Tabulae Rudolphine. Or, The Rudolphine Tables, Supputated to the Meridian of Uraniburge, Afterwards Digested into a most Accurate, and Easie Compendium. KEPLER, Johannes, & Tycho Brahe.

First edition in English of the landmark star catalogue, among the final and most accurate achievements of pre-telescopic astronomy. These measurements, among the first organized and reliable data in astronomical history, was the raw material from which Kepler derived his laws of planetary motion. At the island observatory Uraniborg, Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) and his assistants spent more than 20 years scanning the heavens with rigorous visual observations. The telescope would not be invented until the early 1600s: Brahe and his workers used quadrants, sextants, and armillary spheres, but relied ultimately on the naked eye. In 1600, Brahe invited the young Kepler (1571-1630) to join him at the imperial court of Rudolf II: on his deathbed in 1601, Brahe entrusted Kepler with completing his life's work. Kepler eventually published the Rudolphine Tables in 1627, setting new standards of accuracy across Europe. This edition is based on the version published at Paris in 1650 by Jean-Baptiste Morin (1583-1656), a mathematics professor at the Collège de France - and a fervent anti-Keplerian. ESTC R9771; Houzeau & Lancaster 12754. Quarto (182 x 114 mm), pp. [ii], 69, [1], 81-103, [1]. Extensive tables in the text. Recent sheep, spine ruled in blind and with twin red morocco labels, covers ruled in blind. Housed in custom red cloth solander box. With 20th-century bookplate of the Fox Pointe Collection, a substantial library of 16th- and 17th-century English books. Minimal spotting to contents: a very good copy indeed.