Menologiae Iovis compendium seu ephemerides Medicaeorum... [half-title: Medicaeorum ephemerides...in tres partes distinctis.
4to [21.9 x 16.0 cm], 4 parts in one vol., xviii of xx pp. (see below), 3-71, (1) p. blank; 79 pp. (1) p. list of works by Odierna, with woodcut of Medici sun on half-title, woodcut arms of the dedicatee Ferdinando II de’ Medici on on first title-page, woodcut devices of printer on the other three title-pages, woodcut tailpieces, and 15 woodcut illustrations in text (two full-page, some on black ground), and several tables. Small marginal stain on D1 and D2., and on index; several leaves washed, but crisp. Bound in contemporary limp vellum; binding worn, with some repairs to spine. Early inscription on half-title ‘ex libris Dr D Felicii Focolaro,’ early stamp ‘Conventus Naro’. From the Library of Gian Carlo Beltrame. Generally, a good copy. Very rare first edition of Giovanni Battista Odierna’s Medicaeorum Ephemerides, “probably his best-known work, the first published ephemerides of the Galilean satellites, based on an improved theory of the motion of Jupiter’s moons by the contribution of three types of periodic disturbances - analogous to contemporary planetary theory” (Frommert, Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers). This work also contains extensive observations of eclipses of the satellites, and important sections on Galileo and his Sidereus nuncius, the calculation of the distance of Jupiter from the earth, parallax, and the orbits of comets. Odierna (1597–1660) made numerous observations to determine the exact orbital periods of the four observed satellites of Jupiter. “Like Galileo he tried to predict their eclipses, which would have helped to solve the long-standing, important problem of determining longitudes at sea; lacking sufficient knowledge of celestial mechanics, neither he nor Galileo was successful” (DSB). Odierna was a Sicilian priest and disciple of Galileo, who presented him with a telescope of medium focal length. Inspired by Galileo’s Sidereus nuncius, he began a systematic investigation of the planets of Jupiter, the rings of Saturn, the fixed stars, and nebular objects, the first of its kind. He also performed pioneering microscopic dissections, including the first of the compound eye of a fly, which is illustrated in his Opuscoli (1644). Although Odierna corresponded with Riccioli, Huygens, Schott, and other leading scientists of his day, his work was long neglected, and his provincial position compounded his obscurity until modern times. The present copy does not have the repeat of the woodcut present on pp. [48–9, blank on verso] in the second section. It was duplicated in the introduction, where it doesn’t belong, and that leaf was cancelled and removed from this copy. Other copies exhibit similar variations in collation.
* Carli and Favaro 258; Macclesfield 1551; Riccardi I.2 214.8; Serio et al., “G.B. Hodierna’s observations of nebulae and his cosmology,” Journal for the History of Astronomy, vol. XVI (1985) pp. 1-36.
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