Manilius, The Sphere, London, 1675, contemporary calf

MANILIUS, MARCUS

The sphere... made an English poem: with annotations and an astronomical appendix. By Edward Sherburne. London: Nathanael Brooke, 1675

folio (413 x 258mm.), engraved frontispiece by Wenceslas Hollar, title printed in red and black, engraved headpieces and initials, engraved illustrations, 9 (of 11) engraved plates (4 folding), contemporary calf, lacking 2 plates of the hemispheres, somewhat worn, boards and flyleaves detached

Sir Edward Sherburne's verse translation of the first book of Manilius was many years in the making; he began work while in exile on the Continent during the English Civil War and was probably influenced by scientists he met on his travels. The second part of this volume (and perhaps the more interesting part) contains a chronological list of writers on astronomy, from ancient times to modern, and encompassing ancient Chinese and Arabic astronomers as well as contemporaries such as Newton and John Collins. The plates are taken from Hevelius's Selenographia and his works on comets, and one comes from Kircher's Mundus subterraneus.

LITERATURE:

Wing M432; Pennington 2678

PROVENANCE:

Sir Richard Paul Jodrell Bart. (classical scholar, 1781-1861), armorial bookplate