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Notizie intorno all’osservatorio privato di Paolo Bulla.

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First and only edition, very rare, of this description of Paolo Bulla’s private observatory, illustrated with five striking chromolithographic plates depicting astronomical events observed by Bulla in the sky above Rome, printed by the Accademia dei Lincei.

Bulla, an amateur astronomer and friend of Angelo Secchi, had an observatory built at his home between the Quirinal and Viminal hills in Rome, equipped with state-of-the-art instruments for the study of meteorology and climatology, his main interest and passion. The large dome at the top of his tower housed a telescope by Merz of Munich with an aperture of 76 mm and a length of 1.3 m, four ocular lenses, and an Equatorial mount by the Officina Galileiana of Florence.

The five, vivid chromolithographic plates, after original photographs, depict various astronomical events observed by Bulla from his observatory, namely the appearance of the planets Jupiter, Saturn, and Venus with the Moon on the evening of 3 March 1881; the Great Comet of 1882, observed on 15 November of the same year; the transit of Venus across the solar disk on 6 December 1882; the peak of the total lunar eclipse on the evening of 4 October 1884; and the morning twilight at its maximum intensity in 1883 and 1884, all depicted above delightful rooftop views of Rome.

The original lithographic wrapper depicts Bulla’s observatory within an elaborate frame incorporating portraits of Copernicus, Galileo, Giovanni Santini (1787–1877), and Angelo Secchi (1818–1878) and vignettes of the Bianchini, Herschel, and the Paris telescopes.

No copies on OCLC or Library Hub. OPAC SBN finds only five copies in Italian libraries.