provided a description of Brahe's geoheliocentric theory of the universe, a view that grew from his study of the astronomical phenomena of 1572 and 1577, and which was one of several new theories that paved the way for wider acceptance of the Copernican doctrine. It was to form one part of Brahe's proposed trilogy, along with the Progymnasmata and an intended work on the comets of 1582, 1585, etc. De mundi was completed by 1588 and copies were printed, but only a few were ever distributed as presentation copies to a few colleagues working in the field. When he left Hven, Brahe took the sheets with him to Prague where they were re-issued with a new title-page, dedication and preface to the reader. Epistolarum: Adams B-2655; De mundi aetherei: Houzeau & Lancaster 2699.

Two qorks in one, quarto (225 x 155mm). Two works in one, woodcut illustrations and large publisher's/author's devices at ends (light marginal dampstain, spotting/browning particularly in quires Ee-Ff in first work and quire I in second).18th-century calf (very skillfully rebacked, a little wear at tips). Provenance: the observatory library of astronomer Duc de la Chapelle, Montauban, 1795 (inscription to front pastedown) – Owen Gingerich (bookplate).