Astronomy.- Proctor (Richard) Saturn and its System, first edition, the author's first book, original cloth, gilt, 1865 & another (2)

£100 · At auction with Forum Auctions

Astronomy.- Proctor (Richard A.) Saturn and its System, first edition, with publisher's presentation blind-stamp to head of title,14 engraved plates, one folding, errata slip, a few annotations in pencil (mostly to plates), foxing, mainly to folding frontispiece and title, newspaper cutting on the author tipped to front free endpaper, original pictorial blue cloth, gilt, rubbed, spine browned, corners bumped, 1865; and an odd volume on butterflies with hand-coloured plates, 8vo & 12mo (2) *** The author's first book. It received approval from astronomers but did not sell well and Proctor turned to writing more popular works on astronomy for the general public. He is most famous for one of the earliest maps of Mars and for his remarkably accurate calculation of the sidereal day of Mars.

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