Realm of the Nebulae First Edition - Edwin Hubble - Bauman Rare Books

Realm of the Nebulae

Edwin HUBBLE

Item#: 54281 We're sorry, this item has been sold

Realm of the Nebulae

“EVENTUALLY, WE REACH THE DIM BOUNDARY…”: FIRST EDITION OF HUBBLE’S REALM OF THE NEBULAE

HUBBLE, Edwin. The Realm of the Nebulae. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1936. Octavo, original blue cloth.

Scarce first edition in book form of these lectures by “the foremost observational astronomer of the 20th century,” illustrated with 15 photographic plates, including frontispiece, and numerous in-text charts and diagrams.

“Hubble’s scientific achievements made him the foremost observational astronomer of the 20th century and one of the most influential scientists of all time in changing our understanding of the universe… The rapidly increasing number of ‘nebulae’ observed and the estimated 150,000 within reach of existing instruments emphasized the need for a classification scheme… Hubble’s classification scheme was announced in the 1920s, contemporaneously with his demonstration that the ‘nebulae’ are galaxies, and his diagram of the sequence of nebular types became famous in the 1930s… Recognition of Hubble’s achievements and stature included invitations to present prestigious lectures… [among them] the Silliman Lectures at Yale in 1935, published as The Realm of the Nebulae… More popular indices of Hubble’s fame are the appearance of his face on the cover of Time magazine in 1948 and the attachment of his name to the space telescope in 1990… Hubble’s cosmology should be appreciated for the assumptions it overthrew, for the vistas it opened and as one of the great accomplishments of the human intellect” (ANB). Among his other achievements, Hubble proved that the universe is not static—he changed no less a mind than Albert Einstein’s on the subject—thus verifying what has become known as the “Big Bang theory.” See Simmons, Scientific 100 30. Owner signature dated 1937, occasional pencil scientific marginalia.

Lightest toning to spine, minor wear to spine ends. A near-fine copy. Scarce.

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Aquatint Copperplate process by which the plate is “bitten” by exposure to acid. By changing the areas of the plate that are exposed and the length of time the plate is submerged in the acid bath, the engraver can obtain fine and varying shades of gray that closely resemble watercolor washes. Although the name contains the word “tint”, this is a black-and-white printing process; aquatint plates can often be hand colored, however.
Armorial Used to describe a binding bearing the coat of arms of the original owner, or with bookplates incorporating the owner’s arms.
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Boards Hard front and rear covers of a bound book which are covered in cloth, leather or paper. “Original boards” refers to cardboard-like front and back boards, from about 1700 to 1840, used as temporary protection for books before their purchasers would have them bound. Of particular value to collectors as evidence of a very early form of the book.
Book-Plate Label, generally affixed to the front pastedown, identifying a book’s owner.
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Chromolithograph Lithograph printed in colors, typically three or more.
Collation Process by which the contents of a book are inspected for completeness, checking against internal evidence, the table of contents and/or plate list, and reference works. Also a shorthand bibliographical description of a book’s composition by its leaves and signatures, rather than its pages. A-C, for example, would indicate a quarto volume composed of three signatures or gatherings of eight pages each for a total of 24 pages.
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Duodecimo (12MO) Smaller than an octavo, typically less than six inches tall; smaller formats, such as 24mo and 32mo, are uncommon.
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Frontispiece An illustration facing the title page of a book.
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Half Title Leaf preceding the title page that bears the book’s title, originally used to identify the unbound text block. The book’s binder would often remove and discard the half title at the time of binding. Remaining half-titles are therefore of interest to collectors.
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Marginalia Handwritten notes made in the margins by a previous owner.
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Modern Recently accomplished, when used to describe a book’s binding that is not the original casing. Some books bound recently are bound using techniques, tools and styles of the period of the book’s original issue; when done well this is called a period-style binding, a term that implies “modern” as well.
Morocco Binding material made from goatskin—versatile, durable, with a distinctive pebbled texture and visible grain. Readily stretched (“straight-grain”), crushed (flattened smooth), tooled in gilt or blind, inlaid with leathers of different colors. So-called because much of the raw material originally came from the tanneries of North Africa (other types of goatskin bindings denoting regions of origin include levant, turkey, niger).
Offset The unintended transfer of ink from one printed page to an adjacent page.
Period-Style binding executed with materials, tools and techniques to approximate the look of a contemporary binding from the period of the book’s publication. The term implies that the binding is modern, or recent, unless otherwise specified.
Plate Full-page illustration printed separately from but bound with the text.
Point Variation in text, illustration, design or format that allows a bibliographer to distinguish between different editions and different printings of the same edition, or between different states or issues of the same printing.
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Recase To reattach a text block to its binding when it has become loose from its covers.
Recto The front side of a leaf. The back side is known as the “verso.”
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Uncut When the edges of the text block (most apparent at the fore and lower edges) have not been trimmed to a uniform size, and are therefore characterized by a ragged or deckle edge. A book may be uncut but opened—i.e., with a paper-knife—but all unopened books (see below) are by nature uncut as well.
Unopened When the folds of the sheets of paper making up the text block have not been trimmed away or opened with a paper-knife. While this makes it impossible to read all of the pages, it also indicates a probability that the text block has not been altered since leaving the printer.
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Verso The back or reverse side of a leaf or page. (See “recto.”)
Woodcut Illustration or textual decoration made by cutting away from the surface of a block of wood until the reverse of the image is left in relief; this is then inked and pressed to the paper to leave the image. The woodblock, or multiple blocks, can be fit into the page along with the type, allowing text and illustrations to be printed in the same print run and share the same page (not possible with engravings, which require thicker, damp paper and much more force; nor with lithographs, which require a different printing process altogether). Woodcuts preceded moveable type and are the earliest known printing technology.
Wood-Engraving Engraving made with the graver or burin on the cross-section of a piece of boxwood; the harder wood and finer tools allow for more delicate, finely detailed images, while the block can still be set in the page alongside text and printed on the same stock as the text. While much older, wood engravings enjoyed an important renaissance in the late eighteenth century through Thomas Bewick and continued in popularity thorugh the nineteenth century.
Wormhole Tiny pinhole-sized trails left by bookworms as they eat through a text block. Much more common in older books printed on handmade papers with a high rag content than in books printed on manufactured papers made from wood pulp with a higher acidic content.
Wrappers Paper coverings—plain, marbled or printed—attached by stitches, staples or glue to a text block to identify it and afford it some protection (though much more fragile than a binding in plain, cloth or leather-covered boards). More typical of slim and/or inexpensive volumes such as pamphlets. “Self wrappers” are leaves, blank or printed, that are integral to the text block, conjugate with other leaves and from the same stock. “Original wrappers,” those attached at the time of issue, are scarce and extremely desirable to most collectors.