Fully Digitized Items

Nieremberg saw an unpublished manuscript of Hernandez. Many of his descriptions of plants and animals relied upon... more

Galileo’s physics, applied to medicine: Santorio Santorio (also known as Sanctorio or Sanctorius) practiced medicine... more

The body in mechanical philosophy: Descartes applied the mechanical philosophy to every field of natural knowledge,... more

The physics of bones and muscles: Borelli, a practicing mathematician and engineer as well as a physician, analyzed... more

In this book, Napier presented logarithmic methods of calculation in more than 50 pages of explanation, followed by... more

In this introduction to astronomy and geography, the Moon lies embedded within a solid sphere carrying it around the... more

The frontispiece shows three views of the paths of comets: the Aristotelian theory that they consist of vapors... more

In this book, Galileo opened a “Controversy over the Comets” by attacking Grassi. Published under the name of his... more

The crest of the Barberini family, showing three busy bees, appears at the top of the frontispiece. Galileo’s... more

In his second and last contribution to the “Controversy over the Comets,” Kepler stepped in as a “shield-bearer” to... more

From childhood, Galileo’s world was shaped by music. His father, Vincenzo Galilei, was a prominent music theorist... more

Euclid was the starting point for any further study of optics and perspective. Optics combined geometry, experiment... more

This landmark work by Albrecht Dürer presents several variations on the technique of “Alberti’s window.” Here the... more

This beautiful work by Sirigatti, published in 1596, brings the tradition of perspective drawing up to Galileo’s... more

Despite a lack of publications, Leonardo’s fame grew as word of his notebooks spread. The first book by Leonardo to... more

Campanella, a Dominican theologian, wrote this defense of the compatibility of Scripture and Copernicanism from his... more

The Carmelite theologian Foscarini defended Copernicanism as compatible with Scripture in this open letter,... more

Featuring Galileo's Handwriting. When Galileo heard news of telescopes invented in the Netherlands... more

Featuring Galileo's Handwritting. Galileo dedicated the manual for his engineering compass to young... more

Family medical handbook: Works entitled “Aristotle’s Masterpiece” were family health guides, written in the... more

Free medical care from the medieval Abbess who composed music, rebuked rulers, saw visions and wrote many books: In... more

Greek edition of Hippocrates by a friend of Galileo: Mercuriale collected the various Greek texts of the Hippocratic... more

Ptolemy’s influential music theory was related to his astronomy. Through sight, we apprehend beauty through... more

Copernicus argued that the Sun rather than the Earth lies in the center of the universe. The Earth moves as a planet... more

Euclid was the starting point for a mathematical approach to physics. This is the 1st printed edition. The beautiful... more

This is the first separate English edition of Galileo’s Discourse on Two New Sciences, his masterwork in... more

Aristotle’s Mechanics contained an analysis of the principles of motion and simple machines. While no longer... more

These 3 broadsides, issued approximately 2 weeks apart, contain the first detailed illustrations of Mars. Although... more

In this translation of Huygens’ Kosmotheoros, Huygens took up questions of the habitability of other planets and the... more

For Robert Fludd, the universe is a monochord, its physical structure unintelligible without an understanding of... more

This book explains how to use the terrestrial and celestial globes, an armillary sphere (which shows the movements... more

The secret of silk farming spread from China to Korea and India about the beginning of the Common Era. Its... more

Drawing upon Archimedes, Lorini asserted that all machines of the fortress could be reduced to the balance and thus... more

The 19th century saw an unprecedented expansion of known objects in the universe. William and Caroline Herschel... more

Galileo employed his scientific acumen to engage in the literary debates of the day. Here he considered the merits... more

Ariosto’s famous epic poem is a lively, rambling, serial escapade from one humorous, ironic, sometimes ribald tall-... more

In a 1611 book published by the Academy of the Lynx, the Jesuit astronomer Christoph Scheiner argued that sunspots... more

The cosmological system of Ursus is similar to that of Tycho Brahe. Both place the Earth in the center, and set the... more

The frontispiece of Riccioli’s treatise depicts not two, but three major systems of the world. The Ptolemaic system... more

In these letters, Galileo thanked Cesi for his support of the Academy. Galileo quickly became the most illustrious... more

Members of the Academy of the Lynx preferred to communicate with each other in code. Della Porta was the most... more

For Newton, science and the Bible were not opposed, provided that one understood each one correctly. In this study... more

Newton believed that Solomon’s Temple encoded his inverse square law for universal gravitation. To Newton, his... more

Planetary and stellar influences affect one’s physical temperament, so one must take steps not to catch the... more

Accurate depiction of the topography of the Moon was accomplished by mid-century in this lunar atlas by Hevelius. It... more

In this illustration, Chérubin d’Orléans adopted the lunar map of Hevelius. The putti are observing the Moon with... more

Although best known for his astronomy, Ptolemy (2nd century) brought the same mathematical methods to bear on... more

Du Halde lived in China for nearly 30 years. This work recounts the story of Candida Xu, who collaborated with the... more

Du Halde lived in China for nearly 30 years. This work recounts the story of Candida Xu, who collaborated with the... more

Back in Rome, Kircher collected all the information he could gather from Jesuits in China, publishing this massive... more

This map, based on Cantelli’s own reports as well as the surveys of Martini, influenced the larger Coronelli map... more

Schreck helped Galileo show the telescope to the Medici family and others in Rome. Once he arrived in China, he... more

Greek writers compiled ancient stories of the constellations, often in poetic form, with memorable instructions for... more

A globe maker for the French royal family, J. Fortin, prepared this edition of Flamsteed’s celestial atlas in a much... more

This is the scarce first edition of writings by a leading learned society in Bologna, the Accademia dei Gelati. The... more

In contrast to Piccolomini, who omitted constellation figures in favor of scientific accuracy, Bayer superimposed... more

Kepler’s star map shows the constellations of Ophiuchus (the Serpent Handler), Sagittarius and Scorpius. The Milky... more

The Copernican idea that the Earth moves as a planet required a thorough revision of physics. Galileo undertook this... more

Abraham bar Hiyya, also known as Savasorda, was a 12th century Jewish mathematician and astronomer in Barcelona. In... more

In Descartes’ cosmology, each star lies at the center of a “vortex,” or gigantic pool of circulating fluid. Stars... more

The Rudolpine Tables were not a best seller. Three years later, Kepler and his son-in-law Jacob Bartsch published... more

Schott was among the first to report the “Miracle of Magdeburg,” the sensational story of Otto von Guericke’s public... more

The Academy of the Lynx (Accademia dei Lincei) dissolved after the death of its founder, Prince Federigo Cesi. In... more

In this poster-sized work, the first publication of observations made with a microscope, Cesi and Stelluti studied... more

Kepler’s contributions reached far beyond the realm of astronomy, to meteorology, mathematics, geology, mineralogy... more

Kepler wrote an earlier work on optics (1604) as a supplement to the medieval treatise of Witelo. In this sequel, he... more

Some of Galileo’s most avid opponents were Aristotelian physicists who, lacking training in mathematics, were unable... more

This is Kepler’s famous pretzel diagram, where he focused attention on the planet rather than the rotating solid... more

Gallucci, a Venetian scholar, was interested in astronomical instruments, both physical and on paper. The “Theater... more

This is the first book written in English devoted to tornados. Finley served in the US Army Signal Service, which... more

This is one of two richly-embellished global sections which depict Kircher’s vision of interlaced systems of air,... more

Under house arrest after his trial, Galileo turned his attention to a number of topics that had long interested him... more