First Edition, Signed by the Author
Tabulae Frisicae Lunae-Solares Quadruplices. e fontibus Cl. Ptolemaei, Regis Alfonsi, Nic. Copernici, & Tychonis Brahe, recens constructae.
Alkmaar: Jacobus Meesterus, 1611.
Full Description:
MULERIUS, Nicolaus. [i.e. MULLER, Nicolaus]. Tabulae Frisicae Lunae-Solares Quadruplices e fontibus Cl. Ptolemaei, Regis Alfonsi, Nic. Copernici, & Tychonis Brahe, recens constructae. Alkmaar: Excudebat Jacobus Meesterus. Veneunt Amstelrodami apud Wilhelmum Janssonium, 1611.
First edition. Signed by the author on the bottom margin of page 8 under the "Tabularum emptori". With engraved title-page including portraits of Copernicus, Brahe, Ptolemy, King Alfonsus and Hipparchus. Also with an armorial woodcut of Frisia, historiated woodcut initials and diagrams. Calendar printed in red and black. Quarto (9 x 6 7/8 inches; 230 x 175 mm). 136, [4], [137]-464, [26, calendar], [2, blank], 77, [2], [1, blank] pp. Wiith cancel slip correction pasted in the margin of page 33.
Contemporary speckled calf. Spine stamped in gilt. Spine with a brown morocco spine label, lettered in gilt. All edges speckled red. Boards a bit scuffed. Some minor repairs to top of outer hinges and head of spine. A tiny amount of worming to inner gutter, not affecting text. Paper flaw to top margin of leaf Aiii, just touching a few letters. Two previous owner's bookplates to front pastedown. Overall a very good copy.
"Having trained and practised for many years as a physician, while maintaining an interest in mathematics and astronomy, Mulerius was appointed professor of medicine and mathematics at the newly-founded University of Groningen in 1614. In 1608 he had obtained letters patent for a set of eclipse tables based on the work of Ptolemy, Copernicus and Tycho Brahe; by the time the work was published in 1611 a fourth source, the Alfonsine tables, had been included. By relating the motions of the sun and moon, Mulerius's work made the calculation of eclipses much easier. A second part to the work concerning the other planets, written in 1612, was never published and exists in manuscript only. In 1617 Mulerius published a new, corrected edition of Copernicus's De revolutionibus, the first to contain explanatory notes ." (Sotheby's).
Houzeau & Lancaster 12750
HBS 69531.
$5,000.
Price: $5,000.00
Item #69531