Ephemeris Anno Christi 1554.

Edmond Halley's sixteenth-century copy of Flemish mathematician Joannes Stadius' widely consulted astronomical almanac, first published in 1554. Quarto, bound in full English calf with an elaborate gilt lozenge to the center of each panel, gilt titles and tooling to the spine in five compartments within raised bands, printer's device to the title page. From the library of English astronomer and mathematician Edmond Halley with his signature to the title page accompanied by the signature of Charles Bernard (1650-1711), surgeon to Queen Anne, with "ex dono" added under Halley's name seemingly indicating a gift from Bernard to Halley. English astronomer and mathematician Edmond Halley's career exemplified the emerging, institution-based science of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Best known today for showing that the comets of 1456, 1531, 1607, and 1682 were the same object and for predicting its 1758 return—later named Halley’s Comet—he applied Newtonian gravitation to celestial phenomena before such methods were widely accepted. Halley’s contributions extended well beyond comets: as a young observer on St. Helena he produced a pioneering telescopic catalogue of southern stars, and later conducted maritime expeditions to map terrestrial magnetism and study tides, helping to link astronomy with geophysics. He also played a decisive intellectual and practical role in the Scientific Revolution by encouraging Isaac Newton to complete the Principia and overseeing (and financially supporting) its 1687 publication through the Royal Society. This copy sold in the Macclesfield sale in 2005, with South Library bookplate, shelfmark and blind stamp to first two leaves. Subsequently acquired by Harvard University professor, astronomer, historian & bibliophile Owen Gingerich with his bookplate to the pastedown in place of Schuyler’s. Owen Gingerich (1930–2023) was an American astronomer and historian of science renowned for his scholarship on early modern astronomy, particularly his meticulous census of De revolutionibus that illuminated how Copernicus’s work was read and received in the sixteenth century. A longtime professor at Harvard and a senior astronomer at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Gingerich helped bridge scientific and humanistic inquiry, demonstrating how historical context shapes the development and interpretation of scientific ideas. In very good condition with the binding worn and rubbed with losses to corners and endcaps, dry surface to leather, lacking 4 text leaves [signature Tttttt1-4] containing tables for January & February 1592, with blank leaves supplied in the place of the missing pages. An exceptional piece of history.