LUNAR

Corrie was the son of Rev. Josiah Corrie (1725-1800) of Kenilworth. He was educated at Daventry Academy and New College, Hackney. He was a schoolmaster and a Unitarian minister at the Old Meeting House (1817-19), and president of the Birmingham Philosophical Society, to which, in 1819, he introduced Maria Edgeworth, who notes in a letter her admiration for his 'very agreeable benevolent countenance, most agreeable voice'. In William Field's memoir of Dr Samuel Parr he is numbered among the 'clerical friends' in whose company Parr 'delighted'.

English astronomer (1819-92) whose mathematical prediction of the existence of Neptune anticipated Le Verrier's discovery of that planet. Octavo. Unbound. Ten leaves and one blank. Paginated [35]-53. Very good. Five pages of text (35-9), four tables (pp.40-3) and a set of 'Tables containing the corrections to be applied to the values of the moon's equatorial horizontal parallax given in the nautical almanacs 1840-1855, in order to make them agree with those calculated from Mr. Adams' tables.' (pp.46-53). One small closed tear to antepenultimate leaf.

Burckhardt (1773-1825) was a German astronomer, who first computed the orbits of a number of comets. First and only edition. Quarto. Pages: viii + 88. A rare survival, but in very poor condition: grubby, creased, stained and frayed at edges. In remains of makeshift wraps. Text perfectly legible throughout. Some scholarly annotations in pencil and pen.