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Details
ULUGH BEG (also Muhammad Taragay, 1394-1449). Tabulae long. ac lat. stellarum fixarum ex observatione. Edited, with commentary, by Thomas Hyde. Oxford: Henry Hall for Thomas Hyde, 1665.
4° (232 x 183mm). Title printed in red and black. Parallel Persian and Latin text. (Occasional light spotting, some small rust-holes in S1.) Late 18th-century vellum, spine titled in manuscript, edges red, marbled endpapers (light soiling). Provenance: Frederick Kanmacher (flyleaf inscription dated 31 March 1800 presenting the book to the Royal Institution).
First edition in Persian of one of the most important astronomical texts of medieval times. RARE: APBC and RBH record just three copies having sold at auction in the past 40 years. The astronomical tables and star catalogue were compiled by Ulugh Begh, grandson of Tamerlane, at Samarkand in collaboration with a group of astronomers working under his patronage. ‘After that of Hipparchus, the star catalogue of Ulugh Beg was the second in seventeen centuries... [it] has great value, since it is basically original’ despite some influence from Ptolemy (DSB). Ulugh Beg’s strikingly accurate data were in part collected using a sextant, cut into a hill, with a radius of 40 meters – the world’s largest astronomical instrument of that type. First published in Latin in London in 1650. Houzeau and Lancaster 1329; Wing U-23.
4° (232 x 183mm). Title printed in red and black. Parallel Persian and Latin text. (Occasional light spotting, some small rust-holes in S1.) Late 18th-century vellum, spine titled in manuscript, edges red, marbled endpapers (light soiling). Provenance: Frederick Kanmacher (flyleaf inscription dated 31 March 1800 presenting the book to the Royal Institution).
First edition in Persian of one of the most important astronomical texts of medieval times. RARE: APBC and RBH record just three copies having sold at auction in the past 40 years. The astronomical tables and star catalogue were compiled by Ulugh Begh, grandson of Tamerlane, at Samarkand in collaboration with a group of astronomers working under his patronage. ‘After that of Hipparchus, the star catalogue of Ulugh Beg was the second in seventeen centuries... [it] has great value, since it is basically original’ despite some influence from Ptolemy (DSB). Ulugh Beg’s strikingly accurate data were in part collected using a sextant, cut into a hill, with a radius of 40 meters – the world’s largest astronomical instrument of that type. First published in Latin in London in 1650. Houzeau and Lancaster 1329; Wing U-23.
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