Jason W. Dean Profile picture
Feb 10 16 tweets 7 min read
We've seen this bookplate on several digitization requests @LindaHall_org recently, @JECumby and I are charmed by it. It is the bookplate of František Fischer, and here's a thread about who he was & how we put a name with this bookplate. #rarebooks #speccolls #histstm #histastro Bookplate depicting a house with an attached observatory, wi
We often see bookplates and cannot suss out whose they were. I took a go at "Mag. F. Fischer" in the googler, and came up with a catalog from Jeff Weber that identified Fischer as an astronomer from Prague. Now we have something more than a name! weberrarebooks.com/media/home/Cat…
There is also this MS (Oversize Ms. Codex 618) at Kislak (fyi, @leoba ): franklin.library.upenn.edu/catalog/FRANKL…
Next step: "Fischer astronomer Prague" and we get this article from Czech wikipedia: cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franti%C5…
Is this, though, *our* F. Fischer? Hmm. WAIT THAT'S HIS HOUSE WITH THE OBSERVATORY ON TOP! YES! HOORAY!
Oh, I wonder, is his house still there? YUP! goo.gl/maps/ZiJvswuMa…
Ok, so we know who he was, and his birth and death dates. What do we know about him? Thanks to some articles in Czech and some translation, we know something about Dr. František Fischer. Most of the really good stuff that follows is from pp. 8 and 9 here: hvezdarna-fp.cz/archiv-KR/KR-2…
Dr. Fischer was a pharmacist with a deep passion for astronomy. He developed an early passion for astronomy, one he took with him when he served in Tashkent in World War I. Apparently he worked part time at the observatory there, learning observational skills.
The observatory dome on his house had a diameter of 4.8 meters. It was on a separate floor from the main house, with a study and a darkroom. He had installed a refracting telescope with a diameter of 190mm and a focal length of 3000mm, made by Reinfelder & Hertel.
Here is Dr. Fischer! (This image, and the one of his telescope from supra.cz/data/RH/CAS-20…)
And here's that telescope I mentioned earlier, and his house, from the same PDF:
His focus was selenography - the mapping of the moon! This is borne out in the numerous books we have from his library (with his charming bookplate), this one as an example: catalog.lindahall.org/permalink/01LI…
Also borne out by this drawing by Fischer (from the PDF above)
He must have been a SERIOUS book collector too, y'all, as evidenced just by the material from his library at @LindaHall_org .
Finally, a super significant book that belonged to Fischer, the first discussion of the telescope in print, La Galla's "De phoenomenis in orbe lunae novi telescopii", 1612 (with a photo of Fischer's MS pencil acquisition notation!) catalog.lindahall.org/permalink/01LI…
cc @HistAstro @tashaddad and our Man in Prague, @MahanEsfahani

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Jason W. Dean

Jason W. Dean Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

:(