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Title: Diagram of the human hand, from Giordano Bruno's discussion of the properties of the number 5 in De monade numero et figura.
Abstract: De monade numero et figura (On the Monad, Number and Figure) is part of the trilogy of Latin verse works published in Frankfurt in 1591 and considered to be Bruno's philosophical testament. In the De monade Bruno discusses Pythagorean number symbolism and the meanings of the numbers 1 to 10.
ID number: RB-GB1591

Title: Illustration of Torbern Bergman's chemical apparatus from Opuscula Physica et Chemica.
Abstract: 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.
ID number: RB-TB1784

Title: Portrait of Giovanni Domenico Cassini
Abstract: Portrait of Cassini from his account of his heliometer in Bologna, published 40 years after its installation in La Meridiana del tempio di S. Petronio..., 1695.
ID number: RB-GC1695-1

Title: Cassini's heliometer
Abstract: The church of San Petronio in Bologna was the site of a solar observatory as early as 1576 when Egnazio Danti, cosmographer to Cosimo I de' Medici, installed the first meridian line there. Unfortunately it did not fulfill its purpose, which was to provide an accurate date for the spring equinox, thence Easter. In spite of uncertainties about the precise length of the solar year, the Gregorian calendar was promulgated anyway, in 1582. We still use it today. Almost 75 years later, the opportunity arose to reconstruct the meridian. Enter a 29-year-old astronomy professor named Giovanni Domenico Cassini. Cassini increased the height of Danti's solar peephole—or gnomon hole—to 1000 inches (based on the French foot) or 27.07 meters above the church floor. The length of the meridian line was increased by x2.5 to 66.71 meters, or 1/600,000 of the Earth's circumference, per Cassini's calculation. The line had to run on the floor between the aisles and columns of the church on a north-south axis without obstruction. The instrument was tested with great fanfare at the summer solstice of 1655 and proved fully successful. Cassini's illustrated account of his heliometer was published 40 years later in 1695 with the title La Meridiana del tempio di S. Petronio. The image shown here is taken from a large foldout plate depicting the design and details of installation.
ID number: RB-GC1695-2

Title: Engraving designed by Kepler
Abstract: Engraved frontispiece to Kepler's Rudolphine Tables (Tabulae Rudolphinae) showing the great astronomers (including Kepler) gathered in the temple of Urania. Designed by Kepler himself; engraved by Georg Celer.
ID number: RB-JK1627-1

Title: Kepler - Model of the Universe
Abstract: Model of the universe (the outermost sphere is Saturn's) from Johannes Kepler' s "Mysterium Cosmographicum" (1597, edition of 1621) Count Rocco Collection.
ID number: RB-JK1596-4

Title: Galileo, the moon from Sidereus Nuncius (The Sidereal Messenger), Venice, 1610
Abstract: 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.
ID number: RB-GG1610a-3

Title: Galileo, two illustrations of the moon from Sidereus Nuncius (The Sidereal Messenger), Venice, 1610
Abstract: Two illustrations of features of the moon's surface, showing strong light and dark shadings on the light side. According to the prevailing Aristotelian cosmology, heavenly bodies were perfectly smooth and spherical. Galileo's observations of the moon's roughness tended to support the new Copernican system, which no longer upheld the distinction between terrestrial and heavenly bodies.
ID number: RB-GG1610a-4

Title: Illustration from Kepler's "Harmonices Mundi" (Harmonies of the World).
Abstract: Rocco Collection, History of Science.
ID number: RB-JK1619A-1

Title: Otto von Guericke, “Experimenta Nova...” (New Magdeburg Experiments)
Abstract: Illustration showing experiment of the Magdeburg hemispheres in which horses could not pull apart the vacuum created within the hemispheres. Watson Collection, History of Science.
ID number: RB-OG1672-1

Title: Title page: “Nova Reperta” (New Discoveries)
Abstract: Shows nine new discoveries of the time. The collection consists of twenty plates showing new discoveries, including navigation by compass. Watson Collection, History of Science.
ID number: RB-A1600-1

Title: Title page: Benjamin Franklin “Experiments and Observations on Electricity, 5th ed., London.
Abstract: Supervised by Franklin himself, this is the most accurate 18th century edition of his famous work on electricity. Cast in the form of letters to the English Quaker, Peter Collinson, these letters were presented by Collinson to the Royal Society and published in their Philosophical Transactions. History of Science.
ID number: RB-BF1774-1

Title: Title page: Euclid, “The Elements of Geometrie”, London
Abstract: First English edition. Translated into English for the first time by Sir Henry Billingsley, with preface by M. Dee. Based on earlier Latin versions. Watson Collection, History of Science.
ID number: RB-E1570-1

Title: Kepler, “Harmonices mundi” (Harmonies of the World)
Abstract: Illustration from Book III, chapter 10, “concerning the Tetrachords...,” in which attributes of musical scales are discussed. Rocco Collection, History of Science.
ID number: RB-JK1619A-2

Title: Galileo, title page from Le Operazione del Compasso Geometrico et Militare (The Operation of the Geometric and Military Compass), Padua, 1606
Abstract: The Compasso was Galileo's first published book and was printed in Padua, where he had taught mathematics at the University since 1592. Written in the vernacular, the book was directed to a wide audience. It was dedicated to Cosimo II de' Medici, the Grand Duke of Tuscany, who had been one of Galileo's students and who would hire him as his philosopher and mathematician a few years later.
ID number: RB-GG1606-1

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