Valuable Books in the History of Astronomy from the Collection of Jay M. Pasachoff

Christie’s New York is honored to present Valuable Books in the History of Astronomy from the Collection of Jay M. Pasachoff. The late Dr. Pasachoff was an esteemed professor of astronomy at Williams College for fifty years. He co-authored the major college astronomy textbook along with several popular survey works, and, with the art historian Roberta Olson, Cosmos: The Art and Science of the Universe. This choice library include works by Peter Apian, Nicolaus Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, Johannes Kepler, Galileo Galilei, Isaac Newton, Edmund Halley, Albert Einstein, and Richard Feynman—the major titans in the history of astronomy, with a special focus on the 16th and 17th centuries. Highlights include Copernicus’s De revolutionibus, a 1543 first edition once owned by a Minorite friar; Kepler’s very rare first book—the Mysterium cosmographicum—from the library of Frederick the Great; a first edition of Newton’s Principia in contemporary vellum; and sublime copies of both Galileo’s Dialogo (the Honeyman copy) and his Sidereus nuncius (bound with three related astronomical works and purchased at auction in 1984). From his very first acquisitions, Dr. Pasachoff was intent on acquiring these beautiful and seminal works in the finest condition possible. This collection formed the basis of the exhibition The Heavens Revealed, at Chapin Library in 2003. A digital copy of the handlist from this exhibition is available by request from adarlington@christies.com.