GASSENDI, Pierre (1592-1655). Institutio astronomica: juxta hypotheses tam veterum quam recentiorum. – Galileo GALILEI (1564-1642). Sidereus nuncius. – Johannes KEPLER (1571-1630). Dioptrice. London: Jacob Flesher for William Morden, 1653.
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GASSENDI, Pierre (1592-1655). Institutio astronomica: juxta hypotheses tam veterum quam recentiorum. – Galileo GALILEI (1564-1642). Sidereus nuncius. – Johannes KEPLER (1571-1630). Dioptrice. London: Jacob Flesher for William Morden, 1653.

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GASSENDI, Pierre (1592-1655). Institutio astronomica: juxta hypotheses tam veterum quam recentiorum. – Galileo GALILEI (1564-1642). Sidereus nuncius. – Johannes KEPLER (1571-1630). Dioptrice. London: Jacob Flesher for William Morden, 1653.

Second edition of an important collection of scientific writings. Gassendi's Institutio astronomica, first published in 1647, outlines the various competing models of the cosmos, notably the Ptolemaic, the Copernican, and the intermediate system invented by Tycho Brahe. This is followed by Galileo's Sidereus nuncius, the third edition of this seminal work, first published in 1610, in which he describes his observations made by telescope . The volume is completed by Kepler's Dioptrice, first published in 1611. Kepler had been researching optics since 1600 but it was the publication of Galileo's Sidereus nuncius which spurred him to complete his treatise on lenses. It contains the first explanation of myopia and the first design for an inverted astronomical telescope. ESTC R27380; Houzeau and Lancaster I: 9225.

Octavo (180 x 110mm). General title printed in red and black, separate title-pages for other works, drophead-title for Dioptrice, 4 plates in Institutio, numerous woodcut diagrams in text (one diagram closely trimmed slightly affecting image). 18th-century calf, later Rugby School ‘Temple Observatory’ label on upper cover (rebacked and extremities restored). Provenance: Triboudet de Mainbray (doctor of civil and canon law and a lecturer in scientific disciplines, fl. 18th-century; ownership inscription, short biographical note on Gassendi) – Rugby School (binding).
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