Five engraved plates & numerous woodcut diagrams & illus. in the text. 4 p.l., 66 (i.e. 64), 255 pp. Folio, cont. vellum over boards (binding a little warped, bottom corner of lower cover a little worn, occasional browning but rather less than usual), ties gone. Linz: J. Planck for G. Tampach, 1619. First edition, first issue, and a fine copy of this great book. Copies of the first issue are distinctly rare. This epochal work contains Kepler’s discovery of the third law of planetary motion. Kepler regarded this work as his crowning achievement in elucidating the harmonic regularities of the universe. It was Kepler’s three laws which formed the basis of Newton’s principle of universal gravitation.
No comments:
Post a Comment