Apr 03, 2014 - Sale 2343

Sale 2343 - Lot 84

Price Realized: $ 875
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 300 - $ 500
HELL, MAXIMILIAN, S.J. Observatio Transitus Veneris ante Discum Solis die 3 Junii Anno 1769. Folding engraved plate (offset). [8], 96 pages. bound between: Ephemerides Astronomicae Anni 1769. Ad Meridianum Vindobonensem. 2 folding plates; 8 (of ?) engraved eclipse tables for the satellites of Jupiter. 244, 42 pages. and: Ephemerides Astronomicae Anni 1770. Ad Meridianum Vindobonensem. Folding engraved plate of the moon; 8 (of ?) engraved eclipse tables for the satellites of Jupiter. 244; [2], 66 pages. 3 volumes in one * Ephemerides Astronomicae Anni 1783. Ad Meridianum Vindobonensem. 8 (of ?) engraved eclipse tables for the satellites of Jupiter; folding engraved plate of the moon. 269, [1]; 128 pages. Together, 4 works in 2 volumes. 8vo, 198x122 mm, contemporary vellum boards with spine title in ink, and 201x122 mm, contemporary calf gilt with superficial vertical crack in spine; contents of the first volume toned, piece of paper pasted over page of woodcuts in the 1783 Ephemerides depicting the phases of Venus. 19th-century bookplate of Richard H[inckley?] Allen in the first volume; bookplate of the astrologer Erich von Beckerath (1891-1981) in the second. Vienna: Johann Thomas von Trattner, 1770; 1769; 1769; 1782

Additional Details

first editions. Hell was one of a number of astronomers around the globe to observe the 1769 Transit of Venus. His delayed submission of data raised the suspicion that he had falsified his results, ruining his reputation. BEA, pages 519-20; DSB VI, 233-35; Houzeau & Lancaster 15552.