Dionysii Petavii Aurelianensis, e Societate Jesu, Opus de doctrina temporum...Nova editione notis & emendationibus quamplurimis, quas manu sua codici adscripserat Dionysius Petavius. Cum praefatione et dissertatione de LXX. Hebdomadibus Joannis Harduini by Petau, Denis - 1705

Antwerpiæ: Georgium Gallet, 1705. Three volumes, folio, pp. [48], 568 (i.e. 570 - pp. 471-72 repeated in the pagination), [8]; [12], 536; [8], 364; title pages printed in red and black, engraved device on title pages of volume I and II, woodcut device on title of volume III, engraved portrait frontispiece, woodcut head- and tailpieces, ornaments, and initials, woodcut diagrams (largely astronomical and mostly in the first volume), tables throughout; occasional mild dampstains largely confined to the fore- and bottom margins, tear in the fore-margin of 2L1 in volume I entering text (no loss), paper flaw in Tt4 in volume II just touching text, tears in the bottom margin of Yy3 and Yy4 in volume III; a pretty nice copy in contemporary full calf neatly rebacked to style, red and black labels lettered in gilt on spines, sprinkled edges and the fore-edges decorated with a faint picket-fence design. Volume I is apparently the second issue. Pétau (1583-1652), also known as Dionysius Petavius, was a French Jesuit theologian, and one of the most brilliant scholars in a learned age. In the words of my late friend and colleague, Ed Glaser: "A staggering work on sidereal astronomy and the calculations of the calendar. First published in far less detailed fashion in 1627, the first part deals with the calendars of the ancient Greeks, Egyptians, Macedonians, Persians, Hebrews, and others. The second part examines different historical eras, celebrated eclipses, a chronology of the reigns of the Caesars, and the birth of Christ. The Uranologian contains Greek astronomical and chronological texts with Latin translations. Included are the commentaries of Geminus, Achillis Tatios, and Hipparchus on Aratus; Eratosthenes' life of Aratus; Ptolemy on appearances, Theodore of Gaza on the months, and the Computuses of Maximus, Isaac of Argyros and St. Andrew of Crete. Also included is an elaborate examination of classical conceptions and calculations of time. The work is considered to have surpassed Scaliger's earlier landmark on the subject, De Emendatione Temporum, of 1537. The work also contains the Epistolarum, his correspondence with many of the leading thinkers in Europe at the time." Ebert 16328: "The best edition." The third volume contains besides the Uranologion several other pieces of Petavius which were first added to this edition. Brunet IV, 528.