Montanari, Geminiano
L'astrologia convinta di falso
Estimate: £400 - £600
Auction: 18 June 2025 from 10:00 BST
Description
col mezzo di nuove esperienze, e ragioni fisico-astronomiche, o' sia la caccia del frugnuolo. Venice: Francesco Nicolini, 1685. First edition, 4to, xvi, 158 pp., later Italian ‘carta rustica’, engraved portrait frontispiece, small damp-stain to lower margin of early leaves [Houzeau & Lancaster 5325]
Footnote
An important refutation of the scientific value of astrology by one of the leading proponents of Galilean astronomy in the 17th century. Montanari was appointed professor of astronomy at Bologna in 1669 and mounted a successful campaign to have astrology removed from the university curriculum. ‘His numerous achievements in astronomy include carrying out lunar mapping with the use of an ocular micrometer that he had constructed himself; early observations of the variability in brightness of the star Algol (beta Persei) which we now know to be an eclipsing binary (he was the first astronomer to actually record variations in its brightness); and observations of several comets (including the bright comet which appeared in 1682 and which he reported to Edmund Halley, the object in question eventually becoming known as Halley’s Comet)’ (Jones & Raynor, Who’s Who in the Moon, 2024, p. 131).