VERBIEST (Ferdinand). Astronomia europaea sub imperatore tar - Lot 141

VERBIEST (Ferdinand). Astronomia europaea sub imperatore tartaro sinico Cám Hý appellato, ex umbra in lucem revocata a R.P. Ferdinando Verbiest... Dillingae, typis & sumpt. J. C. Bencard, 1687. In-4, [4] f. (title, dedication, pref.), 126 p., [1] f. (index), pl., lightly post-pasted white vellum, spine with 3 nerves and mute, ms. notation in ink at tail (small snags on one nerve and one spine; plate restored; small worm stitch on upper spine, then in margin of first 10 f., then again in margin of p. 70 at end and more sustained on lower flyleaf; pale angular wetness). Unique and very rare early edition of this work in which the Flemish Jesuit Ferdinand Verbiest, who was born in 1623 and died in Peking in 1688, describes the astronomical work carried out in China under his direction. Verbiest arrived in China in 1658, and after various controversies and setbacks - he was even imprisoned - the Kangxi emperor granted him the title of "President of the Tribunal of Mathematics", and authorized him to equip the Peking observatory with Western scientific instruments. A copper-engraved fold-out plate illustrates this installation, entitled: "Specula astroptica a Pekinensis iuxta exemplar ex China missum". The end of the volume (p.100 ff.) is a catalog of 105 Jesuits who stayed in China. This work is a key testimony to the development of Jesuit astronomical work in China, and has been the subject of a critical edition and in-depth analysis by a historian teaching at the University of Louvain (N. Golvers, The "Astronomia europaea" of Ferdinand Verbiest, S. J. (Dillingen, 1687) : text, translation, notes and commentaries, Nettetal, Steyler, 1993). Provenance: Jesuit College Innsbruck, 1687 (handwritten bookplate dated on title). (Cordier, B. sinica, 920).