Books

First edition of the annual astronomical tables for the meridian of Vienna, printed in 1773 for the upcoming year of 1774, from the library of the astronomer Arne August Wyller. Hell, the director of the Vienna Observatory, published numerous celestial Ephemerides between 1757 and 1793. The work is engagingly illustrated, and includes woodcuts of the phases of the moon, parallax diagrams, and an engraving of lunar craters. Along with his astronomical work in Vienna, Hell (1720-1792) distinguished himself by observing the 1769 transit of Venus from Vardø in northern Norway. For this work, the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters elected him a foreign member and planned to publish his results, but Hell's decision to extend his stay in Norway and gather non-astronomical data on arctic habitats for an encyclopedia that never appeared (likely due to his status as a Jesuit) meant that the publication was controversially delayed and the data condemned as fraudulent. However, the examination of his notebooks a century later posthumously proved the veracity of his results and led to the naming of the lunar crater "Hell" after him. Provenance: from the library of Arne August Wyller (1927-2001), the director of the Institute for Solar Physics at the Royal Swedish Academy and grandson of playwright August Strindberg and actress Harriet Bosse, his ownership signature in pencil on the front free endpaper verso. "Wyller was both a humanist and a scientist, and his First edition of the annual astronomical tables for the meridian of Vienna, printed in 1773 for the upcoming year of 1774, from the library of the astronomer Arne August Wyller. Hell, the director of the Vienna Observatory, published numerous celestial Ephemerides between 1757 and 1793. The work is engagingly illustrated, and includes woodcuts of the phases of the moon, parallax diagrams, and an engraving of lunar craters. Along with his astronomical work in Vienna, Hell (1720-1792) distinguished himself by observing the 1769 transit of Venus from Vardø in northern Norway. For this work, the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters elected him a foreign member and planned to publish his results, but Hell's decision to extend his stay in Norway and gather non-astronomical data on arctic habitats for an encyclopedia that never appeared (likely due to his status as a Jesuit) meant that the publication was controversially delayed and the data condemned as fraudulent. However, the examination of his notebooks a century later posthumously proved the veracity of his results and led to the naming of the lunar crater "Hell" after him. Provenance: from the library of Arne August Wyller (1927-2001), the director of the Institute for Solar Physics at the Royal Swedish Academy and grandson of playwright August Strindberg and actress Harriet Bosse, his ownership signature in pencil on the front free endpaper verso. "Wyller was both a humanist and a scientist, and his ideas were not always within the realms expected from a scientist. Many of his friends and colleagues saw him as Renaissance Man, with a breadth of knowledge in art, literature, music, philosophy, science and technology" (Scharmer). READ MORE Octavo (198 x 124 mm). Contemporary red morocco, spine with five raised bands, compartments ruled and elaborately tooled with floriate motifs in gilt, black morocco label, covers framed with dotted roll and intricate floriate quatrefoil, wave-roll in blind to board edges, red marbled endpapers, top and bottom edges gauffered near headcaps. With 2 engraved folding plates, 8 engraved tables, head- and tailpieces, numerous charts and several woodcuts within text. Title page printed within decorative border, contents printed within double-ruled borders. Later shelf mark label to front pastedown and pencil ownership initials "V.B." to front free endpaper. Extremities rubbed, resulting in a touch of wear to corners, gilt bright, front inner hinge starting but holding firm, short closed tear to fold of both plates, not affecting image, contents crisp and clean: a near-fine copy. Göran Scharmer, "Arne Wyller in memoriam", Harvard University Department of Astronomy, 2001, accessible online.