Author: Derham,W. (William)
Title: ASTRO-THEOLOGY or a Demonstration of the being and attributes of God, from a survey of the heavens. Illustrated with copper-plates.
Description: London, W.Innys 1715 Folding copperplates [3 but one bound as frontispiece] by I. Senex + head & tailpieces & ornate initial capitals. . 8vo contemporary paneled leather, blind tooled with floral corners and intermediate scaled triangles. (rebacked) lviii + (6p=contents) +228pp +[2p=blank] +12p=index) + 16pp=publisher's book list) Newer endpapers and there is sl.tanning at beginning and end but with all pages crisp and bright. *The author was a corresponding contributor to the Royal Society, measuring the speed of sound to an accuracy that enabled Newton to use his figure in his Principia. Here he argues for a plurality of worlds, contrasts the various theories of Astronomers coming down on the side of the Copernican,arquing that fixed Stars are suns and there that there are many more as yet undiscovered,that the planets are worlds, theorizing on their inhabitants, but also asserting the Huygens is wrong when he says that there is no water on the moon as he claims to have seen lunar seas. However he is at pains to show that the regular motions,the pull of gravity, their light and heat and many other attributes do not conflict with their being a God. Chapters on eclipses,Rings of Saturn, comets etc and in Book VIII and interesting discussion of the practical inferences by for example Aristotle, Seneca, Tully and other early astronomers.

Keywords: astronomy observations


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