Ad Vitellionem Paralipomena, Quibus Astronomiæ pars optica traditur; Potißimùm de artificiosa observatione et æstimatione diametrorum deliquiorumq[ue]; Solis & Lunæ. Cum exemplis insignium eclipsium. Habes hoc libro, Lector, inter alia multa noua, Tractatum luculentum de modo visionis, & humorum oculi usu, contra Opticos & Anatomicos
FIRST EDITION OF KEPLER’S OPTICS
WITH EXTENSIVE CONTEMPORARY ANNOTATIONS
AND DIAGRAMS BY A HIGHLY-LEARNED SCIENTIFIC READER
Frankfurt: Claude de Marne & the heirs of Johann Aubry, 1604. First edition.
Quarto (8 3/16” x 6 5/8”, 209mm x 170mm): )(4 (:)4 A-Mmm4 Nnn2 [$3 signed; +A4; Bb2 mis-signed as “B 2”]. 242 leaves, pp. [xvi] (title, blank, 10pp. dedication, 2pp. index, 2pp. verses), 1-449, [xix] (16pp. index, 2pp. errata, blank). With an engraved plate (plus 2pp. letterpress explanation) and two folding letterpress tables.
Bound in modern quarter vellum over boards.
With some closed marginal tears and chips. Heavily annotated throughout in contemporary scholarly hand(s?), with many diagrams, corrections (some applied from the errata, others contributed) and underlinings.[1] Offsetting from the annotations, and a handful of ink spots. Wide margins, with several preserved deckles and no shaving of the marginalia.
Johannes Kepler (1571–1631) stands with Copernicus and Galileo as one of the giants of the physical sciences, and as leading light of the Scientific Revolution. Best known for his laws of planetary motion — a revision, he would insist, rather than a correction of Copernicus’ theories of circular and epicyclical planetary motion — Kepler here diverts his inquiry toward optics as a necessary precursor to more applied astronomy. Indeed, the digressive nature of the work is indicated by its split title: “supplement to Vitello,” viz. the XIIIc author of Perspectiva, who promulgated the theories of Alhazen (Ibn al-Haytham) into Latin; and “the optical part of astronomy,” by whose initials (APO) the work is generally known.
Vitello (also Witelo, b. ca. 1230) was a Polish natural scientist whose major work, Perspectiva (ca. 1275), was deeply influential on medieval and even Renaissance optics despite being circulated in manuscript (it was disemminated in print in the 1572 Opticae thesaurus). Indeed, it dominated the experimental period of optics to the extent that Kepler introduces his own work as supplying mere omissions (a more exact translation of παραλειπόμενα) of Vitello’s, though this is litotes.
Although complete copies, to say nothing of the present copy with its superb margins, of Kepler’s optics are fairly rare — the engraved plate and letterpress tables are often missing — the allure of our volume is the extensive contemporary (say, within 25 years of publication or so) annotation, underlining and more than a dozen supplemental manuscript diagrams. The identity of the annotator(s) — there are two inks plus an occasional blue-green graphite (vel sim.), but perhaps this is a single scholar with two different pens or campaigns of reading — is tantalizing. He must be a dedicated scholar, since he cites Eratosthenes (p. 40); Tycho (de Brahe) and (Christoph) Rothmann (p. 79); and, in the large diagram on the recto of the leaf whose verso is the engraved plate, Christoph Scheiner. Scheiner’s Oculus was published in 1619 (though reprinted several times through 1652), so this provides a terminus post quem. Given how quickly the field was changing and how well-versed our annotator was, we might suggest that the annotations were carried out in the early 1620’s.
Of particular note is the full-page annotated diagram, which at the top cites p. 10 of Scheiner’s Oculus — though that is for the small diagram at the top, as well as some of the information about the “crÿstallinus” (i.e., the lens). The rest appears to be an original working-out of thoughts about the structuring of the eye as it relates to perception. Who was this knowledgeable, confident natural scientist?
Caspar, Biliographia Kepleriana 18; VD17 39:121965W.
[1] The majority of pages are marked. There are marginalia, underlining or both in the following ranges (single pages skipped are included, but two or more unmarked pages reset the run): )(2r-(:)2r, pp. 2-42, 51-67, 76-79, 89-96, 110, 133-219, 222, 226-227, 246-250, 267-271, 287, 302-305, 310-311, 321-335, 340-345, 439, Mmm1v-2r, Mmm3r-4r, Nnn12-2r. Diagrams or visual alterations to diagrams (not including lettering or labeling): pp. 7, 10, 16, 40, 61, 62, 67, χ1r (following p. 176), 182, 183, 184, 202, 322, 333, 342.
Item #JLR0244
Price: $88,000