There are also some book websites that contain links to rare book sellers and I have just had the most amazing find on one of these. Searching for "Kepler" and lurking right at the very back of the website as prices started to rise from the less than £20 that I usually focus on, were some volumes from Kepler's Collected Works - the Gesammelte Werke edited by Max Casper published in the 1940s or so. This is the first time I have ever seen any of these for sale and I think there are only a few copies in the UK. A careful work through the website reveals about 15 of the 22 volumes are available. An hour spent sorting out what is each volume and I have placed an order for 8 volumes for a total price of £650. I have bought them from a book dealer in Worms in Germany. Fingers crossed that nothing goes wrong with this.
My order consists of Vols 1, 3, 7, 13, 14, 15, 18 and 20.1. Volume 1 contains Mysterium Cosmologicum and De Stella Nova, 3 contains Astronomia Nova, 7 is Epitome astronomiae Copernicae, 13-18 are letters and 20.1 is miscellaneous astronomical writing (including the Apologia Tychonis contra Ursus). Several other volumes were available and if this order goes ok, I may well buy the others.
Further website searching later reveals a complete edition of the collected works of Tycho and the complete Galileo. And a first edition of Kepler's Rudolphine Tables for £165,000!
This is quite incredible news and is the greatest book buying I have ever done. I am so excited about getting these. Hopefuly they will arrive before the end of October. In the meantime, the pictures below are from De Stella Nova in the collected works. The pull out diagram of the nova is quite wonderful
The Nova is located by the right foot of Ophiuchus near the centrefold
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