Rare treatise on comets by Giovanni Camillo Glorioso (1572-1643), who succeeded Galileo in the chair of mathematics in Padua in 1613. As the author explains in his preface, the publication was prompted by the appearance of the spectacular and unusually bright comet of November 1618, which was still visible in January 1619. Dedicated to Marino Gethaldo and divided into 5 "books", it treats the astronomical theories of Copernicus, Brahe, Kepler, Galileo and others. "This scarce work is replete with curious information, and we find in it the mention of a sort of telescope (or perspicillum), used, it is said, by Pope Leo X at the beginning of XVIth century ..." (Libri Catalogue).
Some contemporary underscoring. In very good condition and with generous margins. Binding soiled, wrinkled and with a tear in the spine. An important treatise of comets, by Galileo's successor at the University of Padua. Catalogue of the ... celebrated library of M. Guglielmo Libri (1861), 3087; De La Lande, p. 187; Riccardi I, col. 615; not in Houzeau & Lancaster.