Aurora Lavenica, Reditus Solis Praenuntia, Seu Tabulae Revolutionum & motuum Solis, demonstrantes Verum Eius Locum, Ex fundamentis in Theoria apposita deductis, Et Tempus Revolutionum Ex motu circa Apogaeum, & Perigaeum apparenter inaequali. Opus Theologis, Medicis & Astronomis aliisque curiosis non ingratum. Authore Ioanne Carolo Gallet. I. V. D. P. A. S. S. S. Avenion.
Avenione [Avignon]: Ex Typographia P. Offray, S. Officii Typographi, in foro S. Desiderii, sub signo Bibliotecae, M.DC.LXX [1670]. With an engraved text illustration. First edition. In contemporary full calf, gilt spine with raised bands, red sprinkled edges. 100 p. Boards and extremities slightly rubbed, small losses, joints worn; corners softened. Interior with foxing, occasional marginal staining, some gatherings showing faint damp tide-mark; small worm tracks in blank margins. Early ink inscription on front flyleaf; title page with two early ownership inscriptions. Overall in very good condition.
A late-17th-century solar-computational treatise blending traditional geometric astronomy with selected Keplerian corrections, offering a full set of original tables and practical methods.
Aurora Lauenica is an astronomical–computational treatise by Jean Charles Gallet (1637–1713), provost of the church of Saint-Symphorien in Avignon and an active early-telescopic observer. Gallet conducted numerous astronomical observations—of comets, solar and lunar eclipses, and the 1677 transit of Mercury—and worked with long-focus and quadrant-mounted telescopes, employing projection and timed-transit techniques to obtain quantitative measurements. He also studied solar spots and discussed their possible transformations in several later papers and letters, reflecting his broader engagement with solar phenomena during the period of low activity now known as the Maunder Minimum.
In the Aurora Lauenica, Gallet presents a revised theory of the Sun’s motion together with a full set of newly calculated solar tables. He rejects assumptions found in Argoli and Lansbergen—such as the immobility of the solar apogee and uniform solar velocity—and argues for a variable eccentricity supported by Kepler’s Rudolphine Tables and by observational implications drawn from Cassini’s recent ephemerides. The treatise opens with dedicatory verses and a preface justifying the need to recalculate solar parameters, and includes an engraved title-page vignette as its sole illustration. It then sets out procedures for deriving true anomaly, apogee, the equation of time, and true solar longitude through prosthaphaeresis and logarithmic–tangent corrections. Numerous worked examples and comparisons are supplied, illustrating the application of his methods to equinox determinations and related solar calculations.
Printed in Avignon by the typographer of the Holy Office, the volume reflects both the mathematical conservatism and the computational ambitions of provincial 17th-century astronomy: it adopts selected Keplerian corrections while retaining the classical zodiacal-geometric framework. Intended for theologians, physicians, astrologers, and astronomers, the tables served for determining equinoxes, solar positions, and the revolutions of nativities.
Extremely rare, surviving copies appear few. Germany (3 copies): UB Erfurt / FB Gotha, GWLB Hannover, and SLUB Dresden. France (3 copies): BnF, BIU Ste-Geneviève, and the Observatoire de Paris. Spain (1 copy): BNE (Madrid). No copies could be located in the United States. No record in Rare Book Hub.
Literature: Carrasco, V. M. S., Vaquero, J. M., & Gallego, M. C. (2021). A forgotten sunspot record during the Maunder Minimum (Jean Charles Gallet, 1677). Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan, 73(3), 747–756. https://doi.org/10.1093/pasj/psab035
.
Price: €12,000.00