Title: [An Original Theory or New Hypothesis of the Universe, Founded upon the Laws of Nature...] - Atlas Volume
Author: Wright, Thomas
Description: 32 copper-engraved plates, 2 folding, 8 in mezzotint (these with tissue guards). (4to) 28x22.5 cm. (11¼x9"), period gilt-ruled calf, spine tooled in gilt, raised bands, morocco lettering piece. First Edition.The rare and spectacular atlas to Thomas Wright's attempt at explaining natural phenomena with diagrams of the heavens, the solar system, etc., famous for containing the first depictions of the Milky Way. Wright, a teacher of navigation and a land surveyor by profession, had since at least 1734 sought an explanation of the universe that would accommodate both his religious and scientific views. In his earliest known work, the manuscript of a lecture, Wright described how "the divine center (the center in the moral order) was also the gravitational center (the center in the physical order), and thus Wright required the sun and the other stars to be moving in orbit about this center in order to avoid gravitational collapse" (DSB).
Heading: Place Published: [London]
Publisher: [H. Chapelle]
Date Published: [1750]

Minor wear to covers; slight worming to front flyleaves; contents overall clean and fine with some marginal finger soiling.