Marinoni, De astronomica specula domestica, Vienna, 1745, contemporary vellum

MARINONI, GIOVANNI GIACOMO

De astronomica specula domestica et organico apparatu astronomico libri duo. Vienna: Leopoldus Joannes Kaliwoda, 1745

folio (349 x 244mm.), engraved frontispiece, title printed in red and black with engraved vignette of a map of Vienna, engraved illustrations (some full-page) and headpiece, woodcut ornaments, 43 folding engraved plates, last leaf with errata and instructions to binder (in Latin and German), contemporary vellum, red morocco lettering-piece, a few plates creased or damaged with slight loss, frontispiece and binding slightly soiled

FIRST EDITION of this luxuriously printed and illustrated work, which describes and illustrates the astronomical instruments in the private observatory of Marinoni, mathematician and astronomer to the Imperial Court of Austria and geodetic surveyor. Like the private observatories of Tycho Brahe and Hevelius in the two preceding centuries, Marinoni's observatory was one of the most beautiful and best equipped in Europe in his time. He built his own instruments and those illustrated here include quadrants, telescopes, micrometers, an improved Graham pendulum, and a camera obscura. Marinoni left all the instruments to the Empress Maria Theresa, to whom he dedicated this work.

LITERATURE:

Riccardi ii, 119