LUBIENIECKI, STANISLAUS. THEATRUM COMETICUM... AMSTERDAM: DANIELE BACCAMUDE, 1666-1668

3 volumes bound in 2, folio (15 1/2 x 9 1/4 in.; 393 x 235 mm). 2 elaborately engraved allegorical titles by Sebastien Stopendaal after M. Scheits, both vividly hand-colored and heightened in gold, 1 half-title and 3 letterpress titles with decorative woodcut devices, 85 plates (vol. I: 57, vol. II: 26, vol. III: 2), all vividly hand-colored, woodcut initials and tailpieces, side-notes; title-page, frontispiece, and *2 of vol. I on tabs, title and frontis backed, repairs to both, minor worming, numerous primarily closed marginal tears, often repaired, minor foxing and toning, some dampstaining, plate 51 (vol. I) with large tear resulting in loss which has been restored. Modern full blue morocco, covers with double gilt rules, spine with raised bands in 7 compartments all with double gilt rules, gilt-lettered red morocco labels to second, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt; some rubbing to edges.  

Brunet III, 1194; Graesse IV, p 270: Honeyman 2052; Knijff & Jan Visser, Bibligraphia Sociana 2067; Poggendorff I, 1508; Thorndike, History of Magic and Experimental Science VIII, 336; Warner 164l; Not in Houzeau and Lancaster

FIRST EDITION, FINISHED IN VIBRANT HANDCOLOR. ONE OF A FEW KNOWN HAND-COLORED COPIES. "CET OUVRAGE EST SI RARE, QUE BENTKOWSKI ... QUI N'A VU QUE LA 1RE PARTIE, DOUTE SI LA CONTINUATION AIT PARU'' (Graesse). Lubieniecki's encyclopedic treatise gathered together the observations of dozens of his contemporaries including Bayer and Hevelius, covering all known comets up to the year 1665. The fine engravings consist of celestial maps showing the paths of comets and the figures of the constellations traversed. "Since each map represents the observations of a different astronomer, taken together they illustrate the variety of cartographic traditions popular during the seventeenth century." (Warner, The Sky Explored, p. 164). The second part (offered here) provides a chronology of 415 comet sightings from the flood (the first report is dated to 2312 BC) to 1665, with commentaries, drawn from a range of historical sources. Rarely encountered in anything near a complete state. Only two complete copies of the first edition are recorded at auction since 1975 by ABPC: the Honeyman and Dunham copies. A third copy, with 3 additional titles and 81 plates, but lacking one of the 2 portraits, was sold in 1989. Of the three copies held by the British Library, two are substantially defective.