Of legendary rarity - the first and only journal dealing exclusively with lunar science

[SELENOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY; NEISON, Edmund, editor.

Selenographical Journal. A monthly bulletin of the Selenographical Society, London.

Clapham / London: Selenographical Society / Printers, W. Hall & J.J. Lovitt, 1878.

1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. Item #002213

Vol. 1, no. 1 (Apr. 2nd, 1878) - vol. 5, no. 59 (Dec. 10th, 1882), all published. Clapham [England]: Selenographical Society / London: Printers, W. Hall & J.J. Lovitt. Two numbers issued for May 1878 and for Dec. 1880. 58 numbers in total (no. 43 never published), caption title to each number, continuous pagination for each vol., general index bound at beginning of each vol. This set has the text only (bound without any plate), 1 illustration in text. Vol. I: nos. 1-10, [2], 40 pp, 12 pp. Memoranda, [6] pp. Soc. rules. Vol. II: nos. 11-22, [2], 96 pp. Vol. III: nos. 23-35, [2], 104 pp. Vol. IV: nos. 36-42, 44 to 47, [2], 96 pp., [4] pp. Soc. rules. Vol V: nos. 48 to 59, [2], 96 pp. Bound in uniform contemporary half leather over marbled boards, gilt-lettered spines (spine ends and extremities rubbed, vol. V with foot of spine chipped, upper board of vol. III detached). Text little browned only. Provenance: Mary Ashley, British astronomer (her ownership inscription on free endpapers and pencil annotation within text), British Astronomical Association (stamps on front pastedowns). ----

Ashworth, The face of the moon, Linda Hall 24 - EXCEEDINGLY RARE FIRST AND ONLY EDITION. "The moon acquired its own journal in 1878, when the British amateur William Radcliff Birt organized the Selenographical Society in London and launched this publication, under the editorship of Edmund Nevill (Neison). The Society and the Journal, alas, did not survive the death of their founder in 1881, and the Journal ceased publication after only five volumes. During its short lifetime, the most prominent subject of discussion was whether a new crater had just appeared below (north of) the Hyginus rill, just south of Mare Vaporum, near the center of the moon. Hermann Klein, a German astronomer and popularizer, made the claim for the new crater in 1876, and called it Hyginus Nova, or N for short. He used a series of drawings made by Julius Schmidt over the years to argue that the crater had suddenly and recently appeared. Many such drawings, by Schmidt and others, appeared in the various issues of the Journal" (Ashworth).
Amazingly, COPAC and British Library do not list any copy present in UK public libraries. Within the EU, there are copies in Vienna, Hamburg (Sternwarte) and Paris. Three locations in the US are listed in OCLC/Worldcat: Linda Hall Library, University of Cincinnati, and T.C. Andersen Library. No information about completeness of these holdings is provided. - Visit our website to see more images!

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