Astronomy.- Kepler (Johannes) Tabulae Rudolphinae, 2 parts in 1, first edition, engraved allegorical frontispiece of the Temple of Urania by Georg Koeler bound after printed title, woodcut diagrams, k3 trimmed at fore-edge with loss to side-notes relating to the woodcuts, with the 8pp. Sportula Genethliacis Missa printed in 1629 included at the end of part 1, L3 part of the Tabulae (not a double-page letterpress table as in some copies), repairs to inner margin of tables near end with occasional loss to text, water-stained throughout, contemporary limp vellum, soiled, lacking ties, [Tomash & Williams K27; Houzeau & Lancaster 12754; Norman 1208], folio, Ulm, Jonas Saur, 1627.

⁂ A very good copy in contemporary binding of what Kepler himself called his "chief astronomical work".

"In 1601 Kepler was charged by the dying Tycho Brahe to complete his proposed Rudolphine tables of planetary motion, to be based upon Tycho's great storehouse of observations. When the tables finally appeared twenty-six years later, Kepler excused the long delay in his preface, in which he cited not only salary and wartime difficulties, but also 'the novelty of my discoveries and the unexpected transfer of the whole of astronomy from fictitious circles to natural causes, which were most profound to investigate, difficult to explain, and difficult to calculate, since mine was the first attempt' (Gesammelte Werke 10, pp. 42-43; quoted in DSB). Kepler's work was shaped not only by his Copernican bias and his discovery of the laws of planetary motion, but by the 'happy calamity', in 1618, of his initiation into logarithms, which enabled him to make the complex calculations necessary for determining planetary orbits. Kepler was thus able to take into account the relative heliocentric positions of the earth and planets, calculating these positions separately and combining them to produce the geocentric position; this yielded far more accurate positions than in previous tables, which had erred by as much as five degrees. This improvement constituted a strong endorsement of the Copernican system, and insured the tables' dominance in the field of astronomy throughout the seventeenth century" (Norman).

This copy with "Damnatus Author, opus permissum" [forbidden author, permitted work] written in a contemporary hand. Some of Kepler's works were included in the list of books banned by the Catholic Church in the Index Librorum Prohibitorum (eg Astronomia nova, 1609; Harmonices Mundi, 1619; Epitome Astronomiae Copernicanae, 1617-21) but were removed in the 19th century.