Beschreibung:

GASSENDI, Pierre (1592-1655). Institutio astronomia juxta hypotheses tam veterum quam Copernici & Tychonis. Amsterdam: Joannes Jansson à Waesberg, 1680.
GASSENDI, Pierre (1592-1655). Institutio astronomia juxta hypotheses tam veterum quam Copernici & Tychonis. Amsterdam: Joannes Jansson à Waesberg, 1680. 4 o (188 x 145 mm). Woodcut diagrams in text. (Some marginal dampstaining at end, a few woodcuts trimmed.) Contemporary mottled calf, spine gilt (some light wear to joints and edges). Provenance : Megen, Gymnasium (ink stamp on title and a few internal leaves). Later edition, after the first of 1647. Gassendi, a "pioneer of observational astronomy" ( DSB ), developed his theories on astronomy in this work for his position as professor of mathematics at the Collège Royale in Paris. He had been appointed, under the patronage of Cardinal Alphonse de Richelieu, to whom the work is dedicated, following his important observation of the transit of Mercury in 1631. The present work is divided into three books on, successively, astronomy of the sphere, the theory of astronomy, and an explication of the Copernican system in relation to that of Tycho Brahe. See Houzeau and Lancaster 9222.