Epitome astronomiae Copernicanæ Usitatâ formâ Quæstionum & Responsionum conscripta, inq; VII. Libros digesta, quorum tres hi priores sunt de Doctrina Sphæricâ. Habes, amice lector, hac prima parte, præter physicam accuratam explicationem Motus Terræ diurni, ortusque ex eo circulorum Sphæræ, totæm doctrinam Sphæricam nova & concinniori methodo, auctiorem, additis Exemplis omnis generis Computation tegrarum præceptionum vim sunt complexa. Authors Joanne Kepplero Imp: Cæs: Matthiæ, Ordd: q; Illium Archiducatus Austriæ supra Onasum, Mathematico
“KEPLER’S LONGEST AND MOST INFLUENTIAL WORK”
3 parts in 1. Lentijs ad Danubium [Linz]: Johannes Planeus [and Godefridi Tampachii], 1618–1622 [but 1621]. First edition, second issue of book II.
Octavo (6 3/16” x 3 ½”, 157mm x 90mm): *6 **–***4 A–Bb8 Cc4 + Cc5, ††8 Aaa–Mmm8, †6 Aaaa–Vvvv8 [$5 signed; D3 signed “Diiii”, Cc3 signed “Cc2”]. 489 leaves, pp. [28] (title, blank, 8pp. dedication, verses, blank, 9pp. tables, 5pp. index, 2pp. errata) 1 2–417 [2] (blank, title) 418 419–932 [16] (13pp. index, 3pp. errata). With numerous in-text woodcut diagrams and 1 folding table.
Bound in contemporary stabbed vellum with leather ties. On the spine, 3 raised bands. Title in ink manuscript to the first panel. All edges of the text-block speckled. Presented in an embossed and gilt plum morocco clamshell box.
Soiling and losses to both boards; front board splayed. Rear and lower front ties perished. Tanning and foxing throughout, most notable in the final parts as a result of differing paper. Repair to the lower corner of T2. Folding letterpress table with repairs, facsimile infill, and a stub tear. Verso of first free endpaper initialed and dated “D.C. 1859” in ink manuscript. Seal of a seminary ink stamped to the title-page and, in ink manuscript, “du seminaire de [M?]irai” along the top edge.
Following the publication of his Astronomia nova in 1609, Johannes Kepler (1571–1630) was asked to write a more popular exposition of Copernican astronomy. In lieu of its title, Kepler's Epitome was more an introduction to Keplerian astronomy than to Copernican, and featured Kepler’s own theories of elliptical orbits, celestial physics, and the third law of planetary motion. The work was written during a period of strife for the Kepler family. Despite an effort to reconcile religion and science (Kepler had hoped to use astronomy to date the events of Jesus’s life), Kepler's mother had been charged with witchcraft and threatened with torture after one of Kepler’s more experimental manuscripts — in which the narrator’s mother discusses space travel with a demon — circulated. Epitome was issued in three inexpensive octavo volumes, titled Doctrina spherica, Physica coelestis, and Doctrina theorica, over a period of some three years. The family’s tarnished reputation and the first volume's advocacy of the Copernican system soon earned Doctrina spherica a place on the Index librorum prohibitorum (joining Copernicus’s De Revolutionibus), possibly explaining why the subsequent volume was misdated. Kepler was excommunicated the following year.
Initially intended to be an easily comprehensible textbook of the new heliocentric astronomy, the first volume of Epitome was laid out in a catechetical form which imparted the information through questions and answers, employing a technique typical of many astronomical textbooks of the period. Following Kepler’s excommunication and the Church’s ban on Copernican books, the second and third volumes take on a different structure, aiming only to be understood by likeminded astronomers and mathematicians. Kepler’s influence on and contributions to the physical sciences cannot be understated. Galileo would build upon the present work in his Dialogo (1632) and, after Kepler’s death, Epitome was the driving force in winning converts to ellipse-based astronomy, becoming the most widely used astronomical textbook of the Early Modern era. Despite this — and perhaps a testament to the scope of viable readership at the time — the exceedingly rare work saw only one reprint: a 1635 edition by Schönwetter.
The manuscript inscription and ink stamp is that of the Mende Seminary, a diocesan school in the Lozère region that was historically referred to as Mimate. The city held great religious significance and was home to centuries of bishops, high justiciaries, a college, and convents of Cordeliers, Carmelites, Capuchins, and Ursulines (truly to only name a few).
Carli & Favaro 76 and 92 (vols I and II only); Cinti 60, 72, and 67; Houzeau & Lancaster 11831.
Item #GRM0088
Price: $48,000