Schröter, Johann Hieronymus

Selenotopographische Fragmente zu genauern Kenntniss der Mondfläche. Göttingen: Johann Georg Rosenbusch, 1791



4to (10 x 8¼ 1/4 in.; 255 x 210 mm). Engraved vignette on title-page, 6-page subscriber's list, 43 engraved plates mounted on guards (3 folding); light text browning, occasional scattered foxing, a few spots, scattered foxing on about 3 plates. Modern boards, cloth spine, leather lettering piece, plain endpapers, edges sprinkled red; small split to the waist of the lower joint, spine foxed.  

J[ohan]n Gestler (contemporary signature on title-page)

First edition, an important early and detailed study on the topography of the moon. Schröter prepared the work at the observatory at Lilienthal that he built and equipped himself. "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 lunar rills." The lunar crater Schröter, as is Vallis Schröteri (Schröter's Valley) on the moon.

The work was published in a small number at Schröter's expense, and the few remaining copies of his this and his other works were destroyed when his observatory was decimated by the French during the Napoleonic wars.