"The extensive introduction to this splendid volume contains the author's autobiographical account of his scientific education. The balance of the work contains a detailed description of Hevelius's observatory, 'Stellaburgum,' and his astronomical instruments. The account is enhanced by thirty most exquisite plates depicting in painstaking detail the scientific apparatus assembled by Hevelius. Several plates show instruments that were still in planning stages. Essentially, the work was to demonstrate the accuracy of Hevelius's measurements and the high degree of mechanical perfection of his instruments against certain critics of the French astronomical school."­B.Y.U., Johannes Hevelius (1971), 12.

"Hevelius undoubtedly owed the success of his observations to his skill in designing, making, and engraving instruments: and the work [the present book] was of very great interest to his contemporaries."­D.S.B., VI, p. 362­(& see pp. 362-63 for a detailed description of the instruments).

This is today a rare book. In 1679, a fire destroyed Hevelius' house and observatory in Danzig; his instruments, the workshop for their manufacture, most of his books and papers, his printing press, and stock of his publications were destroyed. The second part of this work, published a few months prior to the fire, contained only observational data. Most copies of this second part were consumed by the fire.

Fine copy preserved in a box.