LANSBERGE, Philip van.

Middelburgi Zelandiae [Middelburg]: Apud Zachariam Romanum.1633

4 works (the first in 3 parts) in 1 volume, small folio and 4to. 1: 6 leaves, pp. 41, (1); 180, folding letterpress table; 181, (3). 2: pp. 28, (2), (2) blank, and 2 finely engraved folding plates. 3: pp. 25, (2), and 2 finely engraved folding plates. 4: 4to, pp. (xvi), 131, interleaved with folio leaves. Contemporary vellum. A fine and fresh copy.

A most remarkable and handsome collection of instrument books and astronomical tables by and about Philip van Lansberge (1561–1632), one of the most influential advocates of the Copernican doctrine in Protestant Europe and one of the two most important astronomers in the Low Countries during the first half of the 17th century. 1. Second edition, comprising a reissue of the sheets of the original edition of 1632 with a new title-page. In it Lansberge propounds an epicyclic theory based on Brahe. “Although a follower of Copernicus, van Lansberge did not accept the planetary theories of Kepler altogether. His Tabulae…founded on an epicyclic theory were much used among astronomers, although they were very inferior to Kepler’s Rudolphine tables” (DSB). 2. A reissue of the sheets of the first Latin edition of 1633; a guide to the use of the quadrant and the astrolabe, with improvements in their design. A fine engraved vignette on the title-page shows two astronomers using the astrolabe. 3. First edition in Latin (from the Dutch of 1628). On the construction and use of the astrolabe. 4. First edition, a vigorous defence by Philip’s brother Jacques of Philip’s espousal of the Copernican system against the attacks of Morin and Libert Froidmond. He defends the Copernican theory as being a correct description of the motion of the heavens and theologically acceptable.

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