Correspondence in translation project: Edmond Halley
from the translated correspondence of edmond halley
Johannes Hevelius (1611–1687), Polish astronomer, academy member (best known for his charting of the surface of the moon in his Selenographia, 1647) writing to William Croune (1633–1684), English physician, anatomist, concerning Halley's astronomical observations.
. . . Five years have scarcely passed, since I recall that I bestowed upon the public an ornament of Astronomy of not inconsiderable advantage — the letter to Mr Oldenburg in which I expressed my intention is a happy memory — and which you speak about sending into the East by an observer who would enrich Astronomy with a certain catalogue he has prepared of the Southern Stars, hitherto unobserved by us, as if with certain new evidence. And he has wholly succeeded according to this wish, because the most Illustrious Royal Society has so far agreed to this estimation of mine, that by the persuasion of the same, a certain person, driven by an uncommon passion for the Astronomical Muse, and having undertaken a journey to the island of St Helena, has in his diligence most abundantly satisfied our expectation by his surveys taken in that very place. . . .
— Johannes Hevelius to William Croune,
Saturday, 10 June 1679;
EE letter ID: halledEE0010188a2c
original latin letter, from the correspondence of edmond halley
. . . Anni quinque fere abierunt, quod literis ad Dñ. Oldenburgium felicis memoriæ consilium Animi mei, in publicum Astronomiæ emolumentum haud parum proficuum suggessisse me memini, de mittendo quodam in Orientalibus orbis terrarum oras observatore, qui adornato Stellarum Australium hucusque nobis inobservatarum catalogo aliquo quasi novo quodam Argumento Astronomiam locupletaret. Et successit plane ex voto quod Illustrissima Regia Societas huic opinioni meæ adeo adstipulaverit, ut persuasu ejusdem quidam insigni in Uraniam accensus amore, in Insulam S. Helenæ suscepto itinere, habitis ibidem diligenter Astrorum contemplationibus expectationi nostræ plurimum satisfecerit. . . .
— Johannes Hevelius to William Croune,
Saturday, 10 June 1679;
EE letter ID: halledEE0010188a2c