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The Use of the Celestial Globe in plano, set foorth in two hemispheres: wherein are placed all the most notable Starres of heaven
HOOD, THOMAS. 1556-1620
Cooke, 1590.
4to (185 x 133 mm). Letterpress title incorporating woodcut printers device, without the two folding star charts (only one set known). Title slightly soiled and lower margin carefully restored not affecting letters, Very light occasional spotting to early leaves. Red levant morocco, gilt, by Sangorski and Sutcliffe, covers with two line gilt ruled border, spine gilt in 6 compartments, gilt inner dentelles, g.e.
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A finely bound copy of one of Hood's rarest works, with just 4 examples appearing at auction in the last 80 years, and all of these copies were without the two folding celestial plates. Thomas Hood was an English mathematician and physician and the first lecturer in mathematics to be appointed in England in 1588. In later life he lived in London and practiced as a physician, selling copies of his celestial charts to add to his living. From 1597 he is known to have made a number of astrological instruments.
VERY RARE, only early edition of this work on the use of celestial globes. The text is in the form of a dialogue between a Scholar and Master and was intended to aid the student astronomer, cosmographer & navigator to recognize the stars and their constellations. It contains a table of stars listing their longitude, latitude, magnitude and constellation. There is also a description of the nova that appeared in Cassiopeia in 1572-4. This event was witnessed across Europe and attracted the attention of the best astronomers of the day, among them Tycho Brahe, who published his account in 1575. This new star initially reached the brightness of Venus. Hood recounts the various theories regarding this phenomenon (that it was one of the stars of Cassiopeia or a comet) with much of the argument centring on whether this new light moved or not. By showing that it remained fixed, Brahe proved that it was not an atmospheric disturbance, such as a comet, but a new star. While Brahe himself was not a supporter of Copernicus' theory, that the sun not the earth is at rest at the centre of the universe, his discoveries in relation to the nova made this theory easier to accept.
Hood (fl. 1582-1598), a graduate of Cambridge, held the first English lectureship in mathematics and was one of the first popularisers of the 'new learning'. This appointment was initiated and financed in 1582 by Thomas Smith, to whom this work is dedicated, and the lectures were given in the city of London. Smith was the first Governor of the East India Company, Governor of the Muscovy Company and Treasurer of the Virginia Company and a patron of science, trade and exploration. Hood's publications, which ranged from an English translation of Ramus' 'Elements of Geometrie' to a guide for mariners, as well as his inventions of mathematical instruments, show the wide scope of mathematics as a discipline in the late C16. He also lectured on geography and navigation. He is credited with popularising astronomy and the Copernican theory in England. This is the first of his two works on the celestial globe; the second was published in 1592 ('The use of both the Globes Celestial and Terestrial', London). In 1589 Hood was, with Hakluyt, one of the subscribers to Raleigh's Virigina Company; he invented a sector, ancestor of the slide rule and the calculating machine in 1598, the same year as Galileo.
According to the title, one could also buy from Mr Hood himself at his house in Abchurch Lane 'two hemispheres' ( 22 inch square) to use with the present text. They illustrate the various constellations and stars by human and animal figures. Regrettably, however they were very rarely united with the book and where they have survived, they have generally done so separately. 'There is a copy in the British Museum, the text (without the plates) being in the Library, and coloured impressions of the two planispheres in the Map Department. This is the only copy noted in the STC. Bishop adds three further copies in America, i.e. Washington, New York Public Library and Charlotesville, of these Charlottesville alone has any plate, and then only the South Polar Region' (Hind I, p.142).
STC 13697 (4 libs. + Kraus in US) 'Tp has advt. for the sale of the hemispheres at the author's house in Abchurch Lane. They are eng. by A. Ryther and lacking in most copies'. ESTC s118875. Hind I, p.139. Houzeau and Lancaster 2785. Taylor 'Late Stuart and Early Tudor Geography', 346. Not in Honeyman.
A very fine Painted Wood and Gilt Brass Diptych Dial
£18,000 DUJARDIN, PIERRE	Add to basket
Commentarius in sphaeram procli diadochi Cui adiunctus est Computus Ecclesiasticus, cum Calendario triplici, & prognostico tempestatum ex ortu & occasu stellarum.
£6,500 HENISCH (GEORG)	Add to basket
Speculum uranicum aquilae romanae sacrum das ist Him[m]els Spiegel darinnen ausser denen ordentlichen auch die ungewöhnlichen Erscheinungen des Himmels mit gebührenden Anfüuhrungen abgebildet. Vornehmlich abder der im gestirne des Adlers jüngsthin entstandene Comet [etc.] (Verzeichnis dere Cometen so vor und nach Christi geburt… beobachtet worden…).
£6,500 WEIGEL, ERHARD (1625-1699).	Add to basket
Manuscript Letter to Edward Harene of HMS Conway to Transfer to HMS Blonde where he is promoted to Lieutenant replacing Lieutenant William McCan discharged through illness. Whereby, Harene found himself involved in the rescue of HMS Challenger organised by Robert Fitzroy, Captain of the Beagle during Charles Darwin's Second Voyage.
£2,500 MASON, COMMODORE FRANCIS	Add to basket
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