SHAKERLEY, Jeremy.

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Tabulae Britannicae: The British Tables: First edition, drawing on the unpublished observations of Jeremiah Horrocks, one of the fathers of English astronomy. Shakerley (b. 1626) "was the second man ever to witness a Mercury transit, probably the first Englishman to undertake systematic astronomical observations in India, and one of the earliest men of science to seriously interest himself in the astronomy of the Brahmins" (DSB).Shakerley's intellectual development was a microcosm of the scientific revolution, demonstrating the transition between the astrological traditions upon which he was trained - to which he was initially fiercely devoted - and the emerging age of empirical observation. His correspondents included William Lilly and Vincent Wing, and his patron was the antiquarian Christopher Towneley, whose library at Carr Hall contained Horrocks's papers. Through studying these, Shakerley became an ardent follower of Copernicus and Kepler and did much to integrate Horrocks's northern circle with the wider astronomical community. Tabulae Britannicae was published when Shakerley was in India, where he had travelled to observe the 1651 transit of Mercury. While there, he became enthused by the work of Indian astronomers - particularly their ability to predict lunar eclipses - and sought to communicate their methods to Europe. However, no further correspondence or records survive, and it is believed that he died on his travels. His book remained influential; Robert Hooke bo

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