BLAEU, Guillaume [Willem Jansz.].

Institution astronomique de l'usage des globes et spheres célestes et terrestres, comprise en deux parties, L'une, suivant l'hypoth'ese de Ptolémée, qui veut que la terre soit immobile; L'autre, selon l'intention de N. Copernicus, qui tient que la terre est mobile.

      Jean & Corneille Blaeu, Amsterdam 1642 - 4to (20.5 x 16.4 cm), title with woodcut device, [16], 277 pp. with woodcut head and tail pieces and numerous woodcut diagrams in text; light marginal waterstains at beginning. Contemporary dark speckled calf, spine with raised bands gilt in compartments, direct lettering to one compartment, edges sprinkled red; anciently rebacked preserving spine, lettering possibly later, slightly rubbed at extremities. Provenance: Pondeville? (early French owner's name deleted in ink on title); de la Place (signature on title); Faure 1795 (inscription on title); Frank Streeter (booklabel to upper pastedown). Fine copy of this celebrated treatise on the use of navigational instruments, especially globes, by "the greatest globe manufacturer in the world" (Globi Neerl. 176). Published during the golden age of globe production in the Low Countries, Blaeu's treatise concluded a series of manuals previously printed: "There were no other competing editions after this. Blaeu's manual also formed the basis for Moxon's 'A Tutor to Astronomy and Geography' in 1654" (Globi Neerl. 221). First published in Latin and Dutch in 1634, it became rapidly popular and was the first such treatise to be published in French outside Paris. Its content is inspired by other manuals with very similar titles, including A. Mertius' 'Institutiones' published by Blaeu himself some 20 years earlier. However Willem Jansz. introduces here a division in two sections, distinguishing the traditional Ptolomaic theory from the modern Copernican planetary system - for which he produced specific new globes. Doing this, he was making the manual irrelevant for mariners and hence emphasised in a new way the astronomical importance of globes. Houzeau & Lancaster 9714; Globi Neerlandici pp. 218-228, 628. [Attributes: Hard Cover]