Winthrop, John:

TWO LECTURES ON COMETS, READ IN THE CHAPEL OF HARVARD - COLLEGE, IN CAMBRIDGE, NEW-ENGLAND, IN APRIL 1759. ON OCCASION OF THE COMET WHICH APPEAR'D IN THAT MONTH. WITH AN APPENDIX, CONCERNING THE REVOLUTIONS OF THAT COMET, AND OF SOME OTHERS.

Boston: Green & Russell... 1759. 44, xviii pp. Lightly toned, untrimmed. Lacks the half title and final blank, else Near Fine, in modern red cloth with gilt-lettered spine. Signature, 'Tho. Pemberton,' at head of title.

Winthrop was "America's first astronomer and Newtonian disciple. In April 1759, he delivered a lecture on the return of Halley's comet of 1682, which was the first predicted return of the comet.
In a second discourse during the same month, he discussed the true theory of comets, according to the work of Newton's Principia" [DAB], Kepler's laws of planetary motion, and the predictions of Halley. Winthrop had, in 1746, established at Harvard the first laboratory of experimental physics in America and supported Franklin's experiments with electricity.
Evans 6657. Item #38660

Price: $1,250.00