Giovanni Battista Riccioli, S.J., Almagestum novum, first edition, Bologna, 1651.

If you're a big fan of old-timey science illustrations like me, then you're in for a big treat. Swann Auction Galleries will host an auction of rare astronomy and science books from The Library of Martin C. Gutzwiller next month on April 3, 2014.

Martin C. Gutzwiller of Yale University was a Swiss-American physicist best known for his work on chaotic systems in classical and quantum mechanics. The set of rare books for auction include books on Ptolemaic and Copernican astronomy in the early modern era, as well as the historical development of celestian mechanics and related advances in both physics and math.

Johann Schöner, Opera Mathematica, Nuremberg, 1551. Estimate $15,000 to $25,000.

Highlights include a 16th century Harmsworth-Honeyman copy of Johann Schöner's Opera Mathematica. Published in 1551, the book is the first collected editions of writings by Schöner, a German polymath who worked in the field of astronomy and geography and included a revised and expanded version of his 1521 Aequatorium astronomicum, the earliest collection of printed equatoria-diagrams. Notably, the book contains volvelles or movable wheel charts that serve as analog devices for computing planetary positions.

Giovanni Battista Riccioli, S.J., Almagestum novum, first edition, Bologna, 1651. Estimate $6,000 to $9,000.

Another notable book is Giovanni Battista Riccioli's Almagestum Novum, published in 1651. The book is first edition of work by the staunchly anti-Copernican Jesuit and astronomer, who experimented with pendulum and falling bodies, and introduced the nomenclature of lunar features still in use today.

Swann Auction has kindly shared a few more images for us to enjoy:

Christoph Clavius, S.J., In Sphaeram Joannis de Sacro Bosco Commentarius, Venice, 1596. Estimate $1,500 to $2,500.

 

Petrus Apianus, Astronomicum Caesareum, Leipzig, 1967. Estimate $1,500 to $2,500.

Christoph Clavius, S.J., In Sphaeram Joannis de Sacro Bosco Commentarius, Venice, 1596. Estimate $1,500 to $2,500.

Pierre-François-André Méchain and Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Delamre, Base du Système Mètrique Décimal, first edition, Paris, 1806-10. Estimate $3,000 to $5,000.

Sir Isaac Newton, Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica, London, 1726. Estimate $6,000 to $9,000.

Alessandro Piccolomini, La Sfera del Mondo, Venice, 1573. Estimate $800 to $1,200.

Thomas Streete, Astronomia Carolina, London, 1716. Estimate $500 to $750.

Archimedes, Opera omnia, Basel, 1544, bound with Apollonius of Perga, Opera, Venice, 1537. Estimate $30,000 to $50,000.