BAA members with a hundred thousand (or so) US Dollars to spare might be interested in two letters coming up for auction at Bonhams. They are from Johannes Hevelius (1611-1687) to the Royal Society secretary Francis Aston. In the first letter, Hevelius defends his observations against criticisms by Robert Hooke; the letter mentions in passing Edmond Halley’s visit and the disastrous fire at Hevelius’s observatory. The second letter discusses Hevelius’s upcoming projects, including Prodromus (1690), which would be published, after Hevelius’s death, by his widow Catherina Elisabetha Koopman Hevelius.
Looks fascinating! But a little outside my price range…
https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/26073/lot/16/
Mike Frost