BOULLIAU (Ismael)

Lot 65
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Estimation :
3000 - 4000 EUR
BOULLIAU (Ismael)
Astronomia philolaica. Opus novum, In quo motus Planetarum per nova mac veram Hypothesim demonstrantur [...]. Paris, Siméon Piget, 1645. In-folio, brown calf, framed with cold filets, gilt fleuron at the corners, spine with nerves (Binding of the time). Lalande, pp. 220-221. Very rare first edition of this important treatise on astronomy, by Ismael Boulliaud (or Boulliau), astronomer born in Loudun in 1605 and died in Paris in 1694, friend of Gassendi, Huygens and Pascal, and author of, among other things, works on the luminous variations of stars. A lunar crater (the Bullialdus) bears the name of this scientist today. The Astronomia philolaica: a pivotal publication between those of Kepler and Newton for the theory of gravitation. The author, an ardent defender of Copernicus' and Galileo's theories, based himself on Kepler's recent work on "gravitation" and the mechanics of the planets, and was the first to put forward the hypothesis that the force of attraction of the planets is inversely proportional to the square of their distance from the Sun (the so-called inverse square law). This idea was taken up and corrected by Newton in 1687 in his Principia. In 1645 Boulliau published his most significant scientific work, a more accomplished heliocentric treatise entitled Astronomia philolaica. He had now become one of the very few astronomers to accept the ellipticity of orbits. [...] The Astronomia Philolaica was one of the most important treatises written in the period between Kepler and Newton. (DSB). Numerous geometrical and astronomical figures enhance the author's remarks. Tables of calculations are grouped in the second part of the volume, in separate pagination: among these are a catalogue of fixed stars according to Tycho Brahe (pp. 181-209: Catalogus stellarum fixarum mille, ex accuratio Tychonis Brahé observationibus & calculo ad annum Incarnationis MDCI) and Synopsis tabularum Astronomicarum Persicarum dedicated to Gabriel Naudé. Old handwritten annotations in the margins of some leaves, one leaf of handwritten notes added between pp. 426-427. Old signature on the title. Smudging on leaves Nn2-3 and Gg2. Small paper loss at the upper corner of the title, some foxing. Spine rebacked, lining and endpapers renewed.
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