pdf - Roger Gaskell Rare Books

180 x 133mm. Title dustsoiled and waterstained and corner chipped;
lighter soiling and light browning in the text; page numbers on A3
shaved.
Binding: Twentieth­century half calf.
Provenance: Early signatures on title, scored through.
First edition in English, a translation of Astrologia Theologizata (in Latin,
Frankfurt 1617) or the German translation of that work (Halle 1618).
Wing W1255; ESTC R204068.
The original edition was published anonymously and its authorship has been
disputed. ‘But whether written by Weigel or later by one of his school, it is
a good illustration of the way in which mystically inclined Christians of that
period endeavoured to make spiritual conquest of the prevailing Astrology
and, through its help, to discover the nature of the inner, hidden universe.’
(Jones pp. 148–9).
Weigel was a German theologian, philosopher and mystical writer, an
important precursor of theosophy. The author is stated to be Valentine
Weigelius on the title, with no further information, and the text starts
immediately without preamble. The Wrst chapter is headed ‘What Astrologie
is, and what Theologie; and how they have reference to one another’. At the
foot of the last page are a few errata and ‘Imprimatur. Theodore Jennings’.
Rufus Matthew Jones, Spiritual reformers in the 16th & 17th centuries (1914).
185
WEISS, Christian Samuel (1780–1856)
Abhandlung über die Preisfrage: “Ist die Materie des Lichts und
des Feuers die nämliche, oder eine verschiedene? Giebt es eine eigene
Wärmematerie u. s. w.” [Xy title:] Versuch einer Beantwortung der
von der physischen Klasse der churfürstlich­bayerischen Akademie der
Wissenschaften für das Jahr 1799 aufgeworfenen Preisfrage... Gekrönte
Presischrift am 28sten März 1801.
Munich: im akademischen Verlage, 1803.
8vo: p2 A–K8 L4 , 86 leaves, pp. [4] 167 [1] (last page blank). p1
Physikalische Abhandlungen titlepage with woodcut arms; p2, main
titlepage ‘Abhandlung...’; A1, Xy title, ‘Versuch einer Beantwortung
der von der physikalischen Klass...’.
200 x 115mm. First leaf dustsoiled; light foxing.
Binding: Later wrappers.
First edition, Physikalische Abhandlungen der Königlich-baierischen
Akademie der Wissenschaften vol. I; a second volume was published in
1806 but apparently no more.
A prize essay dealing with the nature of light and heat. It was known at this
time from experiments with prisms that the red end of the spectrum was
warmer than the violet end. Weiss describes these experiments on pp. 24–28
with a woodcut diagram of a prism. The prize question was set in 1799 and