19th Dec, 2018 10:30 GMT/BST
Books, Maps & Ephemera
30
Huygens, Christian The Celestial Worlds Discover'd: or Conjectures Concerning the Inhabitants,...
The Celestial Worlds Discover'd: or Conjectures Concerning the Inhabitants, Plants and Productions of the Worlds in the Planets. Printed for James Knapton, at the Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard, 1722. 8vo, full leather, speckled edges; five folding plates. Second edition, corrected and enlarged.
The fascination with what lies beyond the boundaries of our world have driven philosophy, religion and science across the centuries. Huygens, a famous instrument maker, astronomer, and writer of popular science, was no exception. Starting from the Copernican system (which removed Earth from its privileged position) he speculated that if our planet was not exceptional in the skies, then it would be unreasonable to think life was exceptional to our planet. Amongst other ideas in his highly popular book, he speculated that the moons of other planets were like ours and stated that the Moon could have no atmosphere of its own.
The work has been placed in the company of Wilkins, Godwin, and Cyrano de Bergerac in its fantastical enquiries, but also within the company of Utopian writing. Despite this the book has a grounding in scientific principles (at least of the time), arguing that water was essential for life, and water on other planets must vary according to their temperatures. Being a part of the religious climate of his time he still positioned arguments in theological terms, pointing out that extraterrestrial life is not denied by the Bible and wondering why God would create all other planets just to lbe admired from Earth. The work is a fascinating piece of speculative natural philosophy which combines near-whimsical thinking with a strict underlying desire for scientific rationalism, yet from an era when theological concerns were seen as near-inextricable from scientific ones.
Sold for £300
Estimated at £300 - £500
Leather of binding in poor condition but binding still tight, slight occasional spotting to lower margins, edges of plates dirty but otherwise clean internally. A very good copy.
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