PBA Galleries

2 volumes. xii, 630, [1]; viii, 518 pp. With 7 engraved plates; (4to) 24.5x19 cm (9¾x7½"), modern black cloth, spines lettered in gilt. First Edition.

First edition of Alexandre Pingré's important work on comets. The DSB comments that "This monumental work was divided onto four parts, the first of which was a history of astronomy from Babylon and Egyptian times, with particular reference to ideas about comets. The second part was a catalog of all comets observed since antiquity, with the orbital elements of 166 for which paths had been computed, 50 by Pingré himself. The third section discussed cometary returns, theories about the nature of comets, and the physical effects likely to ensue from their close approach to the earth. The fourth part concerned cometary orbits and methods for computing them. The high reputation of the Cométographie was deserved, and as recently as 1950 it was officially recommended as a source book for cometary information." With bookplates of Henry Guerlac to front pastedowns, along with earlier ownership signatures of A Fayd(?).