Beiträge zu den neuesten astronomischen Entdeckungen. Edited by Johann Elert Bode by SCHROETER, Johann Hieronymus

Eight folding engraved plates. xiv, 288, [1] pp. 8vo, cont. calf-backed yellow boards (head of spine very slightly chipped), spine gilt, red morocco lettering piece on spine. Berlin: A.G. Lange, 1788. First edition of the first book of the great astronomer Schröter (1745-1816); it is in this work that he first outlined his plans for preparing a topography of the moon. Schröter established in Lilienthal one of the finest observatories in Europe, equipping it with the best instruments, all of which were paid for by George III. "For thirty years the observatory at Lilienthal was a center of astronomical research and was visited by foreign astronomers...Schröter was the first to observe the surface of the moon and the planets systematically over a long period. He made hundreds of drawings of lunar mountains and other features, and discovered and named the lunar rills."-D.S.B., XII, p. 226. This work consists of several treatises, the most important of which are Schröter's observations and conclusions on the rotation and atmosphere of Jupiter (pp. 1-137), his description of Herschel's 7-foot telescope (pp. 154-209), and his plan for a topography of the moon (pp. 221-47). A very fine and pretty copy from the library of the Dukes of Bavaria. ❧ King, History of the Telescope, p. 135. Lalande, p. 606. Poggendorff, II, 846-47.