the heavens revealed Classics of Astronomy from Ptolemy to Copernicus to Einstein from the Collection of Professor Jay M. Pasachoff
CHAPIN LIBRARY · WILLIAMS COLLEGE MAY-SEPTEMBER 2003 Jay M. Pasachoff has taught astronomy and astrophysics at Williams College since . His special research interests are the study of the sun at total solar eclipses, cosmic deuterium and its relation to cosmology, and the atmosphere of Pluto, as well as the history and art of his discipline. He has written many books and articles, including A Field Guide to the Stars and Planets for the Peterson Field Guide Series; Astronomy: From the Earth to the Universe; Fire in the Sky: Comets and Meteors, the Decisive Centuries in British Art and Science (with Roberta J.M. Olson); and The Cosmos: Astronomy in the New Millennium (with Alexei Filippenko). The star maps shown in the hall display case were drawn by Wil Tirion for A Field Guide to the Stars and Planets. The painting of the constella- tion Taurus on display in the Library gallery is by local artist Robin Brickman. Professor Pasachoff’s important personal collection of rare books related to astronomy and astrophysics is on deposit in the Chapin Library, where it is used in concert with the Library’s esteemed History of Science collection to further the educational program at Williams.
Woodcut initial P from Ptolemy, Almagest, 1515 (Collection of Jay M. Pasachoff) Bible. Latin. of the universe, and the sun, moon, planets, and Mainz: Johann Gutenberg, [ca. ] stars revolve around it in circular paths on concentric Collection of Jay M. Pasachoff spheres – as shown in the exhibition by a woodcut in Peter Apian’s introduction to cosmography. It is only fitting, in an exhibition which celebrates The so-called Alfonsine Tables, of which a copy of the study of the heavens and earth in rare printings, the first printed edition is in the Pasachoff collection, also to display part of the holy word of the Creator were compiled at Toledo in Spain at the request of from the earliest printed Bible. This leaf from Alfonso X “the Wise” of Leon and Castile. Their start- Gutenberg’s famous -line Bible contains part ing point is May , the eve of the king’s corona- of the text of Chronicles from : to :, which tion. Based on Ptolemy’s nd-century Almagest with describes the building of the Temple of Solomon. certain mathematical refinements, and following the general format of tables by the th-century Cordoban astronomer al-Zarqali, the Alfonsine Tables permitted Jakob Pflaum, ca. – the user to determine the position of the sun, moon, Calendarium planets, and stars at any given time or place, and to Ulm: Johannes Zainer, predict eclipses and conjunctions. Such ephemerides Collection of Jay M. Pasachoff were used primarily by astrologers, but were also an aid to navigation. Regiomontanus, – Calendarium Venice: Bernhard Maler (Pictor), Erhard Ratdolt, Peter Löslein, Gift of Alfred C. Chapin, Class of
Pflaum’s Calendarium is one of the earliest calendars published in book form, providing essential astronom- ical tables valid from to , and lists of predicted solar and lunar eclipses from to . It is displayed next to an illustrious predecessor, the Calendarium by Regiomontanus published at Ulm in .
Peter Apian, – Hartman Schedel, – Cosmographicus Liber Leaf from Liber Chronicarum Landshut: Johann Weyssenburger, Nuremberg: Anton Koberger, Gift of Alfred C. Chapin, Class of Collection of Jay M. Pasachoff
Alfonso X, “el Sabio”, King of Castile The Nuremberg Chronicle is a history of the world and Leon, – from Creation to the year of the book’s publication. Tabulae Astronomicae Alfontii Regis Castellae Produced as a monument to the greatness of Nurem- Venice: Erhard Ratdolt, berg, it is one of the most thoroughly designed and Collection of Jay M. Pasachoff lavishly illustrated books of the th century. Both Latin and German editions were published in . The nd-century Alexandrian astronomer Claudius In addition to its importance in trade and printing, Ptolemy described what came to be known as the Nuremberg was a center of mathematical and astro- Ptolemaic system, in which the earth is at the center nomical studies, and for the production of celestial
and terrestrial globes. It is fitting, therefore, that Claudius Ptolemy, nd Century several astronomical instruments, and a portrait Almagestum Cl. Ptolemei of the astronomer Regiomontanus, appear in Venice: Petrus Liechtenstein, January the Chronicle. The book also notes, with pictures, : thirteen appearances of comets from to . Georg Peurbach, – Tabulae Eclypsium Magistri Georgii Peurbachii Regiomontanus, – Epytoma in Almagestum Ptolemaei Johannes Regiomontanus, – Venice: Johannes Hamman, August Tabula Primi Mobilis Joannes de Monte Regio Gift of Alfred C. Chapin, Class of Edited by Georg Tanstetter Vienna: Johannes Winterburger, Ptolemy’s explanation of how the universe works held Collection of Jay M. Pasachoff sway for some fourteen hundred years. It was based on the common-sense view that the sun, planets, and stars, In Professor Pasachoff’s collection is a copy of the first as well as the moon, revolve around the earth, as they printed edition of the complete Almagest, translated appear to do as one sees them in the sky, and it pro- into Latin by Gerard of Cremona in the th century claimed the perfection of the heavens by describing from a translation into Arabic, made in turn from the motion in circular paths and on concentric spheres. original Greek. In addition to its explanation of celes- To account for the movement of the planets, however, tial movement, it includes a star catalogue based on which sometimes appear to double back in their Hipparchus and descriptions of instruments for use courses, Ptolemy had to suppose (to put it simply) in astronomical observations. The Pasachoff copy is that each followed a smaller circle (epicycle) while also in a contemporary stamped pigskin binding with moving on a larger circle (deferent) and turning with original clasps. the associated sphere. Although a complicated system, Here Ptolemy’s work is bound with the first print- it allowed for astronomical and astrological predic- ing of the Tabulae Eclypsium or tables of solar and tions, as shown by the Alfonsine Tables. lunar eclipses by Peurbach, completed probably in The Islamic world, with its penchant for measure- , based on the Alfonsine Tables but expanded, ment, gladly received and preserved Ptolemy’s mathe- rearranged, and altogether improved; and the Tabula matical analysis of celestial motion, which came to Primi Mobilis (“Table of the First Movable Sphere”) be known as the Almagest or “greatest work”. Its first by Regiomontanus, which describes the apparent appearance in print was as the Epitome begun by the daily rotation of the heavens. Austrian astronomer Georg Peurbach and completed by his pupil Johannes Müller of Regensburg, called Regiomontanus. It is not merely an abridgment of Nicolaus Copernicus, – Ptolemy but includes later observations, revised De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium computations, and critical reflections. (By this time, Nuremberg: Johannes Petreius, in fact, its deficiencies were known to scholars such Two copies shown: Collection of Jay M. Pasachoff; as Peurbach and Regiomontanus, who held to higher Gift of Alfred C. Chapin, Class of standards of accuracy in celestial computation.) Its frontispiece shows Regiomontanus sitting next to Copernicus, a canon of Frombork in Poland, pursued a crowned Ptolemy beneath an armillary sphere. an interest in astronomy which was ultimately to overthrow the dominance of the Ptolemaic system. He was drawn to ideas of the sun and stars as nobler bodies than the earth, and of the earth’s daily rotation
and annual revolution. By May he wrote a small Leonard Digges, ca. –? tract presenting a theory of celestial motion which A Prognostication Everlasting of Ryght Good Effecte included a central sun and a moving earth. He circu- The seconde impression augmented by the author lated a draft of this heliocentric theory among trusted London: Thomas Gemini, friends, but evidently concluded, upon the publication Collection of Jay M. Pasachoff of Ptolemy’s complete Almagest in , that a more extensive mathematical treatment was required to Digges is concerned here with practical astronomical support his own conclusions. and astrological rules connecting the heavens (on the Ptolemaic model), the weather, the tides, and the human body. Thus (for example) “the conjunction, quadrature, or opposition of Iuppiter with the Sunne [signifies] great and moste vehement wyndes”; “cometes signifie corruption of the ayre”; and “these Signes are moste daungerous for bloud letting, the Moone beyng in them: Taurus, Gemini, Leo, Virgo and Capricornus, with the last halfe of Libra, and Scorpius.” Some of his tables, such as that of the altitude of the sun, are said to have been helpful to sailors. In the author’s son, astronomer Thomas Digges, published a new edition of the Prognostication which included a version of the Copernican arrange- ment of planets, for the first time within a universe of stars said to be at varying distances rather than on a fixed concentric sphere.
His De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (“On Christoph Clavius, – the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres”) was pub- In Sphaeram Ioannas de Sacro Bosco Commentarius lished at last in . Some copies were printed; Venice: Bernard Basam, one was presented to Copernicus on his deathbed. Collection of Jay M. Pasachoff The work was widely admired as a sophisticated treatise, even by many readers who rejected a sun- Clavius entered the Jesuit order in , and for most of centered system out of hand; within a hundred years his life was a professor of mathematics at the Collegio its central thesis was generally accepted. Meanwhile, Romano in Rome. His treatise on the Sphaera Mundi it led to the more advanced work of Tycho Brahe, of Joannes de Sacro Bosco (John of Holywood, fl. ), Johannes Kepler, and Galileo Galilei. Its diagram for centuries the most esteemed text on spherical of a heliocentric system is perhaps the most famous astronomy, was originally published in Rome in scientific illustration in history. and later often reprinted. For more than forty years it was used as an introductory textbook in many schools. Clavius was a strong supporter of the Ptolemaic system and an opponent of Copernicus, whom he accuses near the end of this work of a false, indeed an absurd doctrine.
Tycho Brahe, – Johannes Kepler, – Astronomiae Instauratae Mechanica Prodromus Dissertationum Cosmographicarum, Nuremberg: Levinus Hulsius, continens Mysterium Cosmographicum Gift of Alfred C. Chapin, Class of Tübingen: Georg Gruppenbach, Collection of Jay M. Pasachoff Tycho Brahe, – Astronomiae Instauratae Progymnasmata Johannes Kepler spent much of his life attempting to Prague: [Heirs of Tycho Brahe], discover the true mechanism of the universe and its Collection of Jay M. Pasachoff driving force. In , concerned to explain the number of the known planets, their relative positions, and their Astronomiae Instauratae Progymnasmata motions, he conceived the idea that the orbits of the Frankfurt: Godfried Tambach, six known planets (assumed to be circular paths) were Collection of Jay M. Pasachoff related in proportion to the five regular geometric solids. In his first book, briefly called the Mysterium For more than twenty years beginning in , Tycho Cosmographicum (“The Cosmographical Secret”), Brahe made significant observations of the heavens he dramatically presented the planetary orbits as from the Danish island of Hven. His observatory, nested spheres, in which were inscribed an octahedron Uraniborg, was then the finest in Europe. Recognizing (eight faces, between the orbits of Mercury and Venus), that the improvement (or “reform”) of astronomy an icosahedron (twenty faces, between Venus and relied on accurate observations, he designed and built Earth), a dodecahedron (twelve faces, between Earth new instruments, and with his assistants plotted the and Mars), a tetrahedron (pyramid, between Mars course of celestial bodies more fully and more precisely and Jupiter), and a cube (between Jupiter and Saturn). than his predecessors. His instruments and observatory That this scheme worked with fair accuracy was are displayed for posterity in his Astronomiae Instaur- sheer coincidence. Its real importance lies in its atae Mechanica (“Instruments for the Reform of advance of the Copernican system, and by stressing Astronomy”). a central sun as the force by which the planets were The Astronomiae Instauratae Progymnasmata kept in motion. (“Exercises in the Reform of Astronomy”), shown in the first edition of and a second issue of , is Tycho’s principal work. It was published after his death in Prague, where he had been named imperial mathematician by Emperor Rudolf II. It contains his theory of lunar and solar motion, part of his important catalogue of stars, and a more detailed analysis of the nova of in Cassiopeia than he had published in a small book on the subject in . Shown is a diagram of his own view of the universe: although he did not fully accept the Ptolemaic system, Tycho held to his belief in a stationary earth, in part because of the dic- tates of Scripture. Therefore in the so-called Tychonic system the sun revolves around the earth, but the other planets orbit the sun.
Johannes Kepler, – Johannes Kepler, – Ad Vitellionem Paralipomena, quibus Astronomia Nova seu Physica Coelestis, Astronomiae Pars Optica Traditur Tradita Commentariis de Motibus Stellae Martis, Frankfurt: Claudius Marnius and ex Observationibus G.V. Tychonis Brahe the heirs of Jean Aubry, Prague, Gift of Alfred C. Chapin, Class of Collection of Jay M. Pasachoff
On July Kepler observed a partial solar In the early th century Kepler worked diligently to eclipse. After this event he conducted research in find a unified, physically acceptable mathematical optics, and as in everything else made significant model of planetary motion, in particular as it applied advances. Although he intended at first to publish to the notably eccentric orbit of Mars. At length he simply an appendix to Witelo, a th-century scholar realized that Mars’ orbit could not be circular: only who had written about optics, Kepler expanded his an ellipse would satisfy Tycho’s data. From this, program to include discussion of parallax, refraction, extrapolating from Mars to the other planets, he eclipses, and the solar image. formulated what came to be called his First Law: that the planets orbit in ellipses, with the sun at one focus. He also found that a planet moves in such a Johannes Kepler, – way that a line drawn from it to the sun sweeps out De Stella Nova in Pede Serpentarii, et . . . Trigono Igneo equal areas of its orbit in equal times – that is, the Pragae: Paulus Sessius [etc.], closer a planet is to the sun, the faster it moves. Collection of Jay M. Pasachoff This came to be known as Kepler’s Second Law. Kepler explained these revolutionary discoveries In Kepler became an assistant to Tycho Brahe in in a book he called, with some justification, “The Prague, albeit limited by his employer to a study of the New Astronomy, or Celestial Physics, Treated by orbit of Mars. On Tycho’s death in Kepler was Means of Commentaries on the Motion of the made his successor as imperial mathematician and Star Mars.” was able to use Tycho’s wealth of astronomical data to advance his own ideas on planetary motion. In he published a collection of observations and opinions, Johannes Kepler, – De Stella Nova, the principal concern of which is the Harmonices Mundi “new star” or nova that appeared at the same time Linz: Published by Godfried Tambach, and in the same vicinity as a series of planetary con- printed by Johann Planck, junctions in the three “fiery” signs of the zodiac, Collection of Jay M. Pasachoff Sagittarius, Leo, and Aries. He relates the nova to the Star of Bethlehem, which he dates to ... Despite the advances he made in his Astronomia An engraved plate illustrates the nova, marked Nova, Kepler was still short of a greater goal, of “N”, in the heel of the serpent-bearer, Ophiuchus, making manifest the harmony of the universe as it near a conjunction of Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. pertained to the individual. In the first two parts of The figure is evidently based on that in the map of his “Harmony of the World” he examines polygons “Serpentaria” in Bayer’s famed star atlas Uranometria and polyhedrons, in search of a geometrical basis for (, also in this exhibition), but turned to face the the archetypal principles of the universe. In the third viewer. part he discusses musical harmony relative to geo- metrical ratios. In the fourth he expresses his views on astrology: although Kepler largely dismissed the practice as foolish, he believed in the harmonic signi- ficance of the configuration of the heavens.
Finally in the fifth part of his book, looking back Galileo Galilei, – to his Mysterium Cosmographicum of , Kepler Sidereus Nuncius returned to the idea of the spacing of the planets based Venice: Apud Thomam Baglionum, on the regular solids. He now recognized that his earlier Collection of Jay M. Pasachoff data had been only approximate, and in searching for a better explanation found a supposed harmonic In the summer of the Italian Galileo Galilei relationship, which at length he developed into what learned of an optical device for making distant objects is now called his Third Law: that the squares of the seem close, and soon constructed a “perspicillum” periods of the planets are to each other as the cubes (telescope) of his own. He documented his first obser- of their mean distances from the sun. vations in the Sidereus Nuncius or “Starry Messenger [or Message],” one of the most important works in the history of astronomy. There he discusses the moon Johannes Kepler, – with mountains, seas, and shadows (not, as others had Tabulae Rudolphinae supposed, as a crystalline sphere); a multitude of stars [Ulm]: Johann Saur, not visible with the naked eye; and most importantly, Collection of Jay M. Pasachoff four satellites of Jupiter, depicted simply with asterisks for the moons and a large letter O for the planet. Kepler’s “Rudolphine Tables” (named after the late emperor Rudolf II) set a new standard for precision in astronomical tables, far in advance of their prede- cessors. With these one can calculate, if by a compli- cated process, the position of a planet for any date or time in the past or future. As their superiority was proved in use, the tables also demonstrated the truth of the Copernican system on which they were based. They remained the standard astronomical tables for the next hundred years. Galileo’s discovery of these four “new planets” The work is preceded by an allegorical frontispiece, partially justified Copernicanism by demonstrating designed by Kepler, sketched by his Tübingen friend that it was not only the earth around which heavenly Wilhelm Schickard, and engraved by Georg Celer of bodies revolved. Nuremberg. It depicts the Temple of Urania, muse of In the Pasachoff copy, the Sidereus Nuncius is astronomy, modeled after the foyer of Tycho’s obser- bound with three other astronomical works: Dianoia vatory on Hven. The columns represent advances in Astronomica, Optica, Physica, qua Syderei Nuncij Rumor science, ending with an elegant Corinthian column de Quatuor Planetis à Galilaeo Galilaeo by Franciscus associated with Tycho. The Tychonic system is shown Sitius (Venice, ); De Radiis Visus et Lucis in Vitris on the ceiling of the temple; below, Tycho points it Perspectivis et Iride by Marco Antonio de Dominis out to Copernicus. They are accompanied by the (Venice, ), and Breve Instruttione sopra l’apparenze figures of Hipparchus and Ptolemy. On the temple et mirabili effetti dello specchio concavo sferico by dome are six goddesses of science, and hovering above Giovanni Antonio Magini (Bologna, ). them is the imperial eagle, dropping largesse for the support of astronomy. Kepler himself is pictured, humbly working by candlelight, in one of the bottom panels, where (pointedly) only a few of the imperial coins come to rest.
Galileo Galilei, – Although the Dialogo does, indeed, consider both Istoria e dimostrazioni intorno alle macchie solari e loro systems of celestial motion, it was hardly impartial: accidenti: comprese in tre lettere scritte all’illustrissimo naive Simplicio is made to put up ineffectual argu- Signor Marco Velseri . . . ments for Salviati to counter, while Sagredo is generally Rome: Giacomo Mascardi, persuaded by Salviati. It is a masterly argument, which Collection of Jay M. Pasachoff served more than any other work to make the Coper- nican system a commonplace. But it led to Galileo In , three years after he built his “perspicillum,” being condemned by the Inquisition to permanent Galileo observed sunspots by projecting the sun’s image house arrest and forced to abjure all that the Dialogo onto a piece of paper, adjusted so that the professed. Copies, however, went into circulation before diameter of the sun was equal to that of an inscribed the censure. circle. For each observation he used a fresh sheet of Preceding the title-page of the first edition is a paper, and within the circle marked the projected famous added engraved title-leaf by Stefano della sunspots in ink. Thus he recorded a series of images, Bella, depicting Aristotle, Ptolemy, and Copernicus thirty-eight of which were made into etchings and in discussion. reproduced in his “History and Demonstrations Concerning Sunspots and Their Properties.” Major spots are labeled with letters for easier tracking from observation to observation. The successive images clearly show the movement of particular spots across the sun’s surface, caused by the sun’s rotation on its axis. In his text Galileo states for the first time that he believed his telescopic discoveries to be in harmony with the “great Copernican system”.
Galileo Galilei, – Dialogo di Galileo Galilei . . . sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo Tolemaico, e Copernicano Simon Marius, – Florence: Giovanni Battista Landini, Mundus Iovialis Anno M DC IX Detectus Ope Perspicill Collection of Jay M. Pasachoff Belgici: Hoc est, Quatuor Jovialium Planetarum, cum Theoria, tum Tabulae, Propriis Observationibus The Congregation of the Index having issued in Maxime Fundatae a general decree against defending the Copernican Nuremburg: Johann Laur, system in print, for a while Galileo avoided the issue. Collection of Jay M. Pasachoff Then in he received from the Pope Urban VIII permission to discuss Copernicanism in a book Like Galileo Galilei, the German mathematician provided that the Ptolemaic-Aristotelian view also Simon Marius learned of the telescope, constructed received equal and impartial consideration. The one, and used it to make astronomical observations. result was Galileo’s “Dialogue on the Two Great That he too observed the moons of Jupiter by the end World Systems,” set in the form of an open discussion of December is without doubt; but in his Mundus between three friends: Simplicio, who takes the ortho- Iovialis, the full title of which translates as “The Jovian dox view; Sagredo, an intelligent layman; and Salviati, World, Discovered in by Means of the Dutch who speaks for Galileo. Telescope,” he claimed to have done so even earlier,
in advance of Galileo (as documented in his Sidereus His first important publication was the Seleno- Nuncius of ). Galileo took offense and issued a graphia, a book of notable substance and beauty. blistering reply, accusing Marius of theft and usur- After describing the manufacture of lenses and tele- pation. scopes, Hevelius delineates the markings on the moon Regardless of which observer has priority, Marius and discusses its libration. Many of the names he gave was the first to publish tables of the motions of the to lunar mountains, craters, and other formations Jovian satellites, and – as announced in Mundus Iovialis are still used. He provides spectacular lunar maps, – the first as well to observe the Andromeda nebula. and engravings of the moon throughout its phases. His detailed observations of the sun, more accurate than those of his predecessors, and on the moons Johannes Hevelius, – of Jupiter, are recounted in an appendix. Selenographia Gdansk: Published by the author, printed by Andreas Hünefeld, Isaac Newton, – Collection of Jay M. Pasachoff Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica London: Joseph Streater, for Sam. Smith, Johannes Hevelius of Gdansk studied law but in Collection of Jay M. Pasachoff devoted himself to astronomy. Wealth from his family’s brewing business, as well as a royal pension, Although it could be deduced from Kepler that the allowed him to construct a series of private observa- force attracting a planet to the sun is inversely pro- tories at his home. He also built his own precision portional to the square of the distance between the measuring instruments and telescopes, with which two bodies, mathematical proof of this was elusive. he made numerous observations. In order to publish Encouraged by his friend Edmond Halley, the brilliant his findings he established his own press and became mathematician Isaac Newton addressed the problem a skilled engraver. and produced the first successful scientific model of the mechanisms of the universe. In his “Mathematical Principles of Natural Philo- sophy” (i.e., Physics) Newton modifies and expands not only Kepler’s laws, but findings by Galileo on the nature of falling bodies and the motion of projectiles. The result is a “divine treatise” (in Halley’s words) in which Newton puts forth his own three laws of motion, as well as a law of universal gravitation which showed that all bodies exert a force of mutual attraction, greater or lesser according to their mass and the distance between them. The Principia Mathematica powerfully explained all of the motions of the heavenly bodies as they were then known. It was the culmination of the scientific revolution that began with Copernicus, and ushered in the Age of Reason.
Isaac Newton, – Joseph von Fraunhofer, – A Treatise of the System of the World Bestimmung des Brechungs- und Farbenzerstreuungs- London: Printed for F. Fayram, Vermögens verschiedener Glasarten Collection of Jay M. Pasachoff Munich: Gedruckt mit Lentner’schen Schriften, [] Collection of Jay M. Pasachoff Newton’s Principia Mathematica was preceded in its development by a shorter work in two parts, De Motu In the course of determining the optical constants of Corporum (). The second of these, written in a glass, Fraunhofer compared the effect on the refracting more “popular” style than the Principia, was later pub- medium of light from flames and light from the sun, lished in Latin as De Mundi Systemate, and in English and found the solar spectrum crossed with hundreds (translated probably by Andrew Motte) as The System of fine dark lines. Moreover, he noted that while the of the World. Here, with greater exposition and less spectra observed for the sun and planets were identical, mathematics, Newton writes of fluid space through those for other bright stars were different, and differed which planets and comets are propelled and the from one another. Later the dark “Fraunhofer lines,” forces that govern their motion. which mark the presence of different elements in the source, provided a means of demonstrating that stars are made of matter like terrestrial substances, rather Edmond Halley, ?– than some exotic material. In Sir William Huggins Tabulae Astronomicae: Accedunt de determined that older stars have more complex spectra, Usu Tabularum Praecepta i.e., a greater number of Fraunhofer lines. London: William Innys, Fraunhofer’s “Definition of the Capacity of Refrac- Collection of Jay M. Pasachoff tion and Colour-diffusion of Various Kinds of Glass” is considered one of the fundamental papers of The most famous achievement of the English poly- astrophysics. math Edmond Halley was his scheme for computing the position of comets and establishing their periodi- city. When the comet of reappeared as Halley Albert Einstein, – et al. predicted in , fifteen years after his death, it was Annalen der Physik given his name. He also made notable advances in th series, Band determining the distance of the sun from the earth, Leipzig: Verlag von Johann Ambrosius Barth, in positional and navigational astronomy, and in Collection of Jay M. Pasachoff planetary and stellar observations. As an established figure of some means he lent support to others, such This volume includes three of five papers published as Isaac Newton. by Einstein in the year that has been called his annus Part of his Tabulae Astronomicae, published mirabilis: “Über einen die Erzeugung und Verwand- posthumously, concerns the “long inequality” of lung des Lichtes betreffenden heuristischen Gesichts- the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn, which had made punkt” (“On a Heuristic View Concerning the Produc- previous planetary tables inaccurate. Halley suggests tion and Transformation of Light”); “Über die von der that the phenomenon might be due to a gravitational molekularkinetischen Theorie der Wärme geforderte attraction between the two planets. Bewegung von in ruhenden Flüssigkeiten suspendier- ten Teilchen” (“On the Motion of Small Particles Suspended in a Stationary Liquid According to the Molecular Kinetic Theory of Heat”); and “Zur Elektro- dynamik bewegter Körper” (“On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies”).
Of these the most significant is the last, which Richard P. Feynman outlines the Special Theory of Relativity – “special” QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter because it applies only to bodies moving in the absence Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, of a gravitational field, “relativity” because it held that Collection of Jay M. Pasachoff all motion is relative. Einstein postulated that if the speed of light were the same for all observers, and that In this book California Institute of Technology all observers moving at constant speed observed the professor Richard P. Feynman explains the theory same physical laws, then time intervals change accord- of quantum electrodynamics – the interaction of light ing to the speed of the system relative to the observer’s and electrons – for a general if well-educated audience. frame of reference. The effect becomes noticeable, The Pasachoff copy contains the author’s signature and however, only at very high velocities, approaching an original “Feynman diagram” – a graphic method of light speed. representing the interactions of elementary particles.
Albert Einstein, – Die Grundlage der allgemeinen Relativitätstheorie Leipzig: Verlag von Johann Ambrosius Barth, Collection of Jay M. Pasachoff
In his theory of Special Relativity () Einstein was concerned with bodies in uniform motion and in the absence of gravity. Later he extended this to apply more generally, hence the theory of General Relativity. In Newtonian physics, the space in which physical phenomena occur is a three-dimensional continuum; but under General Relativity, space and time are con- sidered as a single entity, space-time, within which any mass exerts a gravitational field which warps space-time around it and affects even electromagnetic radiation passing through the field. The sun’s gravity, STAR ATLASES for instance, attracts, bending slightly, a ray of light from a distant star; and light radiated from the sun The Pasachoff collection of rare astronomy books interacts with the sun’s mass, resulting in a shift in includes most of the great and important star atlases. the spectrum of the light toward the infrared. These are among the most beautiful scientific books The consequences of this theory have been ever published – art in the service of science, but works enormous, not least in its revision of the concept of science first. De le stelle fisse by Piccolomini () of gravity that had long been held since Newton could be called the first star atlas, while Bayer’s Urano- wrote his Principia Mathematica (). metria () set the standard of comparison for all that came later. The period of the great star atlases culminated with that of Bode in , the most monu- mental of all in size and number of stars. After Bode it was no longer feasible to depict all of the known heavens, overlaid with the figures of constellations.
Alessandro Piccolomini, – De le sfera del mondo . . . [with] De le stelle fisse Venice: Al Segno del Pozzo, Collection of Jay M. Pasachoff
Piccolomini, Archbishop of Patrasso and from assistant to the Archbishop of Siena, translated Classical authors and himself wrote poetry and plays. His most popular work, however, was De la sfera del mondo (“On the Globe of the World”). This begins with a discussion of cosmography as it was known at the time, then in De le stelle fisse (“On the Fixed Stars”) Piccolomini documents with tables and charts all but one of the constellations known to Ptolemy, as well as that of the Southern Cross. In his charts the stars are placed with care, without overlaid pictorial figures. Four levels of magnitude are represented, and a system of letters (later modified by Bayer) is used to mark the most notable stars in each constellation.
Johannes Bayer, – Uranometria Augsburg: Christophorus Mangus, Collection of Jay M. Pasachoff Johannes Hevelius, – Firmamentum Sobiescianum sive Bayer’s Uranometria is the most illustrious and Uranographia Joh. Hevelii historically important of all star atlases. It includes Gdansk: Johann Zacharias Stolle, [i.e., ] fifty-one bifolium charts, engraved by Alexander Mair Collection of Jay M. Pasachoff (ca. –), each with perimeter grids so that star Detail illustrated above positions can be read to fractions of a degree. In the first edition only, as here, text is printed on the backs Hevelius also compiled a new star catalogue from of the plates. his own observations. From this, together with Bayer, a lawyer who was also an amateur astro- Edmond Halley’s catalogue of the southern nomer, addressed the problem of a standard nomen- stars, he produced an atlas to rival Bayer’s in accuracy clature in referring to individual stars, modifying the and innovation. Each chart is presented unusually as system of notation employed by Piccolomini in . it would be on a globe, from a point of view outside Bayer assigns to each star (visible to the naked eye) of the constellations rather than as seen from the in a given constellation a Greek letter, or for those earth; thus the direction of the constellations is constellations with more than twenty-four stars, a reversed from more familiar pictures. roman letter, generally in order of magnitude. The Of eleven new constellations introduced in the main authorities for the positions of the stars shown Uranographia, four were subsumed into other in Bayer’s plates were the then-recent northern figures, but seven are still recognized today. observations of Tycho Brahe and the southern obser- vations of the Dutch navigator Pieter Dirckszoon Keyzer.
Johann Gabriel Doppelmayr, – conical projection in which all parallels of declination Atlas Coelestis are equidistant straight lines. Nuremberg: Heirs of Johann Homann, In the French globe maker Fortin produced Collection of Jay M. Pasachoff the first revision of Flamsteed’s atlas, increasing the original twenty-six plates to twenty-seven by dividing Doppelmayr was a scholar of high repute, professor that for Hydra in two. The aesthetic appeal of Flam- of mathematics at Nuremberg for nearly fifty years. steed’s original figures was also much improved in He wrote widely on astronomy, geography, and the process. Further additions and alterations to allied subjects, and often worked with the influential Flamsteed’s atlas led ultimately to Bode’s Urano- cartographic publisher Johann Baptista Homann or graphia of . his heirs. The “Celestial Atlas” is his major work, intended as an introduction to the fundamentals of astronomy. It contains a wealth of star maps, charts, John Bevis, – and other guides to the heavens and their study, Uranographia Britannica (or Atlas Celeste) presented with style and packed with detail. Most [London]: Printed –, published of its plates had appeared in atlases published by Collection of Jay M. Pasachoff Homann as early ; the plate shown, concerned with eclipses and transits of the sun, dates between John Bevis was a physician and amateur astronomer, and . The central picture shows the path the original discoverer of the Crab Nebula (M) in of the solar eclipse of May across Europe and one of only two persons in Britain known and northern Asia. to have observed Halley’s comet on its first predicted Although the present copy is lacking its added return in . Around Bevis entered into an engraved title-leaf, Professor Pasachoff was able to undertaking with a London instrument maker, John purchase a separate example on larger paper. Drawn Neale, to prepare a new star atlas which in accuracy by Johann Justin Preisler and engraved by Johann and beauty would surpass those of Bayer and Flam- Christoph von Reinsperger, it depicts four of Doppel- steed, on which it would be based along with the star mayr’s illustrious predecessors – Ptolemy, Copernicus, catalogues of Halley and Hevelius. Plates were made Kepler, and Brahe – beneath a diagram of the solar stylistically following Bayer, but showing peripheral system and the outer heavens. A comet is seen to as well as primary constellations. These depict six describe a parabolic path around the sun. hundred more stars than Flamsteed’s atlas of , altogether more than ,, according to their zodiacal positions. John Flamsteed, – Atlas céleste Seconde édition, par M.J. Fortin Paris: Chez F.G. Deschamps; chez l’Auteur, Collection of Jay M. Pasachoff
As Astronomer Royal at Greenwich, Flamsteed compiled the first telescopic catalogue of the positions and magnitudes of the northern stars, and prepared an accompanying set of maps. These were first pub- lished in by Flamsteed’s friends after his death. They are drawn on what has come to be known as the Sanson-Flamsteed sinusoidal projection, a modified
The image shown in the exhibition, featuring the Bode’s Uranographia was also the last great star constellation Taurus (see detail on p. ), also shows atlas, after which it was not feasible to include in a not only the Crab Nebula but also the planet Uranus, single large work all of the features known to be in observed as a “star” by Flamsteed in . Each plate the heavens. Popular charts concentrated only on includes the name of one of the book’s proposed stars visible to the naked eye, while those prepared sponsors. for astronomers reduced or eliminated the traditional At least a few impressions were made of the charts constellation figures. by autumn ; but then Neale went bankrupt, and the copperplates were seized by the court. In , however, bound sets of Bevis’s star charts were offered Thomas Jefferys, d. for sale under the title Atlas Celeste. Twenty-three The Geography of the Great Solar Eclipse of July copies are known to survive, in varying degrees of MDCCXLVIII []: Exhibiting an Accurate Map completeness. The Pasachoff copy contains the rare of All Parts of the Earth in Which It Will Be Visible, index of plates, but not the broadsheet title-leaf. with the North Pole, According to the Latest Discoveries by G. Smith Esqr. London: E. Cave, Joannis Elerti Bode, – Collection of Jay M. Pasachoff Uranographia Berlin: Apud Autorem, This plate, engraved by Thomas Jefferys, was issued Collection of Jay M. Pasachoff originally in A Dissertation on the General Properties of Eclipses by George Smith (London, ). Bode was the director of the observatory of the Berlin Academy of Science for forty years. This, his final celestial atlas and the largest ever published, includes * two hemisphere maps and eighteen maps of ninety- nine constellations, centered on the vernal and autum- Handlist text and design by Wayne G. Hammond, nal equinoxes. It surpassed all of its predecessors by Assistant Librarian, Chapin Library. The cover art is recording , stars (compared with , in Bayer taken from one of twenty-five late th- to early th- some two hundred years earlier), and by containing century astronomical plates, partly from an unknown for the first time the nebulae, star clusters, and double edition of James Ferguson’s Astronomy Explained stars catalogued by William Herschel. Nearly every upon Sir Isaac Newton’s Principles, first published constellation ever invented is present, as well as five in (Collection of Jay M. Pasachoff). new ones, some fancifully depicted but now lost to history.
Detail from portrait in Simon Marius, Mundus Iovialis, 1614, the first illustration of a telescope or perspicillum (Collection of Jay M. Pasachoff)