One of the most exquisitely illustrated astronomical works ever printed

MARINONI, Giovanni Jacopo de.

De astronomica specula domestica et organico apparatu astronomico libro duo.

Vienna: Leopold Joann Kaliwoda, 1745.

1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. Item #003749

Six parts in one volume. Folio (349 x 253 mm). [25], 2-170, [2], 171-172, [2], 173-174, [2], 175-176, [2], 177-210, [2] pp., engraved frontispiece by A.D. Bertoli and J.J. Sedelmayr, letterpress title printed in red and black and with a vignette (plan od Vienna) by Jo. Christ. Winnckler, engraved headpiece, engraved and woodcut initials and tailpieces, errata on final leaf, 43 engraved folding plates (including one smaller size bound after p.194), 9 engraved illustrations in text (one full size on p. [179]). Unpaginated 4 leaves between pp. 170-171, 172-173, 174-175 and 176-177 are double-sided plates, but part of the signature. Signatures: [a]² b-d² )(-2)(² A-3I². Bound in contemporary full vellum, spine with gilt-lettered red morocco label, blue-sprinkled edges, original endpapers (vellum soiled and spotted, old repair to head of spine, corners bumped, first flyleaf torn). Text crisp and bright throughout, occasional minor finger-soiling (stronger on lower corner of engr. frontispiece); several plates with mis-folds and creases; a few plates spotted or soiled; p. 113/4 with lower blank corner repaired; plate 3 of pt. 1 with short clean tear at foot, plate 1 of pt. 3 facing p. 64 torn at lower corner with slight loss of image (restored), plates 7 and 8 of pt. 5 with cut-outs at foot (slightly affecting image of plate 7); wear and soiling of plate 6 of pt. 6 causing smaller holes near fold (not affecting image); calculations in ink on final page. Provenance: from a private Italian collection with valid export license from Italian government. Good copy on thick, unpressed paper, collated and complete. ----

FIRST EDITION of this luxuriously printed work, which describes and illustrates the astronomical instruments in the private observatory of Marinoni, mathematician and astronomer to the Imperial Court of Austria and geodetic surveyor. Like the private observatories of Tycho Brahe and Hevelius in the two preceding centuries, Marinoni's observatory was one of the most beautiful and best equipped in Europe in his time. He built his own instruments and those illustrated here include quadrants, telescopes, micrometers, an improved Graham pendulum, and a camera obscura. Marinoni left all the instruments to the Empress Maria Theresa, to whom he dedicated this work. Especially remarkable astronomical instruments are a double telescope, the so-called Culminatorium, for the observation of the meridian passages, Marinoni's wall quadrant, the Quadrans ampliatus, the position micrometer with its screws, a camera obscura, and pendulum clocks ("for his observations he used 5 pendulum clocks; two he had obtained from G. Graham and then had 2 similar clocks built in Vienna. The 5th clock had been built by Faucheuer in Paris in 1736 and had been provided with a dial to indicate the mean time and the equation of time", see Zinner).
Giovanni Giacomo Marinoni (Johannes Jacobus Marinonius), born in Udine, Italy in 1676, studied in Vienna and became imperial court mathematician, also "teacher of Empress Maria Theresa in astronomy" (see Wurzbach XVI, 448), director of the Academy of War Science in Vienna in 1726 and died there in 1755. He surveyed the Duchy of Milan and built on his house in Vienna "at his own expense an observatory, which was considered one of the most beautiful existing at his time" (see Wurzbach XVI, 447).
"A magnificent work with very beautiful copper engravings" (Mayer).
"One of the most exquisitely illustrated astronomical works ever printed" (Kenney).
Bibliography: Tomash & Williams M37; Poggendorff II, 53; Kenney, Catalogue of Rare Astronomical Books 115; Riccardi II, 119, "Bellissima ediz."]; Zinner, Astronomische Instrumente p. 436f; Mayer II, 27. - Visit our website to see more images!

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