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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: J.T Desaguliers - plate 31 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. The “planetarium” was Desaguliers’ device to model the motions of the planets. It was three feet in diameter. When the demonstrator turned the crank, all the spheres moved in proportion to the actual mean motions of the planets.

Title: “The Lecture”
Format: photograph: print
Description: William Hogarth, “The Lecture,” reprinted in “The Works of William Hogarth,” London.

Title: The great equatorial armillary instrument with one complete circle and one semicircle, from Tycho Brahe, Astronomiae Instauratae Mechanica
Format: photograph: negative
Date: 1602

Title: Illustration of Torbern Bergman’s chemical apparatus from Opuscula Physica et Chemica.
Format: photograph: print
Date: 1784
Description: This translation from the original Latin is by Edmund Cullen. It includes notes and illustrations by Cullen and was published in 1784 by J. Murray, London.

Title: The great quadrant constructed near Augsburg, from Tycho Brahe, Astronomiae Instauratae Mechanica. The quadrant was constructed in 1572 and was no longer standing when Tycho published the description of it in 1598.
Format: photograph: negative
Date: 1602

Title: Galileo, portrait of three astronomers, frontispiece from Systema Cosmicum, Augustae Treboc. [Strasbourg], 1635
Format: photograph: negative
Date: 1635
Description: In the first Latin edition of the Dialogo, the portrait has been reengraved and significantly altered from the Italian original. Two columns have been added, and above them the curtain with the dedication to Galileo’s patron, the Grand Duke of Tuscany, is held not by Italian putti but by little angels, who also support the Medici crest. The astronomers’ poses are similar to the original, but Copernicus looks out toward the reader and holds his model of the heliocentric system in a more prominent position. The names of the astronomers are engraved in the ground rather than on their garments. The arrow points more clearly to Copernicus. The small stones on the ground, much more than in the Italian version, appear to represent the the configuration of sun and planets.

Title: Lambeth Palace
Format: photograph: negative
Date: 1808
Description: Ackermann, R., The Microcosm of London, Vol. II, London 1809 Plate no. 48

Title: Great steel quadrant, inscribed in a square, also of steel, and revolving in azimuth, from Tycho Brahe, Astronomiae Instauratae Mechanica
Format: photograph: negative
Date: 1602

Title: Plate from “Ansei kenbunshi”
Format: photograph: print
Description: Fire following the great earthquake of 1855 near Tokyo (the “Ansei earthquake”). Accounts of the disaster were suppressed by the government, making them today extremely rare. This plate is from “Ansei kenbunshi” (Observations of the Ansei Era), printed in Tokyo, 1856. George W. Housner book collection.

Title: An early observation of weather conditions in Siena
Format: photograph: print
Date: 1798
Description: An early observation of weather conditions at the time of an earthquake in Siena, Italy, May 26, 1798. The published account of this earthquake is one of the first such to adopt an empirical approach to understanding the phenomenon. George W. Housner Rare Book Collection.

Title: Foundling Hospital, The Chapel
Format: photograph: negative
Date: 1808
Description: Ackermann, R., The Microcosm of London, Vol. II, London 1809 Plate no. 37

Title: Court of Common Pleas, Westminister Hall
Format: photograph: negative
Date: 1808
Description: Ackermann, R., The Microcosm of London, Vol. I, London 1808 Plate no. 23

Title: Plan of the Uraniborg observatory and premises, from Tycho Brahe, Astronomiae Instauratae Mechanica
Format: photograph: negative
Date: 1602

Title: Great azimuth semicircle, from Tycho Brahe, Astronomiae Instauratae Mechanica
Format: photograph: negative
Date: 1602

Title: Galileo, title page from Istoria e Dimostrazioni intorno alle Macchie Solari (History and Demonstration concerning Sunspots), Rome,1613
Format: photograph: negative
Date: 1613
Description: With this book, the author proudly announces himself for the first time as “Galileo Galilei Linceo” --a member of the Lincean Academy, to which he had been elected in 1611. The Lincei was one of the first scientific academies and was founded in Rome in 1603 by Duke Federico Cesi. The lynx for which the academy was named was famous for its sharp eyesight and symbolized the ability of the new science to see more deeply into the secrets of nature. It appears on the title page surrounded by a wreath, probably of laurel, and surmounted by a crown, probably that of the Cesi family.

Title: Galileo, the moon from Sidereus Nuncius (The Sidereal Messenger), Venice, 1610
Format: photograph: negative
Date: 1610
Description: An engraved illustration of features of the moon’s surface, as seen by Galileo with his telescope. He was able to describe the roughness of the moon’s surface and the position of spots and prominences on the light and dark sides.