The earliest printed lunar map to give topologic details

SCHEINER, Christoph.

Disquisitiones mathematicae, de controversiis et novitatibus astronomicis quas sub praesidio Christophori Scheiner, De Societate Iesv . . . publice disputandas posvit, propvgnavit . . . Ioannes Georgius Locher ... Ingolstadt: Eder for Elisabeth Angermaria, 1614.

Ingolstadt: Eder for Elisabeth Angermaria, 1614.

1st Edition. Soft cover. Very Good. Item #003202

Disquisitiones mathematicae, de controversiis et novitatibus astronomicis quas sub praesidio Christophori Scheiner, De Societate Iesv . . . publice disputandas posvit, propvgnavit . . . Ioannes Georgius Locher ... Ingolstadt: Eder for Elisabeth Angermaria, 1614. [Bound before:] II. TANNER, Adam, praes. Astrologia Sacra: hoc est, Orationes et Quaestiones quinque, quibus explicatur, an et qua ratione fas sit homini christiano, de rebus occultis, praesertim futuris, ex astris iudicium ferre / Dictae & discussae . . . D. Otho Henricus Bachmair Monacensis, . . . & D. Fridericus Pirchinger, Promotore Adamo Tannero, E Societate Jesu . . . Ingolstadt: Eder for Elisabeth Angermaria, 1615. Two works in one volume, 4to (192 x 155 mm). [2], 90, [4, last blank] pp; [8], 64 pp.; with numerous text woodcuts in Scheiner's work, including images of the moon, some full-page; pages 75/76 and 81/82 folded in at outer margins, due to oversize images; a partly erased early inscription to the title of Tanner's work, and a few early annotations to the same. Excellent copy in contemporary vellum using an earlier manuscript sheet (musical notations); two ties; manuscript paper label. ----

FIRST EDITION, in a beautiful contemporary binding, of Scheiner's very rare work containing the second earliest printed map of the moon (the first to give topographical details) as well as the first illustrations of a telescope. It builds upon Scheiner's 1612 discovery of sunspots, made using a telescope he built himself, which led to his famous controversy with Galileo. This work discusses almost all the astronomical issues then current, especially those brought about by the newly invented telescope. There is an extensive argument against the notion of an infinite universe, illustrated by a striking full-page woodcut on p. 17 of 'Chaos infinitum ex atomis' surrounding the sphere of fixed stars. This is followed by a detailed examination of the Copernican heliocentric theory, as well as the Tychonic system, which he supported, and that of Fracastoro; the systems are illustrated by three large diagrams. Then follow discussions of the moon (including its 'secondary light'), the sun (with a full examination of sunspots), and the planets.
On p. 58 is an extraordinary map of the first quarter moon, with craters and other features labelled and listed, including Mare Crisium, Mare Tranquilitatis, Mare Foecunditatis, Mare Nectaris and the crater Aristoteles. The only earlier known maps of the moon are those published in Galileo's Sidereus Nuncius (1610) and Thomas Harriot's unpublished maps which only exist as drawings. The Galilei maps are "apparently but schematic views of what Galileo saw with his telescope, for none of the features recorded on them can be identified with certainty with any known formation" (Kopal, p. 62). "In Scheiner's map, the dark areas are reasonably well portrayed, and a few bright spots and recognizable craters are shown. The original has a diameter of 9 cm" (Whitaker, p.25)
Bound before Scheiner's work is a dissertation on astronomy and against astrology written by Scheiner's Jesuit Superior at Ingolstadt University, Adam Tanner. Tanner discusses the usefulness of telescopic observations and the relation of theology to astrology and to astronomy. The second part includes a discussion of Galileo's discoveries announced in the Sidereus Nuncius. Scheiner worked with Tanner trying to make or obtain improved telescopes and, independently of Scheiner, Tanner observed sunspots in the autumn of 1611, having heard a rumour about Galileo's observations. But Scheiner always maintained that his own first observations of sunspots had been made in the spring and without knowledge of Galileo's. Tanner makes no mention of Scheiner's activities in the present work, and on p. 49 credits Galileo Galileo with the first observation of sunspots: "Assuredly the great astronomer Galileo, the first discoverer of these wonders of the skies, maintains that these spots which overshadow the sun"
Literature: I. BEA II, 1018; BM/STC 17th-century German S-594; Houzeau-Lancaster 2948; VD17 12:161843A; Sommervogel VII 737 3; Zinner 4484; Danielson, Paradise Lost and the Cosmological Revolution, 2014. Dear, Discipline and Experience: The Mathematical Way in the Scientific Revolution, 1995. Kopal, The earliest maps of the moon, The Moon, Vol. 1 (1969), pp. 59-66. Reeves, Painting the Heavens: Art and Science in the Age of Galileo, 1999. Reeves & Van Helden (tr.), Galileo Galilei & Christoph Scheiner, On Sunspots, 2010.
II. (Tanner): VD17 23:238787Z; Sommervogel VII, cols. 1843-1855. OCLC records no locations for North America. - Visit our website for further information and images!

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