![Institutio astronomica de usu globorum & sphaerarum caelestium ac terrestrium: duabas partibus adornata, una, secundum hypothesin Ptolemai, per terram quiescentem. Altera, juxta mentem N. Copernici, per terram mobilem [translated by Martinus Hortenisus].](/photos/1234/full/1234.jpg "Institutio astronomica de usu globorum & sphaerarum caelestium ac terrestrium: duabas partibus adornata, una, secundum hypothesin Ptolemai, per terram quiescentem. Altera, juxta mentem N. Copernici, per terram mobilem [translated by Martinus Hortenisus].")
Ptolemaic and Copernican cosmography
BLAEU, Willem.
Institutio astronomica de usu globorum & sphaerarum caelestium ac terrestrium: duabas partibus adornata, una, secundum hypothesin Ptolemai, per terram quiescentem. Altera, juxta mentem N. Copernici, per terram mobilem [translated by Martinus Hortenisus].
Amsterdam: Joannem Blaeu, 1655.
8vo (181 × 110 mm.), pp. [xvi], 243, [1]. Woodcut device (an armillary sphere) to title, woodcut vignette to each of the two part titles (a Ptolemaic globe and the Copernican system), numerous astronomical diagrams to text, textual ornaments. Light browning thoughout, light waterstain to lower inner corner throughout. Contemporary, probably Scottish calf, sides with gilt ruled borders with thistle cornerpieces, expertly rebacked to style. A very good copy.
Blaeu's classic treatise on the use of the globes, armilary spheres and sundials, divided into sections considering the earth-centered Ptolemaic system of cosmography and the sun-centered Copernican system. It was first published in Dutch in 1634, soon followed by a Latin edition (also 1634), and then by a number of later seventeenth-century impressions.Our copy is in an interesting contemporary binding, with covers bearing thistle tools as cornerpieces, suggesting an early Scottish provenance, though without any further marks of ownership.
£1000.00
US$1987.90*
* Given as a guide only. Based on an exchange rate of £1 = US$1.987896 for the day 5 July 2008 but liable to fluctuate.
5 July 2008