London: Brab. Aylmer, 1684. First Edition / First Impression. Hardback. Very good condition. The sole edition. A fascinating Restoration study of astronomy, astrology and theology, sitting at an important junction in human understanding, examining not just the physical nature of comets but also the supernatural; I guess you could say the rational and supernatural were on a collision course at the end of the 17th century. Edwards was a clergyman, and spends some of the book defending the interpretation of comets as supernatural portent, but also examines the physical aspects of the objects. The book is an important astrological work too.A few years before publication, Kirch's comet had been seen in the sky, and would subsequently be discussed in Isaac Newton's Principia (1687). On the one hand, then, we have the Principia, pointing the way forward for the next four centuries; on the other, Cometomantia, representing the increasingly embattled older tradition of interpreting celestial phenomena not merely as physical objects, but as signs invested with divine meaning.

Bound in full calf. Some loss to the leather on the upper board, about 3cm in a triangle. Hinges worn with string showing, some chipping and flakiness. Internally pretty tight with an ownership inscription to the front pastedown. Some staining to the inner margin, but largely a pleasing copy. Rear endpaper missing, so final page of text is the last page. Very Good. Item #13619

Full title:
Shewing their Original, Substance, Place, Time, Magnitude, Motion, Number, Colour, Figure, Kinds, Names, and, more especially, their Prognosticks, Significations and Presages. Being a brief Resolution of a reasonable Query, viz. Whether the Apparition of Comets be the Sign of approaching Evil? Where also is inserted an Essay of Judiciary Astrology, giving Satisfaction to this grand Question, Whether any certain Judgments and Predictions concerning future Events, can be made from the Observation of the Heavenly Bodies? Both occasioned by the Appearance of the late Comets in England and other Places,