Institutio Astronomica iuxta Hypothese tam veterum quam Copernici and Tychonis

Description

In quarto, engraved portrait of the author bound before the first leaf of text, title printed in red and black, illustrated with numerous woodcut text diagrams, several of which occupy a full page, with divisional title pages; bound in full eighteenth-century vellum over boards with brass edges, central gilt tool depicting a saint on the front board, without green silk ties; several stamps altered or removed, including a worn one on the general title; punch hole on the front board penetrating through signature E; upper spine panel torn away; 18.3 x 14.5 cm. Gassendi's Institutio astronomica, first published in 1647, describes the various competing models of the cosmos, in particular the Ptolemaic, the Copernican, and the intermediate system devised by Tycho Brahe. The Hague: Adrianum Vlacq, 1656. Ex libris Professor, astronomer, historian and bibliophile Owen Gingerich.