W. P. Watson Antiquarian Books

KEPLER, Johannes and Matthias BERNEGGER Epistolae J. Keppleri & M. Berneggeri mutuae. Strasbourg, Josia Staedel, 1672
[bound with]: SCHICKARD, Wilhelm and Matthias BERNEGGER. Epistolae W. Schickarti & M. Berneggeri mutuae. Strasbourg, Josia Staedel, 1673

Two works in one vol, 12mo (125 x 73 mm), pp 166 [2, blank]; 225, [8], each work with woodcut printer's device on title, the first work with a large folding table, printed on both sides (erroneously bound with the second work), the second work with several woodcut astronomical diagrams in text; fine copies in contemporary vellum over boards, upper outer corner of front cover defective, the first title inscribed in ink 'Abel Durckheimy 1739', front pastedown inscribed 'Franc: Reiseisen' in a seventeenth-century hand. £14,500

Exceptionally rare first editions of two primary documents of Kepler's life and discoveries. As the titles, imprints, and contents make clear, these were intended as companion volumes, the second supplementing the first.
I. First edition of Kepler's scientific correspondence with Matthias Bernegger (1582-1640), covering the years 1613 to 1630, with the last letter being in fact the last known writing of Kepler. This is the most important archive of Kepler's correspondence with an individual, and is the source for much information on his scientific and publishing activities (the original letters no longer survive, but are known only in the above, published by Bernegger's son). Kepler's letters discuss his scientific progress, with frequent references to his researches with Tycho Brahe. They also document the preparation and publication of several of his books (and his difficulties with their various printers), including the Epitome astronomiae Copernicanae (1618-21), the Ephemerides novae (1617-1630), his two books on comets De cometis (1619) and Hyperaspistes (1624), the Harmonices mundi (1619), and most importantly, the arduous preparation and publication of the Tabulae Rudolphinae (1627-1630). Regarding the latter, Kepler discusses the famous world map which was designed for the book but actually not published until 1658. There are frequent references to Kepler and Bernegger's mutual friend Wilhelm Schickard (see second work below), who collaborated with Kepler and who, in order to aid Kepler in his prodigious feats of calculation, devised the earliest calculating machine, with the express purpose of producing astronomical tables (an anticipation of Babbage's goal by 300 years!). Kepler also refers to the marvellous invention of logarithms by Napier and his use of them in compiling his tables.
'A fortunate meeting on July 17, 1612, laid the foundation for a bond of friendship which was to last until Kepler's death and which brought him help and consolation in many situations. That day, travelling past, Matthias Bernegger, the noble, famed Strasburg humanist, who later played a big role in the intellectual life of that city, had sought him out. Bernegger was about to undertake the professorship in history there. He was a native of Hallstatt in Upper Austria and ten years younger than Kepler. In the domain of astronomy he had the credit of having translated Galileo's Italian Dialogue about the systems of the world into Latin, thereby assuring him of a wider circulation. A continuous exchange of letters lasting nearly two decades began between these two men of similar aspirations... Bernegger was the best and most faithful friend that he ever found. Their exchange of letters therefore forms an especially important source of information about Kepler's life from then on. To be sure, originals of the letters are no longer extant. In 1672 Bernegger's son published the correspondence.' (Caspar, Kepler pp 226-7). Besides the Dialogo, Bernegger also translated Galileo's Compasso and Letter to Christina into Latin. 'Shortly after the conclusion of the trial [of Galileo], a copy of the prohibited Dialogue was smuggled out to Kepler's old friend, the faithful Benegger in Strasburg, who arranged for a Latin translation; it was published in 1635 and circulated widely in Europe. A year latter, Bernegger also arranged for Italian and Latin version of the Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina to be published in Strasburg' (Koestler, The Sleepwalkers p 494).
The table, missing in most recorded copies, is an extremely detailed record of the lunar eclipse observed in Linz by Kepler and his assistant Janus Gringalletus ('the most efficient of all helpers') in 1619. At the end they note difficulties with the telescope: "It was difficult to find the stars using the telescope, the line from the star onto the moon would gleam/shift toward the right and would seem, by a rough estimation, to extend toward the pole of the eclipse."
II. First edition. These letters, mostly from Schickard to Bernegger, are largely devoted to Schickard's collaboration with Kepler. The correspondence commences in 1620, with an account of an eclipse of the moon observed by Kepler and Schickard. Schickhard discusses the progress of Kepler's discoveries, and, after 1630, the posthumous influence of Kepler. There are references to Galileo and generally the Copernican cause. Finally, there is considerable discussion of astronomical observations and the preparation of astronomical data and calculations, the issues that led Schickard to devise one of the earliest functional calculators.
'In 1617 he befriended Kepler, who reawakened in him an interest in mathematics and astronomy and with whom he maintained an active correspondence for several years...
Schickhard was a skilled mechanic, cartographer, and engraver in wood and copperplate; and he wrote treatises on Semitic studies, mathematics, astronomy, optics, meteorology, and cartography. He invented and built a working model of the first modern mechanical calculator and proposed to Kepler the development of a mechanical means of calculating ephemerides. Schickard's works on astronomy include a lunar ephermeris, observations of the comets of 1618, and descriptions of unusual solar phenomena (meteors and the transit of Mercury in 1631)...
'Schickard was an early supporter of Kepler's theories; his treatise on the 1631 transit of Mercury called attention to some of Kepler's ideas and works and to the superiority of the Rudolphine Tables' (DSB).
Schickard designed the woodcut diagrams and illustrations for Kepler's Harmonices mundi.

I Caspar 96 (not mentioning the table); Lalande p 279 ('On y trouve la première idée des équations séculaires'); NUC: WiU MH (bound with the Schickard-Bernegger correspondence, as here, but without the table); OCLC gives no additional locations. II Lalande p 281; NUC and OCLC only list the Harvard copy

£14500

This item is listed on Bibliopoly by W. P. Watson Antiquarian Books; click here for further details.