Nouveau Traite De La Pluralite Des Mondes, Ou L'on Prouve Par Des Raisons Philosophiques Que Toutes Les Planetes Sont Habitees Et Cultivees Comme Notre Terre, Ouvrage Compose Par Feu M. Hughens.

Christiaan Huygens; Du Four, musicien du Roi.

Published by Amsterdam : E. Roger, 1718

About this Item

xxxvi, 276 p. and 5 foldout pl. Bound in contemporary full leather. 5 raised bands. Gilt lettering and decorations on spine. Red page ends. Shelfwear. Chipping and loss to head and tail of spine. Clean, unmarked pages. Contemporary repair to bottom half of the third foldout. Please feel free to view our photographs. This book, originally publish in Latin as "Cosmotheoros", Christiaan Huygens speculated, in great detail, on the existence of extraterrestrial life, on other planets, which he imagined was similar to that on Earth. It is also in this book that Huygens published his method for estimating stellar distances. He made a series of smaller holes in a screen facing the sun, until he estimated the light was of the same intensity as that of the star Sirius. He then calculated that the angle of this hole was 1/27,664th the diameter of the Sun, and thus it was about 30,000 times as far away, on the (incorrect) assumption that Sirius is as bright our sun. The subject of photometry remained in its infancy until Pierre Bouguer and Johann Heinrich Lambert. Seller Inventory # 1404030147

Bibliographic Details

Title: Nouveau Traite De La Pluralite Des Mondes, ...

Publisher: Amsterdam : E. Roger

Publication Date: 1718

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: Very Good