INAUGURATING THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF THE MILKY WAY

HERSCHEL, WILLIAM (+) (IMMANUEL KANT)

Über den Bau des Himmels. Drey Abhandlungen aus dem Englischen übersetzt. nebst einem authentischen auszug aus Kants allgemeiner Naturgeschichte und Theorie des Himmels. Mit Kupfern. (Übersetzt von G.M. Sommer).

Königsberg, Friedrich Nicolovius, 1791.

8vo. In a modest contemporary half calf binding with five raised bands. Wear to boards, parts of the marbled paper worn of. Internally with very light occassional brownspotting, printed on good paper. XII,204 pp. 3 folded engraved plates.

First German edition of three of Herschels most important contributions to cosmology. "In three important papers he developed a cosmogony in which the universe began with stars scattered throughout infinite space. In the 1784 and 1785 papers Herschel also inaugurated the scientific study of the Milky Way" (DSB VI, 332).

The 3 works were published in "Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society" under the titles 1) "Account of some Observations tending to investigate the Constitution of the Heavens" (1784) - 2) "On the Construction of the Heavens" (1785) and 3) "Catalogue of a second Thousand of new Nebulae and Clusters of the Stars; with a few introductory Remarks on the Construction of the heavens" (1789).- The supplement pp. 163-200, giving the abridged version of Kant's "Naturgeschichte und Theorie des Himmels" (1755), is Kant's own abridgement (authentische Auszug), and is hereby issued before the second edition from 1797. (See Warda No. 5).

Order-nr.: 60148