Opera posthuma [Opuscula astronomica]; viz. Astronomia Kepleriana, defensa & promota. Excerpta ex epistolis ad Crabtraeum suum. Observationum coelestium catalogus. Lunae theoria nova. Accedunt Guilielmi Crabtraei, Mancestriensis, Observationes coelestes. In calce adjiciuntur Johannis Flamstedii, Derbiencis, De Temporis Aequatione Diatriba. Numeri ad lunae theoriam horroccianam

HORROCKS, Jeremiah [WALLIS, John; FLAMSTEED, John; CRABTREE, William]

Edité par W. Godbid for J. Martyn, London, 1672

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"THE PRIDE AND BOAST OF BRITISH ASTRONOMY" . First edition, very rare, of the principal published source of the short-lived "pride and boast of British astronomy," as he was later described by Sir John Herschel. The works published here posthumously, edited by John Wallis, constitute almost all of Horrocks' writings that survived the vicissitudes of the Civil War and the Great Fire of London. "There is no doubt about the influence of Horrocks on Newton, who pays tribute to [him] in the Principia" (Plummer). "Jeremiah Horrocks was, perhaps, the first man in England to comprehend fully the actual revolution [in astronomy] going on in continental Europe. He was the first Englishman (along with Crabtree and Gascoigne) to recognise the investigative power of the telescope in original research and drew conclusions that went beyond those of Galileo and Kepler. He was the first of his contemporaries to examine independently the Keplerian astronomy, improve upon it, and produce an analysis of the lunar orbit which would provide a working model for the rest of the solar system. But he was possibly the first man in Europe to recognise the methodological faults of post-Tychonian astronomy, discard tabular computation, and stress fundamental observation with specialised mathematical instruments as the only way to answer the dominating questions of the age . The high point of his short though remarkably fruitful scientific career, to both the first and subsequent generations of his admirers, lay in those thirty minutes before sunset on 1639 November 29 when he observed the transit of Venus" (Chapman). "In his extraordinary and short-lived career Horrocks turned his attention to almost every aspect of astronomy. He was an assiduous and careful observer, always anxious to extend the limits of precision and to seek out and eliminate sources of possible observational error. One of his aims was to carry on the work of Tycho, but by utilizing the new opportunities available in the age of the telescope. He re-determined the astronomical constants for several planets, imaginatively investigated the problem of the scale of the solar system, improved the theory of lunar motion, began a detailed study of the tides, and theorized about the forces responsible for the motions of the planets. As a theorist, Horrocks, although he was not in possession of the principle of inertia, represents a transition between the physical astronomy of Kepler and the fertile period 1660-1680 associated with the names of Borelli, Hooke, Halley, and Newton. His writings remained unpublished in his lifetime and the extent of his influence on his successors has yet to be explored" (DSB). The greater part of the book was printed in 1672 and some (incomplete) copies were issued in that year. The title varies between Opera posthuma and Opuscula astronomica according to the bookseller who sold it, but neither of the original publishers did at all well out of it. ABPC/RBH lists only the Macclesfield copy since Honeyman. Horrocks (1618-41) grew up in Toxteth Park, then a small village about three miles from Liverpool. From 1632 to 1635 he attended Emmanuel College, Cambridge, but he left without taking a degree. He taught himself astronomy and familiarized himself with the chief astronomical works of antiquity and of his own time. Shortly after leaving Cambridge he befriended William Crabtree (1610-44), a clothier or merchant of Broughton, near Manchester. Crabtree had studied astronomy for several years and the two young and enthusiastic friends carried on an extensive correspondence on astronomical matters that continued until Horrocks' death. "In 1635 Horrocks began to compute ephemerides from Philip van Lansberge's Tabulae motuum coelestium perpetuae (1632). Comparing the results of his calculations with his own and Crabtree's observations, he concluded that Lansberge's tables were not only inadequate but also based on a false planetary theory. Upon Crabtree's advice he began t.

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Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: Opera posthuma [Opuscula astronomica]; viz. Astronomia Kepleriana, defensa & promota. Excerpta ex epistolis ad Crabtraeum suum. Observationum coelestium catalogus. Lunae theoria nova. Accedunt Guilielmi Crabtraei, Mancestriensis, Observationes coelestes. In calce adjiciuntur Johannis Flamstedii, Derbiencis, De Temporis Aequatione Diatriba. Numeri ad lunae theoriam horroccianam
• Éditeur: W. Godbid for J. Martyn, London
• Date de parution: 1672
• Édition: First edition.
• Catalogues du vendeur:
  • Astronomy, Relativity Theory