CARPENTER, Nathanael (1589-c.1628). Philosophia libera, triplici exercitationum Decade proposita. Oxford: Leonardus Lichfield for Thomas Allam, 1637.

Carpenter's Anti-Aristotelian polemic: the most extensive discussion of Copernicanism to appear from an English author in the period, with annotations. It was first published under a pseudonym ("N.C. Cosmopolitanus") in Frankfurt in 1621; this is the second issue of the third edition, which first appeared in 1636. Carpenter was a well-respected fellow of Exeter College known for his intellectual independence. The "Free Science" referred to by the title of this work is a science free of the stultifying cult of Aristotle (which he takes pain to distinguish from Aristotle himself). His treatise dismantles many Aristotelian doctrines concerning the heavens—but he stops short of embracing heliocentrism, adopting instead the Tychonic system. All the early editions of this book are rare at auction; RBH records only one copy, of the second edition, in 1966. ESTC S116176; Madan, I, 853. See Johnson, Astronomical Thought in Renaissance England (1937).

Octavo (141 x 94mm). Title ruled; woodcut diagrams in text (dampstain at front, some small tears without loss). Contemporary vellum wrapper stamped with initials IEP / 1642, edges red (stained). Provenance: annotations and underlining to some passages two early inscriptions, one dated 1730.