De Astronomica Specula Domestica Et Organico Apparatu Astronomico Libri Duo by Giovanni Jacopo de Marinoni

Finely engraved frontis. of the interior of the Imperial Library in Vienna, 43 folding engraved plates, 17 engravings in the text (including 8 full-page), engraved plan of Vienna on title, engraved headpiece, & one initial. Title printed in red & black. 12 p.l. (incl. the frontis.), 210 pp., one leaf of errata. Folio, cont. mottled sheep (dampstain, for the most part quite faint, in lower portion of final 40 leaves), spine richly gilt, contrasting leather lettering piece on spine. Vienna: L.J. Kaliwoda, 1745. First edition, first issue, of this luxuriously printed and illustrated volume; this is a particularly fine and handsome copy. This work describes and illustrates the astronomical instruments in the private observatory of G.J. Marinoni (1676-1755), mathematician and astronomer to the Imperial Court of Austria and geodetic surveyor. Like the private observatories of Tycho Brahe in the 16th century and Hevelius in the 17th century, Marinoni's observatory was one of the most… Read More