Cometa Matutinus & Vespertinus
CHF 2,004.00
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The comet Newton would use to prove gravity's reach, reported through observation, correspondence and comparison with earlier comets, with a sewn-in folding chart
Voigt, Johann Henrich
Cometa Matutinus & Vespertinus
Der Anfangs in den Früestunden der Sonnen vorgehend, und hernach in den Abendstunden der Sonnen nachgehend erschienene, und der Gottlosen Welt zum Schrecken, am Himmel strahlende Comet- oder Schwantz-Stern, Anno 1680. und 1681.
1681, Hamburg, Georg Rebenlein
First Edition
CHF 2,004.00
Overview
In 4to, small. Pp. [32], [1] folded copperplate
Voigt's Cometa is his diary of the Great Comet of 1680-81 - the object Isaac Newton later used in the Principia to demonstrate, for the first time, that a comet's path follows a parabolic orbit under gravitation. The title already names a single comet, seen first before dawn and later after dusk - the very point astronomers argued over that winter: Flamsteed held the morning and evening comets to be one body, Newton at first doubted it, and the Principia settled it with a single orbit. Halley then applied the same parabolic method to calculate the orbits of two dozen historical comets. Voigt's numbered log, kept night by night from Stade and Hamburg, draws on reports relayed from Dresden, Stockholm, Uppsala, and Frankfurt, and sets the new apparition against the comet he had tracked in 1664 and, further back, against the comet of 1577 - the same comet Tycho Brahe once used to disprove the claim that comets are merely sublunary vapors. The pamphlet is a first edition, in one of two Hamburg typesettings, identifiable by a number of specific typographical traits on the title page (VD17 547:629801S, compared against the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek's digitised copies of both settings). This copy survives complete, its folding star chart intact and sewn to the last leaf (exactly according to the printer's instruction on the page itself, telling the binder where to put it so the plate opens correctly, a charming detail of production). Printed to be read once and set aside, as ephemera of this kind, without wrapper or boards, it comes down complete and legible.
Inside the book
The pamphlet opens with pious epigraphs from Luther and the prophet Malachi framing the comet as a divine sign, then a dedication to Henrik Horn, Governor-General of the Duchies of Bremen and Verden - Voigt's own territorial superior - and his wife, Beata Magdalena Wittenberg, Countess of Nyburg. The body is a night-by-night observation log running from November 1680 into January 1681, compiled from Voigt's own sightings and letters relayed across a wide correspondent network, keyed throughout to fixed stars - most notably the site of Tycho Brahe's own nova of 1572 in Cassiopeia, borrowed as a reference point for measuring the comet's path. A separate section walks the reader through the accompanying diagram, and a tabulated appendix tracks the comet's daily change in position. A discursive section weighs the comet's physical character - height, size, color, tail - against the reckoning of the mathematician Erhard Weigel, before comparing this comet's path and timing to the comet of 1664. The pamphlet's longest section then turns to the comet's meaning, steering a course between superstitious terror and Epicurean dismissal with authorities running from Melanchthon to Pliny and Cicero, and sets the apparition against the comet of 1577. The folding copperplate charts the comet's track month by month from August to May against Cassiopeia, Andromeda, Perseus, Cepheus, and Pegasus on its upper register and Virgo, Leo, and Arcturus on its lower, headed COMETA Vespertinus and COMETA matutinus for the comet's evening and morning appearances. A note printed along its inner edge tells the reader how to view it unfolded without turning past the other leaves.
Condition
Sewn, without wrapper or boards, with remains of old tape (worn). Torn corners and small marginal tears. A faint water stain to the margin of the last two leaves, not affecting the plate. The folding plate is sewn to the last leaf, as the printer's instruction directs, and opens fully and cleanly. Text throughout clean and legible. A sound, complete copy. Very Good.
Dimensions (inches): 7 1/2 x 6 x 0.1
Why La Fenice likes it
A modest sixteen-leaf pamphlet with a front-row seat to the Scientific Revolution: Voigt tracks the very comet Newton would use in the Principia to show that comets obey gravity, gathering sightings from Uppsala to Linz - the Imperial Court Mathematician among them - and weighing them against Erhard Weigel, Leibniz's own teacher.
About the author
Johann Henrich Voigt (1613-1691), Royal Swedish mathematician at Stade and a prolific almanac-maker, published observational tracts on the comets of 1664-65, 1677 and 1680-81.
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