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HUYGENS, Christiaan (1629-1695). Systema Saturnium, sive de causis mirandorum Saturni phaenomenon, et comite ejus planeta novo . The Hague: Adrian Vlacq, 1659.
HUYGENS, Christiaan (1629-1695). Systema Saturnium, sive de causis mirandorum Saturni phaenomenon, et comite ejus planeta novo . The Hague: Adrian Vlacq, 1659. 4° (194 x 152mm). One folding engraved plate, 11 engraved illustrations, 8 woodcut diagrams, and woodcut initials. (Some leaves very lightly browned, a little light spotting.) Contemporary vellum, manuscript title on spine (lightly soiled). FIRST EDITION OF THE FIRST FULL ANNOUNCEMENT OF HUYGENS' DISCOVERY OF THE RING AND SATELLITE OF SATURN. The mystery of Saturn's ‘arms’ had puzzled astronomers in the decades following Galileo's observation in 1610 of the planet's oval shape. Starting in the 1650s, Huygens and his brother Constantijn acquired great skill in the grinding and polishing of spherical lenses, and the telescopes that they built were the best of their time. In 1655, using their first greatly improved telescope, Huygens spotted a satellite of Saturn, later named Titan. Although still unable to physically make out the cause of Saturn's odd and variable shape, Huygens theorized that it was due to a single flat ring, whose inclination to the line of sight varies. ‘He arrived at this solution partly through the use of better observational equipment, but also by an acute argument based on the use of the Cartesian vortex (the whirl of "celestial matter" around a heavenly body supporting its satellites)’ (DSB). In 1656 Huygens presented his theory in a one-sentence anagram included in Pierre Borel's De vero telescopii inventore (see lot 18), thus securing priority of the discovery. The Systema Saturnium contains as well ‘many other observations on the planets and their satellites, all contributing to an emphatic defense of the Copernican system’ (Norman), and an observation and illustration of the Orion nebula. Dibner Heralds , 9; Norman 1136.