KEPLER, Johannes & BARTSCH, Jakob. Tabulae Manuales Logarithmicae ad Calculum Astronomicum, in specie Tabb. Rudolphinarum compendiose tractandum mire utiles. Ob defectum prioris Editionis Saganensis multum hactenus desideratae. Quibus accessit in hac Editione Introductio nova curante Joh. Casp. Eisenschmid.
Strasbourg: Johannes Pastorius for Theodor Lerse, 1700.

Rare second edition (the first obtainable edition) of the logarithmic tables used in calculating the celebrated Rudolphine Tables. Caspar records only one copy of the first edition, published in Sagan in 1631, and that defective, in the University Library of Königsberg.

Jacob Bartsch (1600-1633) was Kepler’s son-in-law. After Kepler died in 1630, Bartsch decided that Kepler’s logarithms should be made available in a less expensive form than the Rudolphine Tables published in 1627 (the first work to introduce logarithms into the field of astronomy). The intention was to fund the printing by collecting the salery owned owed to Kepler. However, due to failure of his journey to Vienna to collect the money, the printing was stopped and the distribution of the 1631 edition was practically nil. This second edition was brought out by John Caspar Eisenschmid in 1700 and in his introduction he gives a detailed account of the fate of the first edition.

This second edition is by no means a common book on the market (ABPC lists only two copies in the past fifty years; 1971 and 1984). A very fine copy, complete with the errata leaf.

Caspar 99; Erwin Tomash Library on the History of Computing K-28; Houzeau and Lancaster 12757; Lalande p.338.

Six parts in one volume. 8vo: 154 x 92 mm. Fine contemporary vellum with the original clasps intact. Pp. 40, (276), (2:errata). Title page with some very light spotting, otherwise fine and clean throughout.