Search Results | Caltech Archives

Title: Galileo, title page from Systema Cosmicum, Augustae Treboc. [Strasbourg], 1635
Format: photograph: negative
Date: 1635
Description: The first Latin edition of Galileo’s Dialogo (Dialogue on the Two Chief World Systems), prepared by the famous Dutch printer Elsevier but printed in Strasbourg. Not mentioned on the title page is the translater, Matthias Bernegger, who appended to the text an extract from Kepler’s Astronomia Nova (published 1609) and a letter by Paolo Antonio Foscarini. The additions presented arguments to demonstrate that the Copernican system did not conflict with the Bible. The Decree of Condemnation under which Galileo stood in Italy had not been published in France, so his work could be printed there. This Latin edition was later brought out in Leiden and London.

Title: Title page: Euclid, “The Elements of Geometrie”, London
Format: photograph: negative
Date: 1570
Description: First English edition. Translated into English for the first time by Sir Henry Billingsley, with preface by M. Dee. Based on earlier Latin versions. Watson Collection, History of Science.

Title: The Post Office
Format: photograph: negative
Date: 1809
Description: Ackermann, R., The Microcosm of London, Vol. II, London 1809 Plate no. 63

Title: Pantheon Masquerade
Format: photograph: negative
Date: 1809
Description: Ackermann, R., The Microcosm of London, Vol. II, London 1809 Plate no. 60

Title: King’s Mews, Charing Cross
Format: photograph: negative
Date: 1808
Description: Ackermann, R., The Microcosm of London, Vol. II, London 1809 Plate no. 47

Title: Botanic Garden at Cambridge University
Format: photograph: print
Date: 1815
Description: Ackermann, R., A history of the University of Cambridge : its colleges, halls, and public buildings.

Title: Christie’s Auction Room
Format: photograph: negative
Date: 1808
Description: Ackermann, R., The Microcosm of London, Vol. I, London 1808 Plate no. 6

Title: The College of Physicians
Format: photograph: negative
Date: 1808
Description: Ackermann, R., The Microcosm of London, Vol. I, London 1808 Plate no. 20

Title: J.T Desaguliers - plate 30 from A Course of Experimental Philosophy (London, 1734-44)
Format: photograph: negative
Description: Jean Theophilus Desaguliers, a protestant refugee from France, established himself as one of the most prominent advocates of the Newtonian philosophy in the first quarter of the eighteenth century. While trying to clarify some of the theoretical aspects of Newtonianism, he also became deeply concerned with the religious, social and political implications of Newton’s work: for example, at the accession of George II in 1727 Desaguliers published a panegyric entitled The Newtonian System of the World: the best Model of Government. This image is an epitome of William Whiston’s scheme of the solar system. This supposedly conveyed the relative distances, magnitudes, periods, and other quantities involved in the motions of the planets and comets. So detailed was it that Desaguliers expressed concern that viewers might place too much faith in its accuracy.

Title: The Long Room, Custom House
Format: photograph: negative
Date: 1808
Description: Ackermann, R., The Microcosm of London, Vol. I, London 1808 Plate no. 28

Title: Exhibition Room, Somerset House
Format: photograph: negative
Date: 1808
Description: Ackermann, R., The Microcosm of London, Vol. I, London 1808 Plate no. 2

Title: Oculus Enoch et Eliae, sive Radius Sideromysticus pars Prima
Format: photograph: negative
Date: 1645
Description: Anton Maria Schyrleus (1597-1660) was a Capuchin priest and professor, who worked in Bohemia, Trier and Ravenna. His astronomical work was completed in the low countries in the 1640s, and resulted in this rather unusual work -- a richly illustrated example of baroque natural philosophy. The Oculus might be considered a mystical work, reflecting the harmonies of an earth-centered, Tychonic cosmos in scriptural terms. The illustrations give a vivid impression of its combination of technical astronomy and mechanics with rich symbolism.

Title: Session House, Clerkenwell
Format: photograph: negative
Date: 1809
Description: Ackermann, R., The Microcosm of London, Vol. III, London 1809-1810 Plate no. 70

Title: Astley’s Amphitheatre
Format: photograph: negative
Date: 1808
Description: Ackermann, R., The Microcosm of London, Vol. I, London 1808 Plate no. 4

Title: Magdalen Chapel
Format: photograph: negative
Date: 1809
Description: Ackermann, R., The Microcosm of London, Vol. II, London 1809 Plate no. 54

Title: Billingsgate Market
Format: photograph: negative
Date: 1808
Description: Ackermann, R., The Microcosm of London, Vol. I, London 1808 Plate no. 9

Title: Court of Exchequer, Westminster Hall
Format: photograph: negative
Date: 1808
Description: Ackermann, R., The Microcosm of London, Vol. I, London 1808 Plate no. 25