314 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONSi [aNNO I669. 



which was the end of Tycho's life : Of which time yet there being wanting one 

 year, viz. 1593, of the Brahean observations, that is supplied by the Hessian ; 

 and by a catalogue of the fixed stars, made and digested by the authority and 

 care of that renowned prince for learning and magnanimity, William, Land^ 

 grave of Hesse, and by the labours of Rhothmann and Birge. To all these is 

 added a continuation of such astronomical observations as were made from the 

 time of Tycho's death, to An. l635, by Maestlin and Schickard. 



II. R. P. Andreas Tacquet* e Soc. J. Opera Mathematica. Antwerp, i66q, 

 in fol. 



These works contain — 1. Eight books of astronomy, wherein the author has 

 explained the whole doctrine of that science. It is remarkable that though he 

 knows no argument, demonstrating the rest of the earth and motion of the 

 sun ; yet the authority of holy writ, now seconded by that of the sacred con- 

 gregation of the cardinals, put it out of doubt. This author asserts, that the 

 comets and new stars, that have appeared since 1572, have been far above the 

 moon ; and that Riccioli about this controversy seemed too favourably inclined 

 to Claramont, asserting the contrary. Concerning the cause of the secondary 

 light of the moon before and after the new, viz. the obscure part of her appear- 

 ing like kindled glittering ashes, our author assigns it to be the sun's rays re- 

 flected from the bright hemisphere of the earth to the darker portion of the 

 moon, and thence again directly reflected to^ the earth destitute of the sun's 

 light. This phenomenon he says is learnedly explained in Philos. Optica Nic. 

 Zucchii, from p. 247 to p. 260. 



The author has not framed or annexed any tables to his book, although he 

 abundantly shows how they may be computed: referring his reader to those of 

 Tycho, Reinhold, Longomontan, Kepler, Lansberg, Wendelin, Bulliald, 

 Petavi, Reiner, Riccioli ; to which may be added those of Buret, Billy, Street, 

 which last fixes the nodes and aphelions, and Wing's, now in the press. 



2. Of practical geometry, 3 books. — In the first the author handles the 

 construction of the tables of sines, tangents, and secants ; the resolution of 

 right lined triangles ; the mensuration of the heights and distances of objects, 

 as well unaccessible as accessible. — In the second book, he handles the dimen- 

 sion of plain surfaces, either regular or irregular. 



In the third book the author treats of the measure of solids. And among 



* Tacquet was one of tliose learned Jesuits who chiefly cultivated tlie liberal sciences in the l^th 

 and 17th centuries. Besides this collection of his works, he had before published himself, Elements 

 of Plane and Solid Geometry, also Arithmetic, both in 8vo. He was indeed a very laborious and 

 voluminous writer 5 and died in 166O. In matters of astronomy, his fear of tlie church censures 

 seems to have hindered him from more eflectually defending the Copernican system of the world. 



