Huygens, The Celestial Worlds Discover'd, London, 1698, contemporary calf

Christiaan Huygens

The Celestial worlds discover’d. London: Timothy Childe, 1698

8vo (169 x 105mm.), 5 engraved plates (mostly folding), occasional (faded) marginalia, contemporary blind-stamped calf, title-page slightly soiled, plate II slightly soiled, plate IV cut at fold affecting engraving, repair to p. 70, lower hinge broken, spine chipped at head, bumped at corners

The first English edition of Huygens' Kosmotheoros, following the Latin edition published at The Hague in 1698, a Copernican treatise which explores the possibility of liquid water on Jupiter and Mars, as well as meditations on the existence of alien life.

LITERATURE

ESTC R5990