Oct 24 at 10:30 AM - Sale 2683 -
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Sale 2683 - Lot 163

Estimate: $ 15,000 - $ 20,000
Hevelius, Johannes (1611-1687)
Selenographia: Sive, Lunae Descriptio; atque Accurata, tam Macularum eius, quam Mottum Diversorum, aliarumque Omnium Vicissitudinum, Phasiumque, Telescopii ope Deprehensarum, Delineatio.

Danzig: Autoris sumtibus, Typis Hunefeldianus, 1647.

First edition, folio, half-title, engraved title, portrait of Alhazen; lacking portraits of Hevelius and Galileo; illustrated with 26 text engravings; 108 (of 109) full-page engravings, lacking plate T*, but with plate RRR, (20 plates printed back to back on the same sheet); volvelle with burgundy silk string attached, moveable engraving of the moon detached from its mount but present; 4 double-page plates (including a repeat of plate R, Tabula Selenographica Phasium Generalis); [bound with] Johannis Hevelii Epistolae IV., Danzig: Sumtibus Autoris, typis Andreae Julii Molleri, 1654, engraved astronomy vignette to title page, illustrated with one text engraving, 4 full-page engravings; two illustrations called for are labeled D and E, the other two are charts showing movements of celestial bodies during the solar eclipses of 4 November 1649 and 8 April 1652; one double-page typographical table; [bound with] Johannis Hevelii Dissertatio, De Nativa Saturni Facie, Danzig: Sumptibus Autoris, Typis Reinigeri, 1656, with same vignette to title, illustrated with 4 full-page engravings labeled F, G, H, and I, with the Ordo Figurarum, indicating placement of plates trimmed from another sheet and pasted on verso of last leaf; bound in full late-17th to mid-18th century speckled calf, spines ruled in gilt panels, gilt-tooled spine; endcaps chipped with loss; joints cracked, a good candidate for restoration; contents generally very good; ex libris Harvard University president Edward Holyoke (1689-1769) with his signature dated 1744 on front free endleaf; undated signature of Joshua Holyoke Ward (1808-1848) beneath; 14 x 9 in.

Houzeau & Lancaster 1252; BYU Hevelius 1; Honeman 1672.

"No finer book on the moon has ever been published. In scores of illustrations, drawn and engraved by the author himself, Hevelius tracked the moon through every phase of an entire lunar cycle, and then incorporated the information gained into three large moon maps." (https://www.lindahall.org/experience/digital-exhibitions/the-face-of-the-moon/b-1610-1700/03-hevelius-johannes/)

This extraordinary sammelband of three beautifully illustrated works by the famous Polish astronomer includes a first edition his rare treatise on Saturn. In the instructions to the binder in the Selenographia, the author notes that the final two plates, T* and Tt* should be "only slightly glued" [leviter tantum agglutinentur] so that "worshipers of Urania" may take them out to use them for their own celestial observations. This may explain how T* became separated from the work.
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